Trends and Developments in Biodiversity Informatics
Flora brasiliensis Revisited
Round Table: Information technology and data repatriation
Summary for possible remarks
Barbara M. Thiers, New York Botanical Garden
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The New York Botanical Garden is a major source of information about
plants and fungi. The William and Lynda Steere herbarium contains
approximately six million specimens. The LuEster T. Mertz Library
contains more than 1.25 million print and non-print items relating to
plants and fungi. Garden scientists have produced literally thousands
of books and papers that synthesize specimen and bibliographic data into
scholarly research products.
The institution's Long Range Plan for 1990-1997 first identified a need
for improved access to computer technology as a high institutional
priority, both to further the research of NYBG staff, and also to better
serve our scientific user community. The first project of the plan was
the release of CATALPA, the electronic catalog for the LuEster T. Mertz
Library. Shortly thereafter we began cataloging herbarium specimens and
sharing specimen data in a searchable format via the web. As of this
year, we have cataloged approximately 600,000 specimens, and have
completed or nearly completed several projects that we feel are
significant references for biodiversity research worldwide. These
include the Vascular Plant Type Catalog, which includes digital images
of all specimens; the North American Bryophyte catalog, and a catalog of
the vascular plants of the states of Eastern Brazil.
The institutional plan for biological information management has been
laid out in three phases. The first phase is the development of software
to capture, manage and share specimen data, and the cataloging of
specimens on a project by project basis. This phase obviously has no
endpoint, as changing technology will require continual changes in
software and hardware, and of course new specimens will continually be
added to the herbarium. The second phase will develop a paperless
transaction management system for specimen loans, acquisitions and
permanent distributions. The third phase will link specimen-level
information to the synthesized taxonomic research of our scientific
staff and collaborators, thereby creating tools for compiling that
research and for publishing it on line. Additionally this phase
includes linking current research and herbarium specimens with digitized
published and unpublished text and illustrations held in the library.
In addition to meeting the needs of our own staff and collections, The
New York Botanical Garden is eager to share data that are needed for all
biodiversity projects that can benefit from the data the institution
holds. We are willing to seek funding to digitize additional
information from our collections as required for floristic, monographic,
or conservation-oriented projects. We can also help other institutions
to build their own electronic biodiversity information resources by
providing software and data hosting opportunities. Just as the New York
Botanical Garden benefited from borrowed software and data hosting in
the early phases of our biological information management plan, we want
to make it possible for other institutions to benefit similarly from
this approach.
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