Designs for a Global Plant Species Information System. 1993. (Systematics Ass.Spec. Volume, no. 48). figs. tabs. XVI,350 p. gr8vo. Hard cover.

Pressure for the conservation of rapidly disappearing plants andecological communities has provided botanists, systematists, andcomputer scientists from all over the world with a unified aim - theproduction of a computer-based information checklist for all the world'splants. Progress has been rapid in recent years. From a diverse arrayof disconnected systems and databases, there now exists a single,internationally supervised organization with the priorities of thecreation of a computer-based vascular plants action list and of a'Common directory' of existing databases which will run within theInternet network. This book describes the various needs of the users(whether botanists, conservationists, or those interested in agroforestry and natural products research), how these needs can be metusing existing technology, and how the systems can be implemented mostproductively.