The National Biological Information Infrastructure: coming of age

Coordinated by the US Geological Survey, the National Biological Informatio n Infrastructure (NBII) is a Web-based system that provides increased acces s to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII ca n be viewed from a variety of perspectives. This article - an individual ca se study and not a broad survey with extensive references to the literature - addresses the structure of the NBII related to thematic sections, infras tructure sections and place-based sections, and other topics such as the In tegrated Taxonomic Information System tone of our more innovative tools) an d the development of our controlled vocabulary.