title: Design considerations for small, special-system developmental databases
abstract: Small developmental databases, devoted to special systems and run by a normal research laboratory, differ qualitatively as well as quantitatively from larger databases described elsewhere in this volume. Resource limits set different optimum balances between computing elegance and ease of construction, while flexibility of design and semantics often assume greatest importance because specialist research databases are most useful when understanding of the biology is partial and still evolving. In this article we discuss the main considerations when building a small database-scope, access, data input, storage, searching and semantics-and illustrate them with examples of real working databases.Copyright 1997 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1997Academic Press Limited
authors.affiliation: Centre for Developmental Biology & Department of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG, UK
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Br&auml;ndli
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nieminen