The legacy of taxonomy, hundreds of thousands of scattered, often inaccessible original descriptions of taxa, retards its progress and reduces the attraction of this fundamental branch of biology to the new generation of zoologists, as well as to funding bodies. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is preparing to establish ZooBank, an online register of zoological names, to stop the increase of this legacy once and for all. ZooBank will provide: - an open-access online database of all zoological names and electronic facsimiles of their original descriptions - e-mail alerts of new names for taxa required by users - a check that descriptions meet all formal requirements of the Code - a perpetual paper archive of all original descriptions Zoobank and the next edition of the Code of Zoological Nomenclature will require mandatory registration of all new zoological names ZooBank will not: - deal with scientific ideas and concepts, only with nomenclature - impose any form of peer-review or censorship ZooBank will eventually expand to cover all zoological names ever published and provide access to all original descriptions.