The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Metadata Clearinghouse is an initiative to help you locate, evaluate, and access biological data and information from cooperating data partners and information sources. The Clearinghouse also provides access to software tools to use in analyzing, integrating, and applying biological data.

The NBII Metadata Clearinghouse contains standardized metadata-based descriptions of biological data sets and information products. Metadata descriptions follow the NBII's Biological Profile of the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC's) Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata. NBII is also a participating node on the FGDC's National Spatial Data Clearinghouse (NSDI) and the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS). The NBII Clearinghouse is comprised of contributions from many different organizations. The principal node contains records of both NBII geographic Nodes, partners, and those organizations submitting a limited number of records. Find instructions about how to submit your individual metadata records to the principal node of the Clearinghouse.

Join Us! Organizations interested in establishing a unique metadata presence can decide to become a Clearinghouse node. NBII Clearinghouse nodes make their metadata records available through a weekly harvesting process from NBII. Read NBII Clearinghouse Node Descriptions.

The NBII Clearinghouse also functions as a registered node of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Clearinghouse ((NSDI)), since many of the biological databases described in the NBII Clearinghouse are geospatially referenced. Because the focus of the NBII is on all types of biological data and information, the NBII Clearinghouse also accommodates metadata descriptions of data sets and information products that are not explicitly geospatial, such as the results of laboratory research.