Its purpose was to facilitate access to data and information on the biological resources of the United States, utilizing government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry.

The NBII coordinated the research output of the biological community into information systems that were easily accessed, by providing organization and a structure that was based on standards.

It envisioned a system of distributed databases designed to make the existing information more accessible.

In 2001 money was finally appropriated for the development of the system of NBII networked nodes, though far below the level recommended in the report.

[3] Due to the extensive amount and array of resources and data available, users often needed to both browse and search to locate specific information of interest.

Other problems included resources that were listed well down on a long page, so that they did not appear on the screen, and there were the occasional dead links.

"[1] In the President's Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, the NBII was identified as one of over 200 programs slated for termination or reduction.