Facility Support for the Northern Plant Documentation Center

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The North Plant Documentation Center is the name given to the computerized database and ancillary functions at the Herbarium of the University of Alaska Museum. It is the sum of all activities and products derived from computerized label data of the specimens at the Herbarium. As the largest collection of Alaskan vascular plants and the second largest for bryophytes and lichens, it is an important resource to the field of systematics. The user community is much larger, for primary data on plants and their distributions are fundamental to land-planning, environmental monitoring, and botanical research in general. The center provides a single source for information that is fully documented by specimens. There is no other institution with both the specimens and the singular commitment to the flora of Alaska. This project will support completion of the retrospective data banking of the Center's holdings. With the entire flora well represented, the Center will be able to provide a large amount of vital data to a varied clientele. From its database it will be able to provide excerpts or full records of its holdings in support of detailed monographs, synoptic floras, biotic inventories, environmental assessments, and studies of rare plants. The completed database will be queried by others to plan loans and field research.