Although there are many texts that provide quality information for the identification of fungi, researchers and technologists rarely have time to read the text. Most are rushed for time and seek morphological information that helps guide them to the identification of fungi. The images included display characteristic traits for a particular fungus. Laboratory slide preparations are not always ideal and sorting through the pictures in a text can yield timely and uneventful results. Therefore, many photographs are from those prepared by technicians. Fungi appear as they did in the author's lab on the day(s) that testing was performed. For this reason, numerous (6-20) color photographs are included so that technologists will have sufficient reference photos for identifying the various morphologies of a single organism. Organism photographs begin with the macroscopic colony views followed by the microscopic views. Also included for some microorganisms, are clinical pathology photographs demonstrating how the organism appears in human tissues. This book is not intended for teaching the basic fundamentals of mycology. It is intended for those that have a thorough understanding of mycology and wish to key identify an organism with just culture morphology and a Lacto-phenol Cotton Blue (LPCB) stain.
Interactive capability included in proposal:
In the first Structural/morphological Navigation Index, one can look up the name of the fungus by growth parameter group and then click on the “Photos” or “Description” buttons. Some fungi lack photographs, but literature references are provided. This is accomplished by clicking on the “Reference” to go to the references where the internet links occur. One may also go to the “Table of Contents” or “Alphabetical list” of fungi and click on the organism or organism group of interest which will activate an immediate link to that information. There are also links built within the text descriptions. For instance, when a similar organism is referred to, one can click on that genus name and a link will transfer the reader to information on that genus. Also at the end of each text description there is a link “Return to Index”, which will allow the reader to quickly return to the index for selection of another genus without scrolling through the rest of the document. While viewing in the page-width mode, images can be magnified up to 5 times which will fill the viewing screen of a computer without loss of digital resolution. This can easily be accomplished by simply clicking on the toolbar magnifying glass and clickdragging the select box, or by using the +/- icon on the toolbar.
