|
In a project funded by the DIGIT seed money awards in 2003, a low-maintenance, cost-effective internet-accessible herbarium accession database (PNGplants) has been developed. The project, headed up by Barry Conn of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, is an example both of data sharing with country of origin and a network collaboration among institutions and between developed and developing countries. "We at GBIF are very proud of projects that have data sharing and collaborative components," says Larry Speers, DIGIT Programme Officer. "This is the culture of the future, and GBIF hopes to help make that future happen."
For use by the Papua New Guinea National Herbarium (LAE), the database has been populated by four major Australian herbaria, which have captured data from their holdings of specimens that are duplicates of those at LAE. PNGplants is initially being managed by the National Herbarium of New South Wales (NSW) to minimise risks to the project, an extension of the Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH) initiative. The data in PNGplants are available both from the server at NSW and through the GBIF data portal.
Eventually, once a high-speed computer link is installed at LAE and staff have been trained in data management, the database will be served from that institution, and LAE will become a joint contributor to the AVH project, together with the other major Australian Herbaria.
|
