Biodiversity Collections Index

BCI provides a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) for every natural history collection on earth. The data in BCI comes from two sources. Any member of the biodiversity research community can register and contribute to the data held in the index. In addition to this, authoritative data that has been curated by established sources is displayed in a non-editable form alongside the community data.

The BCI is now available as a 'Beta' version. You can now:

* Search for collections by natural language or abbreviations.
* Register and log in.
* Edit information about collections.
* Create new collection records.
* Create links between collections.
* Use LSIDs to refer to collections.
* Use the associated web services.

The Biodiversity Collections Index was instigated in October 2007 by Roger Hyam as a response to the work on Globally Unique Identifiers and Natural Collections Descriptions that was going on within Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). It was formalized as a project on 5th December 2007 with the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), TDWG and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The MoC states that the three organisations will cooperate in building a single shared resource for the whole community.

Please note that this information has expired.