Common access to distributed biodiversity information

Over the last decade, several international networks have been implemented to give common access to distributed primary biodiversity data holdings, such as collection and observational data. Significant examples include: the SpeciesAnalyst network (Vieglas 1999), focussing primarily on North American Natural History Collections; the European Natural History Specimen Information Network ENHSIN (Berendsohn 2003, Guntsch 2003); and the Biological Collection Access Service for Europe (Berendsohn 2002, BioCASE