Highlights for April 14, 2000
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• GAP Receives Renew America Award for Environmental Sustainability. The USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) has been selected for a Renew America National Award for Environmental Sustainability in the category of Wildlife/Biodiversity. The prestigious awards are given by the nonprofit Renew America to 16 programs throughout the nation. Winners were selected from a pool of nearly 200 programs that have been recognized by Renew America and the National Awards Council for Environmental Sustainability, a coalition of 60 leading businesses and environmental and community groups. The awards honor companies, communities, and individuals that are leading the change to sustainability through their programs. On April 17, GAP will be honored at the Renew America Awards Ceremony that will help kick off Earth Week in Washington, DC. John Mosesso, Program Manager, will represent GAP at the ceremony. (Elisabeth Brackney, Moscow, Idaho, 208-885-3560)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• USGS Participates in Species 2000. During the week of April 3, Michael Ruggiero of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics represented the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) at the Species 2000 Project Management Team meeting in Amsterdam. Species 2000 is an international effort to index the world's species through collaboration with taxonomic databases. Currently, ITIS provides more than 60% of the species names to the Species 2000 Checklist. (Michael Ruggiero, Washington, DC, 202- 786-3117)

• Metadata Training Update. On April 17-18, Sharon Shin of the USGS Center for Biological Informatics and Jennifer Gaines of the Office of Biological Informatics and Outreach will present a two-day National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Metadata Workshop at the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, hosted by Scott Nelson of the GLSC. April 20-21 will find Shin in Ashland, Wisconsin, where she'll present a two-day NBII Metadata Workshop at the GLSC Lake Superior Field Station with host Michael Hoff. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303-202-4230)

• BioBot–ITIS Integration. NBII BioBot now provides users with the ability to seamlessly access species information from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). ITIS users looking for species information can now simply click on the BioBot logo, and BioBot will use the scientific name, common name, and synonyms for both to find more information on a specific species. This new search capability will help advance the use and integration of species names through ITIS, as well as provide users with a more comprehensive search result. To see for yourself, just go to the ITIS Web page, select Data Access, search on a specific Species, Display your results, and click on the BioBot logo to access several of the Biological Information Repositories available. Questions? Contact Mike Frame at the USGS Center for Biological Informatics. (Mike Frame, Denver, 303-202-4260)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.