Highlights for January 8, 1998
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Butterfly Web Site Included in New Book: On December 29, 1997, BRD entomologist Paul Opler (CBI) was notified that the Children's Butterfly Site <http://www.mesc.nbs.gov/butterfly.html> will be included in the upcoming book Cyberspace For Kids to be released next year by Dennison/Instructional Fair publishers. An image of the home page as well as the Web address will be included in the book. (Paul Opler, Fort Collins, CO, 970/226-9409)

• CBI Scientist Elected to IOPI Council: Effective January 1, Gary Waggoner (CBI) will serve on the Council of the International Organization for Plant Information (IOPI). Waggoner was elected to the Council at IOPI's 1997 Annual Meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, on November 16, 1997. He will serve a three-year term and will participate on both the Global Plant Checklist Committee and the Information Systems Committee. To learn more about IOPI and its goals and activities, visit the IOPI Home Page at <http://iopi.csu.edu.au/iopi/>. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)

• GAP Receives NMSU Team Award: On January 7, The New Mexico Gap Analysis Program (GAP) project was honored with a Team Award from the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at New Mexico State University. The Team Award recognizes interdisciplinary and collaborative research and educational accomplishments among more than 200 college faculty and professional staff in meeting human and natural resource needs in New Mexico. Bruce Thompson, Acting Leader of the New Mexico GAP Unit and the New Mexico GAP coordinator, accepted the award at the annual All-College Conference on behalf of 11 members of the core team and the more than 200 other Statewide cooperators and collaborators who completed the project. Included in the recognition were Julie Prior-Magee (USGS, New Mexico GAP Unit), Patrick Crist (University of Idaho, National GAP), and Carlos Gonzales-Rebeles, who has worked with GAP projects in the New Mexico and Texas Units and leads GAP efforts for Mexico. GAP is a proactive geographic approach to protecting biodiversity. Satellite remote sensing and geographic information system technologies are used to identify unprotected "gaps" that may be filled by applying alternative conservation strategies. The program is coordinated by the USGS BRD and is managed by the CBI. (Patrick Crist, Moscow, 208/885-3901)

• ITIS Receives Vice President Gore's Hammer Award: On January 5, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) team was advised that they will receive Vice President Gore's Hammer Award for Reinventing Government from the National Performance Review. ITIS is a partnership of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican agencies, other organizations, and taxonomic specialists cooperating on the development of an online, scientifically credible list of biological names, focusing on the biota of North America. ITIS also is a participating member of Species 2000, an international project indexing the world's known species. Gary Waggoner (CBI), Roy McDiarmid (Biological Survey Project, National Museum of Natural History), Anne Frondorf (OBIO), and Mike Ruggiero (Office of Science, Headquarters) have been the BRD leaders of this interagency effort. The ITIS database is currently being peer reviewed and further populated with new data (as money is available), and is being considered for establishment as an Federal Geographic Data Committee interagency standard by the newly created Biological Data Working Group. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)

• CCAP Grant Provides NBII Metadata Overview to UNM: On January 8, Sharon Shin (CBI) provided the Earth Data Analysis Center of the University of New Mexico with an overview of Federal Geographic Data Committee and USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) metadata requirements and tools, including NBII MetaMaker, the metadata software tool developed by the BRD. The Earth Data Analysis Center is providing metadata training for the Colorado State Department of Natural Resources under a National Spatial Data Infrastructure Competitive Cooperative Agreements Program grant, "Extending NSDI Metadata, Clearinghouse, and Framework Objective in the Four Corners Region." (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303/202-4230)

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.