This work represents a potentially high-reward biodiversity informatics test bed project in an expansive community collaboration. The goal of the work is to demonstrate the effectiveness of standards-based access to biological specimen and species authority records in the support of Internet discovery of institutional specimen holding, collection cataloging, taxonomic research, and various management and educational applications of biodiversity data. The project will implement the ANSI/NISO Z39.50 Information Retrieval Protocol for specimen and taxonomic authority databases. Deliverables will be (1) Z39.50 application profiles for specimen and species (taxon) data classes, (2) a consensus metadata dictionary for both classes of data, (3) a record syntax for both classes of data, and (4) prototype Z-client applications and Z-servers for specimen and species databases. A client-server Z39.50 information retrieval architecture for biological collections would include the following benefits: 1. Multiple specimen or species databases would be queried simultaneously through a single interface and return structured records from result sets for immediate utilization in local applications, such as database or analysis programs. 2. Query and retrieval among data in Z-servers in other intellectual communities would be integrated. This would allow, for example, (1) simultaneous spatial queries of specimen catalogs and map archives, (2) integrated retrieval of species (taxon) records from biological authority files with bibliographic records tagged with taxon subject headings from library catalogs, and (3) concurrent query and retrieval of taxonomic authority records, taxon images, and specimen voucher records from multiple sources. 3. Biological collections institutions could participate in a standards-based community architecture for data access and retrieval without surrendering their independence for the customization of local schema and record structures fo r local needs. The potential impact of a Z39.50 architecture for universal access to biological collections and species data, for the integration of species and specimen data with non-biological information, and as a community framework for all future biological collections data networking, is profound. This prototype and test bed project will be the first time biocollections and species information will be brought into an information standards framework shared by much broader and active information retrieval communities.
