Highlights for June 13, 1997
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Rocky Mountain All-Scientists Meeting: On June 9-10, Dr. Paul Opler of CBI presented "Measuring the species richness and diversity of butterflies and moths in Rocky Mountain National Park" at the first Rocky Mountain National Park All-Scientists Meeting in Estes Park, CO. (Paul Opler, Fort Collins, CO, 970/226-9409)
  
• Division-Wide ITIC Meeting: On June 10, Peter Strong of CBI attended a 4-hour video conference meeting of the Information Technology Infrastructure Committee (ITIC). This committee is comprised of two representatives from each Division, with Ivette Gosser and Peter Strong representing the BRD. Discussions centered around policy and implementation of a Bureau-wide Remote Network Access Service and replacement of the current locator system with a new improved system based on X500 and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). (Peter Strong, Denver, 303/202-4246)
  
• TRED Database Nearing Completion: On June 11, Bruce Powell (CBI) finalized a program to issue personal passwords to contributors to the Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory (TRED) database to allow people to review and edit their TRED records and update them online. TRED will become public within the next 2 weeks. (Bruce Powell, Denver, 303/202-4250)
  

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• Joint NSF-USGS Program Supports NBII: During the week of June 9, Gary Waggoner (CBI) and Anne Frondorf (OBIO) worked with staff from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further develop a joint program to support projects aimed at automating natural history collections data and information for serving over the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). They worked on prioritizing proposals from universities and museums, as well as international partnering proposals submitted to the NSF. Most proposals had been approved through a peer-review process. An NBII area of emphasis is to promote wider access to the vast amount of information inherent in the millions of research collections currently existing within the United States. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)
  
  
• ITIS Database Changes: On June 11, Gary Waggoner and Bruce Powell (both from CBI) met with staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the National Information Technology Center to discuss changes to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) online database and taxonomic workbench. They discussed implications of these changes to online reporting functions currently accessed over the WWW and how to correct the reports in response to the database changes. They also discussed strategies to respond to special requests from NOAA for processing about 11,000 new names to the ITIS database. Support and linkage to ITIS of a new database, the Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory (TRED), was also a meeting topic. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries:

• BRD Access Information Provided: On June 10, Gary Waggoner of CBI provided expert contact information regarding an upcoming feature on environmental health perspectives in South Pacific Islands. Waggoner provided Internet addresses for the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, the premier natural history museum facility in the South Pacific; for Dr William Steiner, Director of PIERC; and for the Hawaii Natural Heritage Program, all accessible through the BRD Home Page. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)