When providing information through Internet it's convenient, in regard to the potential users, to state the conditions under which the data is provided. Intellectual Property issues include not only neither economic nor benefit-return matters, but other related with attribution and credit for the work done or the incorrect use of the data. One of the basic principles at GBIF is the explicit acknowledgement of the original providers of the information. There's further information on this issue in the sections below.

There are some other examples like the Cryptogamy Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden in Madrid, the REMIB (CONABIO in Mexico) and the Species Analyst Network (Univ. of Kansas - Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Centre).

All the original agreements related with data sharing and use are available in GBIF Secretariat web portal, in the following address:

http://www.gbif.org/DataProviders/Agreements/

All the potentials users of GBIF data must read and understand the GBIF Data Use Agreement before being allowed to access data. In the following document, both Spanish and English versions of this agreement are included:

GBIF Data Use Agreement - Spanish & English

Before sharing any data in GBIF network, potential data providers must read and agree with GBIF Data Sharing Agreement. In the following document, both Spanish and English versions of this agreement are included:

GBIF Sharing Data Agreement- Spanish & English

Intellectual Property Rights discussion has naturally arisen within GBIF, as it has been conceived as a free access facility from its very beginning. On March 2004 a meeting was hold in Madrid about this issue: 'GBIF Experts' meeting on biodiversity data, databases and property rights issue', whose conclusions can be reviewed in the CIRCA system. In the following document, the main guidelines about IPR stated in the Memorandum of Understanding of GBIF are gathered, both in Spanish and English:

As it is stated in GBIF Data Use Agreement, data users must acknowledge data providers and collections for their data as appropriate. In the following documents, different ways of meeting this requirement are discussed.

These documents are drafts under development, available in GBIF Secretariat web portal (www.gbif.org) from May 6th, 2005. Comments about them are welcome till June 30th, 2005, at

Recomendation on Open Access to Biodiversity Data - Spanish (.PDF, 127 Kb)

The Darwin Core profile (GBIF, MaNIS, The Species Analyst, etc.) provides a list of suggested access points and recommendations for their use in searches within natural history specimen and observation databases. It provides suggestions for stringifying queries so they become protocol independent. It also provides guidance to the content, structure and format of records retrieved from an information server supporting the Darwin Core. To obtain up-to-date information about Darwin Core, please visit http://digir.net/.

Schema definition

The original schema of Darwin Core 2 in XML format (ver. 1.0) can be consulted in digir.net webpages. There's also an easy-to-read version available.

Data and structures for Darwin Core migrations

You can download an example of a Darwin Core table in MS Access®, tested under MS Windows® with ODBC and with ADO: DarwinCore.zip (.ZIP file, 158 Kb).

There are two versions of the Darwin Core standard that are implemented by GBIF: Darwin Core 1.2 y Darwin Core 1.4. You can find detailed information about them at:

1. Darwin Core Versions
2. Darwin Core Concepts

Darwin Core is currently undergoing a new version that is not yet implemented by GBIF. You can find more information related to this new version at: http://www.tdwg.org/standards/450/
The Darwin Core new version in MS Access format can be found at: http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/downloads/detail?name=SimpleDwCMSAccess.mdb

• http://www.bgbm.org/TDWG/CODATA/Schema/default.htm

• http://digir.sourceforge.net
• http://digir.net/

The TAPIR protocol (TDWG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval) turns up as an alternative to exchange information between data providers and servers, compatible with both Darwin Core 2 and ABCD. The working groups related to this project are working actively, and there are some prototypes being tested at the moment. To know the latest news about this initiative, please visit:

• http://ww3.bgbm.org/protocolwiki/

Following these links you will find names lists to check the names included in your databases.

Specific groups

Global resources

A very interesting global sources of taxonomic information about animals, plants, microorganisms is Catalogue of Life.

The Coordination Unit of GBIF Spain develops software applications, freely and openly offered to the Spanish scientific community to facilitate data sharing through GBIF initiative. Software support and training is also offered freely to those researchers actively participating in GBIF.

Joining an existing well-known initiative ensures taking advantage of the expertise acquired by other research groups, making easy to avoid known problems. A smooth and effective performance of the digitization works becomes possible then, from the very beginning of the project. The most recent international standards in biological databases are surely covered, as it is sharing information between different databases, facilitating joining global initiatives like GBIF.

The Botany Unit from the University of Barcelona has developed an integrated software package called VegAna (Vegetation Edition and Analysis) to manage and analyse biological data . You can download the following applications from the project's main webpage:

• Ginkgo: Representation, classification and multivariate analysis of biodiversity data.
• Quercus: relevé data tables editor. Handles relevé data to perform phytosociological works.
• Fagus: floristic citation editor.
• Yucca: a cartographic plotting tool.

A new fascinating function has been added recently to this software: GBIF data import and use!

To find further information, please visit VegAna webpage:

http://biodiver.bio.ub.es/vegana/index.html

The GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) is an open source software platform developed by the Secretariat of the GBIF. One of the main technical challenges to the GBIF distributed IT architecture is to remove constraints to data publishing and flow. The new IPT offers simple interfaces to transfer complete data stores in order to publish biodiversity data.

http://ipt.gbif.org

Modern methods to digitalize natural history collections and to increase the value of the collections and the databases behind them include specimen digital image capturing.

Digital image use offers many ADVANTAGES:

1. They are easy to manipulate and distribute: computer files are readily transported and stored in CD, DVDs or through the Internet.
    
2. Disaggregation of collections' digitalization process. It is no longer necessary to complete all the digitalization effort in the collection site or to carry the specimens: image capturing can be done within the collection and processed elsewhere.
    
3. Great amounts of information can be accessed with no need to travel to the collection site or to handle the specimens. A lot of research can be done using digital images, avoiding the cost and risk of damaging delicate specimens associated with loans and transportations. This point is especially important regarding delicate or unique type material.
    
4. The Collections' curator and staff are released from most of the tasks related with loans and queries. This time can be invested in better curation or research.
    
5. Researchers save the time needed to go to the collections site to check specimens' features perceptible in the digital image.
    
6. The data (labels, identifications) and databases associated with the collections can be corrected and updated based on the information provided by the digital images of the specimens and their labels.
    
7. High quality data sharing with countries of origin (data repatriation) is facilitated, providing them with 'virtual collections' built from the specimens collected in their territories.
    
8. And so on.

Some of the most interesting international initiatives are listed below. These ones are remarkable because of their significance or their special characteristics:

E-Type Initiative

This ambitious initiative from Harvard College is attempting to create a web-accessible electronic catalogue of all type specimens to be used by all taxonomists and specialists around the world. They maintain a complete online guide about digitalization and image capture of diagnostic characteristics.

The first results of this effort can be consulted in the online catalogues of their Caribbean insects collection and the type specimens of the MZD collection.

New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden is one of the pioneer institutions in everything related to digital herbaria creation and access. About 800,000 digitalized specimens are available at the moment, with more than 120,000 high resolution images and its own search engine.

Zoological Museum Amsterdam

The Zoological Museum of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the National GBIF Node of Holland, and with the technical support of ETI Bioinformatics, has developed a project of types specimens digitalization in three dimensions (3D), whose first results -a birds collection- can be queried online. This innovative system allows to rotate the specimen and to view it under any desired angle.

Center for Biodiversity and Conservation

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation belongs to the American Museum of Natural History. Its mission is to mitigate critical threats to global biological and cultural diversity by advancing scientific research in diverse ecosystems; strengthening the application of science to conservation practice and public policy; developing professional, institutional, and community capacity; and furthering the Museum's efforts to heighten public understanding and stewardship of biodiversity

Aluka

Aluka is an international, collaborative initiative building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. Start-up funding for Aluka has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Aluka seeks to attract high-quality scholarly content about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners will have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience—without having to develop and support their own technology platforms.

1. The EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION (ENBI) included different initiatives related to the use of digital imaging of natural history collection specimens in its 6th work package (Co-operation of pan-European databases on biological collections and specimens). Some of the most interesting related events are:
    
   • A workshop on 'techniques and challenges for digital imaging of biological types' was held in Stuttgart (Germany) in March 2004. The results of this workshop, together with a detailed report, are available in its corresponding CIRCA section.
      
   • A 'Manual of Best Practice' on digital imaging of biological type specimens was published at the end of 2005. Among the contributions included in this manual, the Spanish study of Arturo H. Ariño and David Galicia on the use of digital images in taxonomical studies stands out (Chapter 11th). A full electronic version of the manual is available to download here.
      
2. A working group focused on biological images management has been established in the TAXONOMIC DATABASE WORKING GROUP (TDWG). They have launched a WiKi as a discussion and focal point, where new ideas as also published.
    
3. The NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN has made a manual on 'Procedures and recommendations for photographing and archiving type specimens of the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium' available. It includes different recommendations about the equipment needed, its configuration, lighting control, etc.
    
4. The E-TYPE INITIATIVE web pages also include some information about protocols, considerations and methodology, when facing detailed images capturing.
    
5. The COORDINATION UNIT OF THE SPANISH GBIF NODE organizes periodic courses and workshops on natural history collections digitalization, whose contents include the use of digital images. Please visit the events section of GBIF.ES web portal to be properly informed about future calls.

The concept of SENSITIVE DATA in the context of GBIF refers to those data about taxa whose geographical information publication could be problematic if shared unprotected. This situation can occur when publishing information about:

• Rare, endangered or legally protected taxa.
   
• Commercially valuable taxa.
   
• Showy or fragile taxa (Ex: orchids, nesting/roosting sites, etc.).
   
• Data subject to withholding request from landowner.
   
• Data used to derive income.

In other context, there is data that can be considered "temporarily" sensitive:

• Data awaiting publication.
   
• Data subject to ongoing research.

The concept of sensitive data, like those of endemicity or rareness, is closely related to the geographic area we are restricted to: data considered as sensitive in a given area, can be considered freely accessible in a different one. This is particularly relevant when talking about duplicates of vouchered specimens stored in different natural history collections, or data served from outside the influence area of the restriction, legislation, etc.

When facing the possibility of sharing sensitive data through the GBIF network, a geographical data generalization or deletion process must be conceived and run, before their publication.

One of the most relevant issues which can't be neglected when sharing sensitive data is to document the process carried out to generalize or remove the geographical information. Users must be aware that the data made available for them is not the original data. Nevertheless, the generalized data available in the internet will inform users of its existence and data providers can keep the capacity to evaluate individually the convenience of sharing more detailed information.

The FIRST STEP is to find out which records of our set are considered sensitive in our scope. Speaking about Spain, it is essential to know the applicable international, national and regional legislation:

International Legislation

National Legislation

Regional Legislation

The SECOND STEP to take is to decide which method of protection we want to apply to the records:

1. Totally remove geographical information: affecting both the textual description of the locality and the geographical coordinates (if available) of the collecting site.
    
2. Partially remove the geographical information. Several methods are available:
   1. Round-down coordinates to a given number of decimal figures (Ex: use squares which define an area of 10x10 Km).
   2. Remove the contents of the most detailed fields of the locality (Ex: keep only the information about the country, state/province or municipality).
       
3. Generalize geographical data: Original accuracy is maintained but the point does not match the original collecting/sighting site. Tools to carry out these tasks automatically are being developed: once they are available, they will be published here.

FINALLY, as it has been stated at the beginning of this document, it is essential to clearly indicate in a field ('notes' or a similar one) the process the records have undergone. Typical signs might read:

• This specimen represents an endangered or threatened species. The specific locality has been removed from the on-line record to protect this species from over-collection. These data may be supplied to researchers on request.
   
• This specimen represents an endangered or threatened species. The specific locality has been generalized to presence within a grid 1 minute resolution. Detailed data may be supplied to researchers on request.

If you are interested in obtaining more information, GBIF Secretariat in Copenhagen has issued several interesting documents related to sensitive data:

GEOLocate is a comprehensive electronic georeferencing solution funded by the National Science Foundations and developed by Tulane University's Museum of Natural History designed to facilitate this task of assigning geographic coordinates to the locality data associated with natural history collections.

More information:

• 1st Workshop on GEOLocate: a georeferencing tool for biodiversity data
• Web site of GEOLocate
• Spanish cartographic data
• Descarga de la nueva versión 3.2

We provide two support contacts for GEOLocate users. Either you can conduct your questions, comments, queryes, etc. to the distribution list (GEOLocate-L) or to the following email address: ayuda_geolocate@gbif.es Both will be availbale soon.

• gvSIG
  gvSIG is a tool oriented to manage geographic information. It is characterized by a user-friendly interface, with a quick access to the most usual raster and vector formats. In the same view it includes local as well as remote data through a WMS, WCS or WFS source.
  

Download: http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=gvsig&L=0&L=2

• Google Earth
  Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others.

Download: http://earth.google.com/intl/en_uk/

• Google Maps
  Google Maps is a free web mapping service application and technology provided by Google that powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder and embedded maps on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner, and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world.

Descarga: http://maps.google.com/

• Generic point mapper
  This online mapping application allows users to input spatial (GIS) coordinates in decimal degrees. The Generic Point Mapper application receives an XML stream which allows users to develop their own applications. This system is integrated in GBIF International Data Portal, allowing on-line map generation: an example on how you can map your query trough this system is available here.
  Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF), Canada.
  
  http://www.cbif.gc.ca/mc/index_e.php

• geo:truc

  Find coordinates from an address or from a map. Convert between decimal degrees and degrees, minutes, seconds. Geotag your blog, web site or RSS feed.

  http://www.geotruc.net/?hl=es_ES

The GEOteca web site hosts a compendium of geographic resources compiled by students and lecturers of the University Autónoma de Madrid within the framework of Programas de Inovación Docente.

It gathers geographical information that can be found on the Internet in its widest sense:

• Digital publications on geography and environment, degrees, departments, societies and literature.
• Spanish GIS services available via Internet and international resources.
• Satellite imagery relevant to Spain, image processing software etc.
• Server on statistical population data, local, regional, national and international data, products and natural resources, documentation, literature, etc.

Their webpage: http://www.uam.es/docencia/geoteca/geoteca.html

When performing data migrations, its essential to attach our data to an internationally accepted coding to ensure compatibility with global initiatives and subsequent data exchanges.

1. ISO 3166 code lists: codes and names from ISO 3166-1 (the country codes) and ISO 3166-2 (the country subdivision codes) in English and French.
     
2. MS Access® countries table with ISO 3166-1 codes of two and three characters length and its names in Spanish: Paises.zip (.ZIP file, 21 Kb - Last update 12-02-2007).
      
3. Table with the codes of country subdivisions (states, departments, provinces,...) as they are defined in the ISO 3166-2 standard (60 countries): Provincias.zip (.ZIP file, 45 Kb).