Hi cposs,

I'm not a Recorder6 export but I can share some of my experience.

Upgrading...
You can upgrade from 6.19.x to the latest release, 6.28 in one hit. Download the 6.28 upgrade zip from here, http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4612, and run it as someone who has admin rights on the NBNData database.

I always take a backup of NBNData first and the files on your recorder6 application server although I've only had to restore once and that was because of a cock-up I caused. If you have custom SQL queries these may need to be tweaked post install as sometimes changes to the underlying table structure stops them from working.

Then you would apply the dictionary updates available here, http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4615. You have to run all of the updates (more than 20 from where you are). Once the dictionary updates have been applied you then rebuild your indexes from within Recorder6.

Species lists...
Data which is already entered into Recorder6 will remain against the original taxon_name (identified with a taxon_key). So you will still be able to see that the original record was against abacus babacus even though the preferred name might now be babacus cabacus. You can import against new names or old names. You can report using the name entered at the time of the data entry or by the current preferred name.

NHM UK Species Inventory...
This is available via the NHM directly, contact them through the website and you can receive a copy in Microsoft Access format. If you wanted to see what is currently in your copy of recorder6 you could use a query like the one below to export a snapshot. You would need to refresh this each time you apply dictionary updates though. Feel free to tweak it as required.

SELECT
    [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]                                                       AS "taxon_key"
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[RECOMMENDED_TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]                                          AS "preferred_taxon_key"
    ,CASE
        WHEN [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY] = [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[RECOMMENDED_TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY] THEN '1' ELSE '0'
    END                                                                                            AS "is_preferred_name"
    ,[TAXON_GROUP].[TAXON_GROUP_NAME]                                                              AS "taxon_group"
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[ACTUAL_NAME]                                                              AS "mixed_names"
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[COMMON_NAME]                                                              AS "preferred_common_name"
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME]                                                           AS "preferred_scientific_name"
    ,CASE
        WHEN [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[ABBREVIATION] IS NULL THEN '' ELSE [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[ABBREVIATION]
    END                                                                                            AS "abbreviations"
    ,[TAXON_RANK].[LONG_NAME]                                                                      AS "taxon_rank"
    ,CASE
        WHEN [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME_AUTHORITY] IS NULL THEN '' ELSE [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME_AUTHORITY]
    END                                                                                            AS "authority"
    ,CASE
        WHEN [TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[PARENT] IS NULL THEN '' ELSE [TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[PARENT]
    END                                                                                            AS "parent_taxon_key"
    ,COUNT( [TAXON_DETERMINATION].[TAXON_DETERMINATION_KEY] )                                      AS "records_count"
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[SORT_ORDER]                                                               AS "sort_order"
    ,[LANG_TAXON].[LANGUAGE]                                                                       AS "language"

FROM
    [INDEX_TAXON_NAME]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_LIST_ITEM]     ON [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[RECOMMENDED_TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY] = [TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_RANK]          ON [TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[TAXON_RANK_KEY]                   = [TAXON_RANK].[TAXON_RANK_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_VERSION]       ON [TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[TAXON_VERSION_KEY]                = [TAXON_VERSION].[TAXON_VERSION_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_GROUP]         ON [TAXON_VERSION].[OUTPUT_GROUP_KEY]                   = [TAXON_GROUP].[TAXON_GROUP_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_DETERMINATION] ON [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]             = [TAXON_DETERMINATION].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]

    /* EXTRA BIT FOR OBTAINING THE LANGUAGE */
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_LIST_ITEM] AS [LANG_TAXON_LIST_ITEM]  ON [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]   = [LANG_TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON_VERSION]   AS [LANG_TAXON_VERSION]    ON [LANG_TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[TAXON_VERSION_KEY] = [LANG_TAXON_VERSION].[TAXON_VERSION_KEY]
    LEFT JOIN [TAXON]           AS [LANG_TAXON]            ON [LANG_TAXON_VERSION].[TAXON_KEY]           = [LANG_TAXON].[TAXON_KEY]

/* RETURN ONLY LATIN AND ENGLISH NAMES - reduces names from 580,676 rows to 564090 */
WHERE
    [LANG_TAXON].[LANGUAGE] = 'la' OR [LANG_TAXON].[LANGUAGE] = 'en'

GROUP BY
    [INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[RECOMMENDED_TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY]
    ,[TAXON_GROUP].[TAXON_GROUP_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[ACTUAL_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[COMMON_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[ABBREVIATION]
    ,[TAXON_RANK].[LONG_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME_AUTHORITY]
    ,[TAXON_LIST_ITEM].[PARENT]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[SORT_ORDER]
    ,[LANG_TAXON].[LANGUAGE]

ORDER BY
    [TAXON_GROUP].[TAXON_GROUP_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[COMMON_NAME]
    ,[INDEX_TAXON_NAME].[PREFERRED_NAME]