Work and Information Practices in the Sciences of Biodiversity

摘要

This paper provides an introduction to data practices in biodiversity science. This is an area where multiple scientific domains are in constant interaction, and use data from multiple sources in that process. Thre is a consequent huge proliferation of technical standards in the field. Further, datasets used in the biodiversity sciences often extend over several decades - and thus attention must be paid to changing standards and the development of new storage media. Finally, the classification systems used in many of the contributing sciences are in a constant state of flux as more information is gathered. I describe the main categories of data development and use in the field of biodiversity, paying particular attention to work processes both in the generation and in the analysis of data.