BNHM Information Technology Group (BSCIT) | History

Berkeley Natural History Museums (BNHM) is a nationally recognized leader in Biodiversity Informatics (BDI). Conceptually, by taking these collections of physical specimens and related documentation out of the cases, digitizing them, and putting them on the Web, BNHM has transformed the information contained in the collections from the parochial to the universal. The vast store of data held by BNHM is progressing toward being available to all potential users: academic, policy, citizen science.

BNHM Digital Assets

Projects

• AmphibiaWeb is a site inspired by global amphibian declines, is an online system that allows free access to information on amphibian biology and conservation.
• BioKeys is a pictorial guide to flora and fauna of the Bay Area.
• GReF Graphical Referencing Framework- allows users to link data on scanned field notebook pages to records in a specimen database.
• Digital MVZ is a project to digitize multimedia collections in the MVZ.
• Miomap Explores Miocene Mammal Distributions.
• Moorea Biocode is a project that is enabling biocoding an entire ecosystem with online components and field recorders in development.
• The Jepson Flora Project brings together all of the floristic references and data of the Jepson Herbarium.
• BerkeleyMapper is a configurable mapping tool supporting natural history collections.
• Biogeomancer supports online georeferencing.

Distributed Specimen Networks

• Paleoportal is an educational site and distributed database for Paleontology Museums developed by UCMP.
• Herpnet, ORNIS, and MANIS are distributed search tools employing DiGIR, PHP, and Java with development led by MVZ.
• The Consortium of California Herbaria was developed to serve as a gateway to information from California vascular plant specimens that are housed in herbaria throughout the state.

Protocols

• MVZ was a leader in the development of the DiGIR protocol

Specimen Databases