The days of the home-grown biodiversity database with a single rapid grad student maintaining it are over. Projects now use state-of-the-art file storage systems, presentation software and the capabilities needed for distribution over the Internet. This collection of articles addresses the many new features of the types of databases now in service and make cases for even more improvements. They focus on best practices and applications as they describe concepts and installations, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the European Network for Biodiversity Information, networking taxonomic concepts flexibly, networking European biological collections databases, automated extraction of biodiversity information from taxonomic descriptions, using the grid in biodiversity informatics, an interactive database system for structured descriptive data of ascomycetes, linking and merging databases, and applications to such practical projects as rattan conservation in Borneo. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)