A computerized database of verified diatom names will be produced. This database will integrate and make accessible to the general scientific community disparate references and resources that contain information on diatom nomenclature. Names appearing in the major published catalogues of diatom names as well as the unpublished New Species File of the Academy of Natural Sciences will be entered during this 3-year project into database tables for diatom genus names and names within diatom genera. Each entry into the database will be verified against the original reference in which the name was proposed. The information will be searchable by name, authority, date of publication, individual or groups of references and status of the name. The estimate 75,00 records will be made available to diatom collections, state and federal agencies and individual scientists by request as well as over World Wide Web and Gopher servers on the Internet. The project will be part of the information infrastructure to support a wide range of research disciplines relation to biotic surveys and invent ories, including Taxonomy and Systematics, Ecology, and Paleontology, including pure and applied projects.
