1. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR Established in 1995 to collect, collate and disseminate all biodiversity and geodiversity records for Northern Ireland Databases currently hold 1.7 million species and site based environmental records Co-ordinated recording schemes covering all-Ireland, for example, DragonflyIreland Published books including The Butterflies and Moths of Northern Ireland and The Natural History of Ireland’s Dragonflies All CEDaR projects and initiatives are represented by web sites www.habitas.org.uk

2. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk HabitasOnline

3. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk HabitasOnline

4. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk The Flora of Northern Ireland was one of the first sites to be developed. It initially featured only the orchids of Northern Ireland. The web site was quickly expanded to include over 1000 vascular plant species. The way the site was made had to be adapted to reduce the work required to add the information about each species

5. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk We currently use Active Server Pages to dynamically pull information from an Access database as a user requests species information. Text has to be coded in parts to allow the correct display in the resultant HTML. For example we used $ signs at the start and end of a word that needs to be italicised. This is then interpreted by the programming when the page is being constructed by the web server.

6. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk The unique identifiers currently used in the web sites are the species numbers from Recorder 3.4, a database developed by Stuart Ball at JNCC. This will change in the near future when we adopt a new numbering system - probably that used in Recorder 6 and Marine Recorder. SQL Server will become the backbone of the web pages.

7. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk Many web sites work from a top level viewpoint dealing with taxonomic checklists. A global species numbering system available in a simple format would allow web sites like ours to integrate fully.

8. In the Priority Species and Species of Conservation Concern web site, comprehensive guidelines are given to authors to ensure that the same information is provided for each species. This has resulted in longer, more detailed accounts displayed under specific headings. In the original Flora web site the accounts are quite short giving an overall picture of the species distribution in Northern Ireland. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk

9. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk A form in Access allows images to be annotated within the database and the image assessed for it’s quality before being included in the web page. An image can be marked to be “used” and will automatically be displayed on the web page.

10. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk In the Ground Beetles of Ireland web site, thumbnail images were linked to the species list to make the site easier to use. This allows species to be directly compared with one another making the site more accessible to the non-expert.

11. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk

12. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk Northern Ireland or all-Ireland web sites about groups of species Web sites feature distribution maps, species accounts and images together with some general background and information on how to record the group Need to adopt standard, comprehensive species numbering system to create maximum compatibility with other web sites and organisations Move the databases into SQL Server to allow easier management of the data and faster delivery of information on the web Update older web sites such as the Butterflies & Moths of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles Create web sites for new projects being undertaken – LichenIreland and OrchidIreland

13. Centre for Environmental Data and Recording - CEDaR www.habitas.org.uk HabitasOnline www.habitas.org.uk I would like to thank my colleagues in the National Museums Northern Ireland, in particular Bernard Picton and Damian McFerran. I would also like to thank the many recorders in Northern Ireland with whom I work to develop the HabitasOnline web sites.