Highlights for September 17, 1999
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• CBI First to Move to Notes. The USGS Center for Biological Informatics is preparing to completely abandon its old cc:Mail system. Over the next week, all center staff will move over to the new USGS Notes messaging environment. In so doing, the center will become the first Survey office with all users entirely on the new system. (John Clark, Denver, 303-202-4244)

• First USGS Notes Domino Applications. CBI staff have produced the first USGS applications using Notes Domino. One application, a Geographic Information Systems Skills Questionnaire, was protoyped within a limited community and will be applied Survey-wide within the next 30 days. Another application, designed for the Lotus Implementation Team, tracks the assignment and status of the tasks need for Nationwide deployment. (John Clark, Denver, 303-202-4244)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• NBII BioBot Rollout. Because of the rapid growth of all content on the Internet, there is a corresponding increase in demand for biological information of all types. And although the World Wide Web presents tremendous opportunities and a wealth of information to users, the quantity of that information can be overwhelming. The user who attempts to find information on a particular species, a biological concern, or simply educational information can become confounded by the sheer volume of data and information available. To address this dilemma, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) team is developing an exciting new tool called "BioBot." BioBot is designed to help users in a number of biological data discovery areas, including profiling or defining the information of interest, accessing specific information, and ultimately delivering the needed biological information to the user's desktop. BioBot is scheduled for completion by mid-December and will be available via the NBII Home Page. Further information on "BioBot" and other NBII activities can be found in the NBII newsletter, NBII Access. (Mike Frame, Denver, 303-202-4260)

• NBII Metadata Training Provided to State College. On September 23, Sharon Shin of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics will present a lecture on metadata to the Metropolitan State College-Denver GIS Club. Shin's presentation will provide an overview of the concepts of metadata, the standards, "good" and "bad" metadata, and the clearinghouse. National Biological Information Infrastructure and Federal Geographic Data Committee fact sheets will be provided to all students attending. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

• Metadata Workshop at TWS. On September 7, NBII provided a one-day workshop at The Wildlife Society's annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Fifteen participants from the EPA, USDA Forest Service, and State wildlife agencies were introduced to the concepts of metadata, MetaMaker, and the clearinghouse. Evaluations from the workshop indicated that the materials and instructors were well received by participants. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

• FGDC Workshop on Training Materials. On September 26-29, a cadre of trainers representing Federal and State agencies and universities will convene at NOAA's Coastal Services Center in Charleston, South Carolina, to develop core metadata training materials. These materials will be developed as electronic and hardcopy materials available from the Federal Geographic Data Committee and will later be integrated into the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis GIS curriculum and developed as distance learning materials. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

• Metadata Workshops. On October 19, Jennifer Gaines of the USGS Office of Biological Informatics and Outreach will provide a one-day overview of metadata, the clearinghouse, and MetaWebber at the USGS Midcontinent Ecological Science Center. Gaines will assist the National Park Service Intermountain Service Office in a Federal Geographic Data Committee-sponsored Biological Profile metadata training session October 21-22 at the University of Denver. On October 24-27, Gaines and Sharon Shin of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics will team up to present a metadata workshop at the 4^th Annual Microcomputer Applications in Fish and Wildlife Conference in Stateline, Nevada. Metadata training will also be provided at the upcoming USGS conference, "BioGeo99," to be held November 1-6 in Lafayette, Louisiana. In November, two metadata mini-courses will be presented at the American Fisheries Society Southern Division Meeting and 53^rd Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.