GBIF Launches New Web Portal!

We’re very excited to share that yesterday, October 9, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) launched their new web portal as part of the 20th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board.  The new portal provides greatly enhanced access to the world’s largest database of documented evidence for the distribution of species across the planet.

The scientific meeting was held in Berlin and webcast for the press and public. Tim Hirsch, Senior Program Officer for Engagement, and Tim Robertson, Information Systems Architect, introduced and demonstrated some of the new features now available.  For example, the home page now includes prominent links to information that help “tell the entire GBIF story,” including how GBIF, its content-contributing partners, and users are:

  1. Sharing Biodiversity for Reuse;
  2. Providing Evidence for Research and Decisions; and
  3. Collaborating as a Global Community.

You can learn more about all of the new functionality by visiting the new GBIF web portal or watching the webcasts of the launch.

The meeting also included presentations on how GBIF’s partners in Colombia and Japan are providing free and open access to information about biodiversity in their own countries.  In the afternoon, the annual GBIF Science Symposium highlighted how researchers throughout the world are using the data mobilized through GBIF’s network of data publishers.  The Symposium kicked off with a presentation on climate change and patterns of biodiversity by Miguel Bastos Araújo, winner of the 2013 Ebbe Nielsen Prize.  More information is available in the Symposium brochure and webcast of the event.

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Carolyn Sheffield served as the BHL Program Manager from July 2013 - February 2019. She is currently the Associate Director of Library Technology and Digital Strategies at the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She holds a Masters of Library Science from the University of Maryland.