Darwin core based data streamlining with digimus 2.0

Abstract

Cataloguing biological specimen is an important activity of biological museums world over. Software developed especially for this purpose has evolved over time to achieve more accuracy in retrieving data from large and diverse datasets. Combining smaller datasets into a larger information system requires uniformity of data based on a single data standard. In the developing world smaller datasets are maintained by individual researchers or small college and university groups. To standardize data from such datasets software needs to be developed, requiring expertise and sufficient funds which are often unavailable. A simple open source web based tool developed using PHP to enable an individual, with little or no knowledge of information systems or databases, to effectively streamline specimen data with data standard Darwin Core 1.2 ( DwC 1.2) are presented. Such data can then be shared and easily provided to data aggregators like Ocean Biogeographic Information Systems (OBIS - http://www.iobis.org ) and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF - http://www.gbif.org). This tool can be accessed at http://www.niobioinformatics.in/digimus.php and its source code is freely available at http://www.niobioinformatics.in/digimus_source.php