National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)
National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)
Overview
The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII, http://www.nbii.gov) is a broad, collaborative program aimed at providing increased access to data and information on the biological resources of the United States. One of the approaches used by NBII to increase data discovery and access is the use of standard formats for metadata (i.e., information about the data) to describe those resources. The NBII website provides catalogs of metadata and links to diverse biological databases, information products, and analytical tools that are collectively maintained by NBII partners and contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry.
Strengths
NBII uses and has developed numerous standards for describing taxa, map (GIS) layers, museum records, conservation projects, databases, software, and other sources of information (http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=6003&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=0&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true). Many USGS-associated biological data programs are linked and/or described within the NBII website. Some datasets are even served directly through NBII. The NBII website offers potential as a one-stop shop for information, data, and tools for describing the country's biological resources.
Weaknesses
Because technology evolves, NBII’s metabase components can still be an evolving concept. While standard metadata structures have been established to describe some items (e.g., datasets, taxa, maps, etc.), there are no standard or recommended terminologies (keywords) for descriptive text fields in some of these metadata standards. The result is inefficient searches of NBII’s metabases and the inability to perform advanced custom filters or develop informative statistical summaries on the knowledge contained within the program’s metabases. Tools have been developed for entering metadata into NBII’s metabases; however, the growth of metadata contained within NBII is still slow. Update of existing metadata records by content providers in some of NBII’s metabases remains an issue, resulting in web links that do not work (e.g. NBII Metadata Clearinghouse)
Examples
The Natural Resource Monitoring Partnership (http://www.nbii.gov/portal/community/Communities/Toolkit/Natural_Resources_Monitoring_Partnership/) uses the NBII to store and access a database of monitoring protocols for all taxa (including birds).
Tutorials
The NBII home page (http://www.nbii.gov/) and Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page (http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=6007&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=1&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true) are good places to learn more about NBII.
This publication is dynamic in that it will continue to be improved, updated, and expanded over time. Suggestions for improving the content, organization, and scope of this publication are encouraged and can be contributed here (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NP3Y772).