From NBII Access, Newsletter of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, Summer 2000, Vol. 3 No. 3:

World Bank-Funded IABIN Projects Near Completion

In 1999, the World Bank awarded almost half a million dollars to projects supporting the implementation of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN).  These projects are now nearing completion and promise some interesting products — and possibilities — for the biodiversity community.  Results will be available through the IABIN web site, another product funded in part by the World Bank. 

Species Analyst Community Expands

The Species Analyst is a software tool that predicts species distribution based on information from distributed databases on museum collection specimens.  With funding from the World Bank, the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History sponsored a 2-week course on Species Analyst and related technology for linking biodiversity.  Seven participants — from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico — studied the nature of biodiversity information and what information  is relevant to biodiversity studies; how to predict geographic distribution based on point occurrence data; how Z39.50 technology is used to connect biodiversity data sources to Species Analyst; and how to develop applications to improve information sharing within a distributed network.  Students returned to their institutions with a copy of the software, an appreciation of the possibilities, and a network of professional contacts on which to build.

Group Works Toward Harmonized Metadata

Metadata experts from North, Central and South America met in Hollywood, FL, in April to discuss national efforts on metadata for biological information.  The group drafted recommendations to IABIN concerning minimum metadata requirements, capacity building, and development of regional clearinghouses throughout the hemisphere.  A report containing these recommendations, the results of a survey on metadata in the Americas, and the experiences in establishing clearinghouse nodes in Central America will be available on the IABIN web site www.iabin.org by early summer.

UCDavis Leads Invasives Information Effort

The University of California at Davis is developing new information resources to support invasive species research and management.  UCDavis is developing  prototypes of an experts registry, a data registry, a species of concern list, and a species occurrence database for IABIN, as well as a strawman multi-lingual database-thesaurus for the data system which will be distributed to six participating country nodes for review.  Project participants will convene at a workshop in late June to test the prototypes and implement the on-line data system at their nodes.

New World Biodiversity in Old World Collections Surveyed

A project to identify collections of specimens of vertebrates from the Americas held in European institutions is being conducted for IABIN by Geoplan International, a Netherlands firm.  Museums and other institutions responding positively to a initial query were sent questionnaires to gather information on the number of specimens and geographic origin of the collections.  The results will be compiled in a database, "Directory of New World Holdings in European Collections," and will be accessible through the IABIN web sites, with linking from other sites encouraged.

IABIN is an international initiative to promote greater coordination among Western Hemisphere countries in the collection, sharing, and use of biodiversity information.  Information on IABIN can be found at www.iabin.org (international site) and at www.iabin-us.org  (U.S. site).

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