The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is a partnership designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification The word comes from the Greek, taxis (meaning 'order' 'arrangement' and, nomos In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagency group within the U.S. federal government, involving agencies from the Department of Commerce to the Smithsonian Institution. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting Economic growth The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of It has now become an international body, with Canadian and Mexican government agencies participating. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The primary focus of ITIS is North American species, but many groups are worldwide and ITIS continues to collaborate with other international agencies to increase its global coverage. 
ITIS provides an automated reference database of scientific and common names for species. A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system As of May 2008, it contains over 584,000 scientific names, synonyms, and common names for terrestrial, marine, and freshwater taxa from all biological kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, and microbes). While the system does focus on North American species, it also includes many species not found in North America, especially among birds, fishes, amphibians, mammals, many reptiles, and several invertebrate animal groups. . ITIS is frequently used as the de facto source of taxonomic data in biodiversity informatics projects. .
ITIS couples each scientific name with a stable and unique taxonomic serial number TSN as the "common denominator" for accessing information on such issues as invasive species, declining amphibians, migratory birds, fishery stocks, pollinators, agricultural pests, and emerging diseases. It presents the names in a standard classification that contains author, date, distributional, and bibliographic information related to the names. In addition, common names are available through ITIS in the major official languages of the Americas (English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese). English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal.
ITIS and its international partner, Species 2000, cooperate to annually produce the Catalogue of Life, a checklist and index of the world’s species. The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. The Catalogue of Life goal is to complete the global checklist of 1. The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. 8 million species by 2011.  As of April 2008, the Catalogue of Life has reached 1. The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. 1 million species - a major milestone in its quest to complete the first up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms .
ITIS and the Catalogue of Life are core to the Encyclopedia of Life initiative announced May 2007 EOL will be built largely on various Creative Commons licenses. The Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Encyclopedia of Life ( EOL) is a free online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1 Creative Commons (CC is a Non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share
Of the 475,000+ (May 2008) scientific names in the current database, approximately 210,000 were inherited from the database formerly maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC manages the acquisition ingest processing quality control and long-term preservation of oceanographic Data. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA) is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the  The newer material has been checked to higher standards of taxonomic credibility, and over half of the original material has been checked and improved to the same standard. 
Biological taxonomy is not fixed, and opinions about the correct status of taxa at all levels, and their correct placement, are constantly revised as a result of new research. Many aspects of classification will always remain a matter of scientific judgment. The ITIS database is updated to take account of new research as it becomes available, and the information it yields is likely to represent a fair consensus of modern taxonomic opinion.
Records within ITIS include information about how far it has been possible to check and verify them. Its information should be checked against other sources where these are available, and against the primary research scientific literature where possible. Scientific literature comprises scientific Publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and Social sciences