Abstract Detail

Biodiversity Informatics & Herbarium Digitization

Thiers, Barbara [1].

Index Herbariorum Gets an Upgrade.

Index Herbariorum contains information about the world’s herbaria and the plant and fungal scientists and collections professionals associated with these collections. The effort began in 1935 and between 1952 and 1990, eight hardcopy editions of Index Herbariorum were published. Since that time, the index has been available only in electronic form, updated through email messages to the editor. A recent grant from the National Science Foundation represents the first external funding for the Index Herbariorum effort in almost 30 years. These funds are being used to expand and revise the information captured for the index, to revise the website so that institutions can create and edit their own entries, and to reach out to all currently registered herbaria to seek updates. The revised data structure will allow the capture of more specific information about herbarium holdings, e.g., how many specimens are held of vascular plants, algae, bryophytes and fungi; the digitization status of the herbarium, and where digitized data are shared, e.g., GBIF, iDigBio, etc. The options for downloading data from Index Herbariorum will be expanded as well. Related to the upgrade, The New York Botanical Garden initiated an Index Herbariorum annual report in 2016 (called “The World’s Herbaria 2016”). The purpose of the report is to provide an annual snapshot of Index Herbariorum data to facilitate tracking change over time. Participating institutions can use these data to put their own collection in a global perspective and to understand how they contribute to the worldwide effort to document plant and fungal biodiversity. The basic statistics provided in this report include the following: There are 2962 active herbaria in the world, containing 381,308,064 specimens. These herbaria are found in 176 countries. Associated with these herbaria are 11,548 staff members. The report includes a summary of herbaria by region and country, a list of the 100 largest herbaria in the world, a list of herbaria newly added in 2016, and a list of those herbaria that were reported as closed or inactive in 2016. The annual report can be downloaded from the Index Herbariorum website, where all future annual reports will also be available.

1 - The New York Botanical Garden, Herbarium, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY, 10458, USA

Keywords:
Herbaria
digitized herbarium data.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 31, Biodiversity Informatics & Herbarium Digitization I
Location: Fort Worth Ballroom 6/Omni Hotel
Date: Tuesday, June 27th, 2017
Time: 2:00 PM
Number: 31001
Abstract ID:72
Candidate for Awards:None