The US Virtual Herbarium: working with individual herbaria to build a national resource

Mary Barkworth,Zack Murrell

doi:10.3897/zookeys.209.3205

Abstract

The goal of the US Virtual Herbarium (USVH) project is to digitize (database, image, georeference) all specimens in all US herbaria, enabling them to be made available through a single portal. Herbaria house specimens of plants, fungi, and algae, so USVH will offer a rich portrait of biodiversity in the US and in the other countries represented in US herbaria. Equally importantly, working towards this goal will engage people with herbaria and the organisms they house, expanding their appreciation of both the power of biodiversity informatics and the demands that it places on data providers while developing improved communication among those working in and with herbaria. The project is not funded but has strong support among those working in herbaria. It works through regional herbarium networks, some of which existed prior to the USVH project, while others are still in gestation. It differs from most digitization projects in its emphasis on helping those involved with herbaria become part of a national enterprise, an aspect that is seen as critical to creating the resources needed to develop and sustain the project. In this paper, we present some of the lessons we have learned and the difficulties we have encountered during the first few years of the project.

Highlights

The result will be a major new scientific resource but the greatest benefits will result from working towards this overall goal, a process that will require helping collectors and curators record information in a manner that maximizes the value of a specimen, use the tools being developed for capturing and sharing collection information, and make use of the resulting information in their research, education, and outreach activities
The executive committee’s first task was to develop explicit goals for the project. It agreed that the overall goal of the US Virtual Herbarium project should be digitizing all specimens in all US herbaria
As is the case in several large herbaria, much of their current research and collection activity lies outside the US, these activities may be most appreciated outside the US but they are essential to attainment of the US Virtual Herbarium’s overall goal, digitization of all specimens in all US herbaria

Summary

Introduction

The result will be a major new scientific resource but the greatest benefits will result from working towards this overall goal, a process that will require helping collectors and curators record information in a manner that maximizes the value of a specimen, use the tools being developed for capturing and sharing collection information, and make use of the resulting information in their research, education, and outreach activities. The Pacific Northwest Herbaria (PNW) portal shows the number of specimen images available and only Symbiota portals show how many records have georeference data.

Results

Conclusion