A paper in the January 2018 issue of Database describes the NCBI BioCollections database, a curated dataset of metadata for culture collections, museums, herbaria and other natural history collections connected to sequence records in GenBank. The BioCollections database was established to allow the association of specimen vouchers and related sequence records to their home institutions. This process also allows back-linking from the home institution for quick identification of all records originating from each collection.
The rapidly growing set of GenBank submissions frequently includes records that are derived from specimen vouchers. Correct identification of the specimens studied, along with a method to associate the sample with its institution, is critical to the outcome of related studies and analyses.
New repository records are added to the database if they are submitted to the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) along with sequence data. Each record now provides information about the institution that houses the collection, standard Institution Code, mailing address, and associated webpage if available.
The BioCollections database is maintained and curated by the Taxonomy group at NCBI.
Very good
Its a great initiative and will help a lot systematic study and accurate sample identification.