Site Management and Content Improvements

Here are some details on the technology and content improvements we've made in the new ADW. These are many and include improvements in how we manage data, our taxonomic interface, how we expand our content, and how we present all of this information to different audiences.

• Greatly expanded taxon account templates include an extensive set of keywords that facilitate searches for specific natural history features, and combinations of them. This new information structure makes rich inquiry driven learning possible in a variety of learning environments.

  The template structure guides students who contribute species accounts through the process of learning about animal natural history. The consistent use of keywords and template elements results in a rich database of natural history information that can be used in structured inquiry exercises to explore and compare animal biological diversity at many educational levels.

• An innovative set of new management tools and database structure means the Animal Diversity Web is more "live," with changes, additions and corrections being almost instantaneously visible to site users. Site background structures provide more efficient inter-linking of data elements and create a rich and consistent user interface.

• A new taxon database greatly expands the set of species our system recognizes and, more importantly, links all animal taxa via a branching structure that represents an estimate of current understanding of evolutionary relationships among living groups. This database is editable, making our site more responsive to future taxonomic changes.

• Customized user interfaces. The new data structure employed in the Animal Diversity Web makes it possible to create customized user interfaces tailored to specific animal diversity issues. An example is the BioKids site (http://www.biokids.umich.edu), which employs Animal Diversity Web information in the framework of animals of southeastern Michigan and modified for a middle school audience.

• New media documentation and display structures make it possible to find media by contributor, by media type, and by image subjects. This new database structure also means that every image appearing on the Animal Diversity Web is always displayed with all relevant information, including contributor name, contact information, and copyright permissions language.