WERA1015: Developing the US National Virtual Herbarium
Annual/Termination Reports (SAES-422): [11/14/2010] [09/30/2011] [09/08/2012]
Date of Annual Report: 11/14/2010
Report Information:
Participants:
- The attached file includes all those who registered for the meeting plus others who attended without registering. Registration was optional and free. It give the conference organizers some idea of the size of room that has to be made available.
URL: Copy of participant list
Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:
URL: Copy of minutes
Accomplishments:
" Short-term Outcomes1. Submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation for a workshop to discuss the needs of the project. The proposal was successful and the workshop was held in February, 2010. The report is listed under Outputs.
2. The workshop formed ten task forces to address the projects needs as identified by the workshop participants.
3. Improved knowledge of US herbaria and the number of specimens they house. In September, 2009, Dr. Barbara Thiers provided information from Index Herbariorum, the International Registry of Herbaria, to the USVH Steering Committee that showed there were 588 US herbaria housing, collectively, 72 million specimens (excluding the 120 herbaria that transferred to other institutions or closed since the first US herbarium was founded in 1771).Efforts by regional representatives revealed that there are at least 811 US herbaria and that the number of specimens housed is about 73.5 million. Several of the additional herbaria have since registered with Index Herbariorum; others prefer not to do so but are willing to share information with representatives of regional herbarium networks.
4. A booth promoting the project was maintained at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. Several individuals made inquiries about the project and asked for the name of their regional representative.
5. A demonstration portal was developed to demonstrate the impact of integrating records from three regional consortia.
6. A poster summarizing the goals and activities of the project was presented at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America in Providence, Rhode Island, and, in modified versions at the annual meeting for discussion of Biodiversity Information Standards at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the annual meeting of the Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM) at Cadiz, Kentucky. The original poster was designed by Ben Legler, Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria.
" Outputs
Murrell, Z. and M.E. Barkworth. US Virtual Herbarium Workshop Report. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, April, 2010. Task Force 5 (Communications Infrastructure). A Web Site for Communication Concerning the US Virtual Herbarium Project. http://usvirtualherbarium.org. Task Force 10 (Organization Structure). Proposed organizational structure for the US Virtual Herbarium Project. Posted to http://usvirtualherbarium.org in July, 2010. Now in the process of revision. " Activities
1. Workshop on development of a US Virtual Herbarium, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Missouri Botanical Garden.
2. Creation of a project web site, http://usvirtualherbarium.org.
3. Development of a form requesting information from herbaria for use in assessing the current state of herbarium digitization in the US. The information was used to develop the current estimate of the number of herbaria in the US and their holdings. Few provided information on their progress in digitization.
4. Letter sent to leaders of workshops on a national collections initiative expressing supporting for the goal.
" Milestones
1. Establishment of a project web site. Goals for 2010-2011 1) Get a database for recording progress and post results. The initial information will come from IH in 2009 but we shall update it., recording when, by calling around. That seems to be the only way to obtain the information needed. 2) To find about $15000 pa support. Most of this will be used to hire a part time person to obtain the information for the database and do other such mundane tasks. Some of it will be used to pay for a booth at the annual meeting of both the Botanical Society of America meeting and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. The projects annual meeting is held in conjunction with the BSA meeting. The other meeting is one that many collections people attend. 3) Make available at least three presentations/webinars on digitization and sharing collection information.
Impact Statements:
- Increased knowledge of the number of herbaria in the country and the number of specimens they contain.
- Conducted a workshop that identified some of the areas that need to be address and set up task forces to address these issues.
- Developed a project Web site. Training on how to post information to it will be provided to regional representatives and task force leaders on December 13.
- Sent a letter of support and desire to assist in achieving the goal of the digitization of all biological collections to the individual known to be leadng development of a proposal for creating a unifying HUB for all biological collections in response to the NSF solicitation issued in August.
Date of Annual Report: 09/30/2011
Report Information:
Participants:
URL: Copy of participant list
Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:
The meeting was held on July 30, 2011, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America. Thirty-four participants listed their contact information on the sigh in sheet.Dr. Stella Coakley welcomed the participants and explained the nature of Multi-state Initiatives.
Barkworth reviewed the progress made with respect to three goals the project had set for the year.
Goal 1: Obtain current information on all herbaria in the US. Letters or emails had been sent to all 602 herbaria listed in Index herbariorum, the international registry for herbaria, in May. As of July 1, 229 responses had been received. Among these herbaria, there were 43 million specimens of which 33% had been databased and 3% imaged. Telephone calls to non-responding herbaria revealed that some herbaria had been closed, others had not updated their contact information in Index herbariorum. Efforts to obtain additional information would be continued in August.
Goal 2. Develop three presentations concerning digitization. These are in development. Barkworth (Utah State University) has developed a preliminary video on barcoding and one on the information for labels; Legler (University of Washington) will investigate developing one on imaging specimens.
Goal 3; Raise $15,000 for operating expenses. No progress has been made toward this goal.
Murrell reviewed activities since the 2010 annual meeting. Other: Three of the task forces appointed at the NSF sponsored workshop presented reports. These were followed by presentation of the regional reports.
Goals discussed for the 2011 included developing a web site that would provide information about why a taxonomic change had been proposed - with links to the relevant papers; developing a taxonomic "cross-walk"; drafting a memorandum of agreement that could serve as a model for regional networks.
The reports were followed by open discussion. Comments made were on the need for more timely and more frequent communication among those involved, with our professional societies, and with the public.
They were posted to the project's web site (http://usvirtualherbarium.org) early in August, and a corrected version posted on September 6. The full regional reports are also available at the web site. The attachment contains the full, revised minutes.
URL: Copy of minutes
Accomplishments:
Short term outcomesDeveloped better knowledge concerning the status of US herbaria, their progress toward digitization, and the impediments to creation of integrated access to information in the nation's herbaria.
Created preliminary versions of videos designed to assist smaller herbaria digitize their collections.
Helped several small herbaria make contact with individuals who could assist them in taking steps towards digitization.
Outputs
Completed draft videos on why specimens should barcode and preparation of herbarium labels. In addition, developed a draft video on SYMBIOTA, free, open source content management software for integrating collection information that can also be used for label preparation and database management. It has been adopted by three of the project's regions. They have been posted to http://herbarium.usu.edu/SYMBIOTA for comment.Once approved, they will be placed on the project's web site.
Activities
Organization. A revision to the organization structure that had been proposed at the 2010 annual meeting was posted to the web site in the fall. After an open comment period, the revised structure was approved by the Steering Committee in January.
In September, the Steering Committee was renamed the Executive Committee. Several members of the old steering committee resigned because they were unable to commit the time needed by the project. Current Executive Committee members are: Mary Barkworth (Utah State University) and Zack Murrell (Appalachian State University) - Co-chairs; Ellen Dean (University of California - Davis)- Secretary, Ben Legler (University of Washington) - IT Representative, Elizabeth Sellers - USGS Representative, and Mark Mayfield (Kansas State University). In addition, the task forces were formally closed with thanks to the members for their efforts. Conducted a survey of US Herbaria. The number of returns has now increased to 46% - and the number of herbaria to 606 (from 602) despite some having been dropped from the list because they are closed.
Worked on videos (see above)
Milestones.
One new regional web site has come online: http://intermountainbiota.org. The Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria has begun to set up a SYMBIOTA-based portal. Several herbaria received NSF support for databasing their collections, either under the NSF's Biological Research Collections Program or as part of a Thematic Coordination Network under the NSF's Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program. Many other herbaria are quietly making progress. One reason for the survey is to help us track this progress more effectively. Obtaining current contact information is an important step in that direction.
An open meeting between representatives of the US Virtual Herbarium Project and iDigBio has been scheduled as part of the TDWG meetings in October, 2011.
Impact Statements:
- Survey: Telephone calls were made to over 100 herbaria that had not responded to the survey sent out in May. This increased the number of herbaria for which we had accurate contact information. It also provided an opportunity to talk about the project and its rationale.
- Regional web sites: The portals of the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria and the Consortium of California Herbaria expanded to include more herbaria. A new portal for the Intermountain Region has been established and one is under development for the Consortium of Northeastern herbaria. The Intermountain Portal and the Southwestern portal (SEINet) draw on the same resources which include, in addition to herbaria in their region, the Rocky Mountain Herbarium (University of Wyoming)and the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. These activities make herbarium information more readily accessible.
Date of Annual Report: 09/08/2012
Report Information:
Participants:
URL: Copy of participant list
Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:
URL: Copy of minutes
Accomplishments:
Short Term Outcomes The US Virtual Herbarium project works through regional consortia and/or networks. It is these entities, and individual herbaria, that sponsor workshops relating to the project. To improve our ability to report on these activities, we need to develop mechanisms for storing information about them as they are offered. The following summarizes the information that we have gathered. More can be found in the regional reports that are on the project's web site (http://www.wiu.edu/USvirtualherbarium/). " Of 325 herbaria responding to the 2012 survey (see supplementary documentation), 230 are databasing their specimens, 118 are imaging them, and 160 are georeferencing. Of these 325 herbaria, 128 provide searchable web access to their records, either through a local web site (89) or through one or more networks. The resulting information is widely used, particularly that being made available by regional networks. " In July, Dr. Eric Ribbens (Western Illinois University) joined the Executive as its Web Master and has established a new web site. Its current url is http://www.wiu.edu/USvirtualherbarium/. The old address, http://usvirtualherbarium.org, will be redirected there in the near future. This site will provide links to sites providing access to herbarium records and multiple other resources. " In August, a logo was acquired for the project (see top of pages). Its use will expand recognition of the project. " Several additional herbaria have begun digitizing (databasing, imaging, and georeferencing) their specimens and making them web accessible. The numbers are, to some extent, reflected in the survey (see below under Activities). Much of this activity takes place as part of other projects, such as those funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and state entities but there is also a considerable amount that takes place solely because a herbarium's curator has embraced digitization. " Some workshops on aspects of digitization have been held in different parts of the country. Because these were sponsored by other entities, we do not have a listing of them. " Educators are beginning to use network provided resources to enhance their classes, e.g., using the Teaching Checklist feature of Symbiota-based networks to become familiar with individual taxa and the spelling of scientific names. " Collectors are being encouraged to provide collection information in a manner that permits its easy integration into herbarium databases. Outputs " Barkworth, M.E. 2012. Digitization in US Herbaria, 2012. A frequently-updated synopsis of survey data made available at http://herbarium.usu.edu (the project did not have a web site when returns started coming in). A paper based on the results of the survey is in preparation. Activities " Derek Lafferty and Ed Gilbert (Arizona State University) are developing a series of games that draw on network resources of the SouthwestEnvironmental Network (SEINet)and help students learn more about plants. See http://plantgames.org/. " Barkworth conducted the second annual survey of digitization in US herbaria. The survey was placed online for four weeks and, because this elicited few responses, paper copies were sent to 575 herbaria and a downloadable copy made available at http://herbarium.usu.edu. The results are now being analyzed. " The USVH executive welcomed Dr. Ellen Dean as a member. She will fill the role of Secretary. Her prompt preparation of the minutes of the monthly conference calls is helping the executive keep on top of its activities. " Ribbens, prepared a proposal for a Symposium at Botany 2013, the meeting that helps organize the project's annual meeting. The title is Herbarium Digitization for Research, Teaching, and the Public . It has been submitted to iDigBio with a request for financial support for the speakers. Requests for funding will also be submitted to the American Society of Plants Taxonomists. " Ribbens is exploring with the Botanical Society of America, sponsors of Botany 2013, the possibility of inviting K-16 students to present a poster featuring on line herbarium records as part of the meeting, possibly with a prize for the most imaginative use of the data and a luncheon with the Symposium speakers for all contributors. " A logo for the project has been acquired through a competition on 99Designs. It comes in two formats, square and rectangular. " The regional reports contain information on additional activities. " Georgia Curators workshop in November 2011 to organize their efforts at digitization of collections. " SERNEC (Southeastern Consortium) sponsored a georeferencing workshop in January 2012 with 25 participants. Both Geolocate and Biogeomancer developers were there to lead the workshop. " SERNEC held its annual workshop at the Association of Southeastern Biologists meeting in Athens, GA in April 2012 (35 participants). " SERNEC Workshop at the University of Virginia in June 2012 to formulate plans for a new NSF ADBC TCN submission (10 participants).Milestones
" Another regional network, that for herbaria in the northeastern US, and a taxonomically oriented network, one for macrofungi, were funded by the National Science Foundation through the ADBC program. " Over 50% of the herbaria not known to be closed, transferred, or defunct responded to the survey. This is a minor milestone.
Impact Statements:
- Assisting research and land management projects by providing free access to verifiable and downloadable information the distribution of vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, lichens, and algae. All herbarium curators who make their data available have heard how useful the data are. Unfortunately, it is rarely accompanied by financial support.
- Encouraging students and collectors to used the tools available in some database and network systems encourages them to record more, better quality information and makes it easier to integrate specimens resulting from their collecting activities into herbarium databases and networks.
- Providing networked-based tools that help students meet some of the objectives of a class aids them in meeting the objectives of the class and makes both them and their instructor more aware of the value of the resources associated with herbaria.