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Abstract Detail



Herbarium Digitization for Research, Teaching, and the Public

Legler, Ben S. [1].

Towards a Documented Flora of the Pacific Northwest: Regional Uses of Digitized Herbarium Data.

Since its inception in 2007, the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria has been actively working to digitize herbarium specimens and build online resources enabling access to the data in ways that are of interest to regional botanists and land managers. The Consortium is a collaborative effort among regional herbaria, funded largely by NSF, that currently serves 1.9 million specimen records and 345,000 high resolution specimen images through its web site at http://www.pnwherbaria.org/. I will discuss some of the ways in which the PNW Herbaria web site is used by individuals both within and outside of the herbarium community. These include agency staff looking for current distribution data for species of conservation concern or seeking data to inform land management practices. Researchers have used the data in large-scale analyses, such as the Crop Wild Relatives Project. At the WTU herbarium we have seen an increase in loan requests as a result of putting our specimens online. We also rely extensively on the data to better target our collecting efforts in the region. The data have even contributed to a wildflower identification app for Android and iPhones geared towards outdoor enthusiasts and amateur botanists. On a more technical level, digitized specimens will serve as a primary resource for writing a new Flora of the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, I will touch on the resources we make available through the PNW Herbaria web site, including our fully featured search interface, species checklists, distribution maps, and pages targeted for mobile devices. Additional resources are at work behind the scenes: we have developed custom software and workflows for efficient specimen imaging and databasing, an online image viewer, and data collection apps for Android devices.

Broader Impacts:


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Related Links:
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria


1 - University of Washington, Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria, Box 355325, Seattle, WA, 98195-5325, USA

Keywords:
herbarium
Digitization
database
Specimen imaging
high throughput data.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY02
Location: Elmwood/Riverside Hilton
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2013
Time: 9:00 AM
Number: SY02003
Abstract ID:410
Candidate for Awards:None


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