BRC Informatics and the University of California--Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, along with 34 other collections institutions, recently announced the creation of HerpNET, an integrated network for herpetology collections. HerpNET will use DiGIR technology to link 4.7 million reptile and amphibian specimens into a single virtual database. BRC Informatics is collaboratively building the software infrastructure that will serve as a foundation for HerpNET. BRC’s contributions include:

• Gazetteer—a database containing latitude and longitude values for geographical place names. Part of the task of integrating data from multiple sources is ensuring that the sources have a consistent system for citing location information. Consistent latitude and longitude data are also necessary for the mapping and modeling tools available with the DiGIR environment. The Gazettier automates the process of associating a specimen with latitude and longitude values.

• Taxonomic Name Server—a computer program that maps common names to taxonomic names. Taxonomic names are often used inconsistently in herpetology. The Taxonomic Name Server ensures consistency and also provides the scientist with the means for discovering alternative names associated with a taxon.

• DiGIR providers—Each herpetology database in the HerpNET network will have an application called a DiGIR provider that will translate DiGIR queries to and from the native schema. For more on the DiGIR environment, see the description of DiGIR.

• DiGIR portal—Scientists will send their queries to a DiGIR portal application on the network. The DiGIR portal will forward the original message to the full list of participating DiGIR providers.

The HerpNET project also calls for improvements to the quality of taxonomic and geographical data. These improvements will lead to enhanced mapping services and better taxonomic referencing. When HerpNET is complete, a herpetologist anywhere on the Internet will be able to access herpetology data from any participating collection.