National Biological Information Infrastructure
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NBII Brochure Homepage
NBII...Today and Tomorrow
Currently, with the NBII home page as the point of access, users are directed to a growing list of guides, directories, and inventories of biological data and information within BRD and from many other government and non-government agencies or organizations. Users may choose to browse through the list or to use the Query Feature to search for entries relating to a particular topic or geographic region.
The NBII Clearinghouse goes far beyond pointing users to data. The Clearinghouse lets users search descriptive information (metadata) about various biological databases on a network of computers. A key to implementing the Clearinghouse has been the development of an accepted set of metadata standards by BRD and our partners (see below).
The NBII's ultimate goal is that users will be able to browse for, identify, retrieve, integrate, and manipulate data from sources around the globe. NBII users will be electronically connected to the source databases through a "virtual" biological database providing seamless access to a continuum of information. Necessarily, we aren't concerned with just how users will see the information they ask for, but with everything that will make the delivery and application of that information possible.
A suite of new software tools available through the NBII will let users model, simulate, forecast, interpret, and visualize biological and environmental conditions and processes. Users will access these tools through menus available on the network and then run applications singly or in combination. The applications may employ geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, visualization, statistical analyses, expert and rule-based systems, or a variety of other processes.
Among the countless possibilities, these applications may help generate waterfowl production models and associated wetlands habitat management, assess ecosystem risk, determine gene flow in populations of endangered species, evaluate landscapes, or simulate grazing lands.
BRD Takes the Lead on Biological Metadata Standards
Metadata, data elements that describe other data, serve as the card catalog in the NBII library of the Nation's biological data and information and the linchpin of the NBII Clearinghouse.
To function properly, metadata must be consistent, standardized descriptions of data content, quality, lineage, condition, and other characteristics. Mindful of these requirements, BRD has taken a leadership role in developing a national metadata standard for documenting biological data and information. The standard is compatible with other data cataloging standards, including the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata standard for geospatial data and the U.S. Machine Readable Cataloging (USMARC) standard for published materials, books, and journal articles. For a graphical representation of our metadata standard, see http://www.nbs.gov/nbii/current.status.html.
Metadata standards are so important because the data and information on the NBII are coming from an increasingly broad range of sources. The new standards will let users make meaningful comparisons and evaluations of data from diverse origins and make informed decisions about which data sets best meet their needs.
