A NEW FIELD-TESTED ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR DATA GATHERING, RECORDING, TRANSFER AND DISSEMINATION VIA THE WORLD-WIDE-WEB

One of the major challenges for taxonomists today is the organisation of collection data by making use of modern computer technology for dat a storage and retrieval. Recent developments enabling data accessing i n the field are here discussed. A field-tested electronic system for d ata gathering, recording, storage, transfer, formatted printout (e.,g. for labelling) and, finally, dissemination by on-line access, called ELCEN (Electronic CEN Herbarium), is described. It makes use of new, e asily portable, hand-held ''personal data assistants'' (PDAs) that con nect easily with personal computers (PCs) and workstations, and result s in global data availability via Internet's World Wide Web. Among the advantages of the new system are its ease of use, the elimination of most typing errors during data entry, and the reduction of the time la g between data input and data availability.