Creation of Information Retrieval System on the Unique Research Collections of the Zoological Institute RAS

Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ZIN)-is one of the oldest scientific institutions in Russia with unique scientific collections. In 2017, the Museum and the Institute celebrated their 185th anniversary. The unique collection of the ZIN were collected by many generations of Russian and foreign zoologists throughout the territories and waters of our planet. Collected during these expeditions materials are stored in the Institute, they remain imperishable source of information on the structure and distribution of faunal diversity in space and time. The collections continue to rise. ZIN has one of the largest zoological collections in the world, with more than 60 million of storage units. In general, in the collections of the ZIN about 260 thousand species of animals, which is about a quarter of the known world fauna, are presented. There is almost all the animal species inhabiting territory and waters of Russia, for many of them large series are stored. Several tens of thousands of type specimens of animal species stored in the collection are of exceptional value. The content of the concept of "zoological collection" in our days of rapid progress of information technologies and advances in molecular genetic studies quickly filled with new meanings. Currently, the collection is rightfully regarded as a bank of scientific information and the primary tool for basic and applied biological research. The information system should include taxonomical, type, collection, zoogeographical and bibliographic data. By using of available server infrastructure of ZIN and information system of collection specimens created (ZIN Research Collections portal, https://www.zin.ru/collections/), there was a possibility of selective publication of ZIN research collection data via GBIF portal (http://ipt.zin.ru). The scientific use of the collections and depositories of integrated information systems for faunistic biodiversity in the present context includes, as the most important modern goals, digitization of collections and publication of information in the public domain on the Internet.