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

科学家通过保存在被称为草本植物的集合中的干燥参考标本来记录地球上的植物和真菌的多样性。当今世界约有2800种草本植物，与之相关的生物多样性专家约有10,000人。草药索引成立于1935年，是世界草本植物及其工作人员的指南。关于世界草本植物保有量的准确、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：草本植物中代表了多少物种，地球上哪些地区被记录得最好？谁是植物鉴定的专家，如何联系他们？便利草药机构之间的接触和交流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如何创建其成员清单并建立有效的协作网络提供了一个模型。增强的索引Herbariorum将使美国等国家能够更好地管理其藏书库，因为它提供了对藏品资源和科学专业知识如何随着时间的推移而发展，以及它们未来可能如何变化的洞察。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品的资源在寿命和全面性上接近草药指数。纽约植物园在过去的41年里一直保持着这一独特的资源。该索引最初是以书籍的形式出版的，1997年首次成为可在线搜索的数据库。从那时起，该数据库就可以作为只读的在线参考。通过这个项目，纽约植物园将使这一已经至关重要的资源可由用户社区更新，并更容易连接到其他在线数据库。这些变化将扩大这一资源的准确性、可及性和可持续性，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，使其符合新的自然藏品描述标准，并提高搜索关键数据的有效性，并指出藏品数字化工作的状况；(2)创建一个新的用户界面，允许用户输入对索引的更新，这些更新将被审查，然后并入索引；(3)建立数据库的API(应用编程接口)，以便无需人工干预即可将数据提供给其他应用程序；以及(4)向用户社区通知新的更新程序，并发起一项运动，以更新自2000年以来未更新的条目的80%。

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.