GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION FACILITY Cataloging and using Taxonomic Data The Global Names Architecture David Remsen Senior Programme Officer, ECAT Asian Regional Meeting and Biodiversity Informatics Workshop Nov 2009

Enable access to information about species Scientific names label that information

We use names to retrieve species information 190M records – 5M distinct “taxon” names

Names make poor identifiers Information science & authority files address this.

…even when properly spelled Information science & authority files address this.

Nomenclatural Databases Provide original orthography and tie names to their originating publications

Taxonomic Catalogues Name of Taxon Classification Taxonomic Synonyms Circumscription Taxonomic Status

Terminology l Catalogues l Monographs l Regional Flora/Fauna l Primary Sources l Inventories/Species Lists l Secondary Sources l Nomenclators l No Taxonomy at all l Scope l Taxonomic l Regional l Thematic

Global Names Architecture Idea l Mobilise l Develop global taxonomic infrastructure l National, Regional, Global, Thematic l Index l Create a Global Library of Taxonomic Resources l Link l Create a single authoritative “dictionary” of names l Use / them l Develop tools and services that use these resources to facilitate integration and make life easier.

Dynamic Index of Checklists 2010 Q1 Release

Build Name Dictionary Services Enables Taxonomic Catalogues to be used to improve data quality in collections

Build Taxonomic Name Services l Save Time l Improve Accuracy l Organise species data l Automate manual tasks Unorganised/out-of-date Organised/Up-to-Date

Create new checklists New Derived ProductsNew Processes/Technologies

Use species lists to filter data retrieval Applied to data access and integration

Support different or preferred taxonomic views

Enable communities to have your data their way

Questions l Can you benefit from these sorts of services? l Do you want a national Checklist Catalogue? l Should GBIFS focus on providing software for making Checklist Catalogues or services for using them?