Highlights for May 14, 1998
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News: No report.

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• Accolades for ITIS: In its May 8 issue, The Scout Report (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/index.html) recognizes the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as being an "efficient system for naming and classifying all of nature's living organisms." The Scout Report is the flagship publication of the Internet Scout Project of the Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison. In the report's review of Web sites in research and education, ITIS is further characterized as being an "extraordinary and ambitious effort." Sites are identified and evaluated by a team of professional librarians and subject-matter experts who select, research, and annotate each resource recognized in the report. Published continuously for more than three years, The Scout Report is one of the Internet's oldest and most respected publications. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)

IV. Press/Media Inquiries:

• USGS Scientist Assists Discovery Channel: On May 13, CBI Data and Applications Branch Chief Maury Nyquist provided contact information on BRD fire ecology expert Jan Van Wagtendonk (WERC) to a Discovery Channel correspondent. Information about weather effects on fire behavior was needed for a Discovery Channel special on weather and forest fires in Alberta. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303/202-4217)