Multiple Database Personalities: Facilitating Access to Research Data

Abstract

We are moving from an era of largely analytical research into a time where a key research agenda will be to provide insights into relationships and interactions based on information gleaned from data repositories worldwide. Scientists have voiced the need for easy access to existing databases. As research scientists, we realize that while the today’s network infrastructure will readily support access to such data, it doesn’t ensure usability. If a database is to accommodate users beyond the research group that created it, we must find ways of giving it additional “personalities” to suit different audiences. Unfortunately, most Web-todatabase software targets professional programmers, not scientists. In this paper, we show that when Web interface software is responsive to the skill levels and preferences of scientists, it can be surprisingly easy to create Web interfaces that expose research data in different ways. We describe how a group of lichenologists exploited HyperSQL, a scientifically-oriented Web-to-database tool, to create database interfaces for two audiences. The first interface, the Synoptic Key of the Lichen, is rather terse, assuming that end-user is an experienced scientist. Using the same database, they constructed LichenLand, an interface intended for secondary school students. It uses colorful annotations and simple explanations to emphasize learning through discovery