After 20 years of computerising information on Suffolk’s wildlife, the SBRC has recently made over one million records available for use on the internet. This contribution is one of the largest single datasets that can be accessed on the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway site http://data.nbn.org.uk/ a portal where nearly 44 million records can be searched – a massive resource for anyone interested in UK biodiversity. Sharing this data is the most important achievement in the 25 years that I have been running the SBRC.

The Suffolk records, which relate to nearly 12,000 species occurring in the county, are available at 10-km resolution for general public use. This ensures that locations of rare and protected species are not revealed. Registered users of the Gateway can apply to SBRC for access at better resolutions. Organisations such as Natural England can integrate the web data with their computer mapping software (GIS) to ensure that conservation decisions are based on accurate and up-to-date information. Improvements in software at the Records Centre have enabled further expansion. Since uploading our data to the Gateway, we have been able to add a further ½ million records to the database. It is likely we will have over 2 million records by the end of 2010.

Further information (metadata) describing the Suffolk data can be seen at

http://data.nbn.org.uk/datasetInfo/taxonDataset.jsp?refID=5&list=1&sort=true&dsKey=GA000623.