Index Herbariorum Upgrade: A Project to Improve Access to Information about the World's Plant and Fungal Collections Assets

Index Herbariorum 升级：改善获取世界植物和真菌收藏资产信息的项目

• 批准号: 1600051
• 负责人: Barbara Thiers
• 金额: $ 7.73万
• 依托单位: New York Botanical Garden
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-15 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600051&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Index; Herbariorum; Upgrade; Project; Improve

Scientists document the earth's plant and fungal diversity through dried reference specimens maintained in collections known as herbaria. There are approximately 2,800 herbaria in the world today, associated with them are approximately 10,000 biodiversity specialists. Index Herbariorum, established in 1935, is a guide to the world's herbaria and their staff. Accurate, comprehensive information about the holdings of the world's herbaria make it easier for scientists to answer questions about the documentation of the world's plant and fungal diversity, namely: How many species are represented in herbaria, and which areas of the earth are the best documented? Who are the experts in plant identification, and how can these be contacted? Facilitating access to and communication among herbaria will help to maintain the vitality and relevance of these institutions and ensure that they can continue to serve humankind. Index Herbariorum also serves as a model for how other natural history collections can create an inventory of their members and set up an effective collaborative network. An enhanced Index Herbariorum will empower countries such as the U.S. to better manage their collection repositories by providing insight into how collection resources and scientific expertise have developed over time, how they may change in the future. The project also offers a model for communication, coordination, and collaboration between museum institutions. No other type of natural history collection has a resource that approaches Index Herbariorum in its longevity and comprehensiveness. The New York Botanical Garden has maintained this unique resource for the past 41 years. Originally published in book form, the index first became available as an on-line searchable database in 1997. Since then the database has been available as a read-only, online reference. Through this project, The New York Botanical Garden will make this already vital resource updateable by the user community, and more easily linked to other online databases. These changes will expand the accuracy, accessibility and sustainability of this resource and make it easier to maintain in the future. The activities that will be carried out to accomplish these goals include: (1) Adjusting the data structure of IH to bring it into compliance with the emerging Natural Collections Description standard and to increase the effectiveness of searching key data, and indicate the status of collection digitization efforts; (2) creating a new user interface that will allow users to input updates to the index that will be vetted then incorporated into the index; (3) seting up APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to the database so the data can be fed to other applications without human mediation; and (4) informing the user community about the new updating procedures, and mounting a campaign to update 80% of those entries that have not been updated since 2000.

科学家们通过保存在植物标本馆的干燥参考标本来记录地球上的植物和真菌多样性。当今世界上大约有2800个植物标本馆，与它们相关的生物多样性专家大约有10000人。建立于1935年的《植物标本馆索引》是一本介绍世界植物标本馆及其工作人员的指南。关于世界植物标本馆馆藏的准确、全面的信息使科学家更容易回答有关世界植物和真菌多样性记录的问题，即：植物标本馆中有多少物种？地球上哪些地区的记录最好？谁是植物鉴定方面的专家？如何联系他们？促进获取和交流植物标本馆将有助于保持这些机构的活力和相关性，并确保它们能够继续为人类服务。Index Herbariorum还为其他自然历史收藏提供了一个模式，帮助它们创建成员的清单，并建立有效的合作网络。增强型的《植物典藏索引》将使美国等国家能够更好地管理他们的藏书库，让人们了解藏书资源和科学专业知识是如何随着时间的推移而发展的，以及它们在未来可能发生的变化。该项目还为博物馆机构之间的沟通、协调和合作提供了一个模式。没有其他类型的自然历史收藏的资源在其寿命和综合性方面接近索引植物志。纽约植物园在过去的41年里一直保存着这种独特的资源。该索引最初以书籍形式出版，于1997年首次成为可在线搜索的数据库。从那时起，该数据库一直作为只读的在线参考。通过这个项目，纽约植物园将使用户社区可以更新这个已经非常重要的资源，并且更容易与其他在线数据库连接。这些变化将扩大该资源的准确性、可访问性和可持续性，并使其在未来更容易维护。为实现这些目标，将开展的活动包括：(1)调整IH的数据结构，使其符合新兴的自然馆藏描述标准，提高关键数据的搜索效率，并表明馆藏数字化工作的现状；(2)创建一个新的用户界面，允许用户输入更新的索引，这些更新将被审查并纳入索引；(3)为数据库建立应用程序编程接口（api），使数据无需人工中介即可提供给其他应用程序；(4)向用户社区通报新的更新程序，并开展一项运动，更新自2000年以来未更新的条目的80%。