H I S C O M Flora information Partnership Barry Conn Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria

Herbaria: – centres of expertise in plant, algal & fungal biodiversity Australian collections - about 6.5 million Principal repositories of vouchered data Long-standing global and Australia-wide cooperative approach, – specimen exchange and loan – research across regional interests of herbaria – publication

H I S C O M Herbarium Information Systems Committee Advisory committee to: Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH) Aim of HISCOM : to advise, share, develop and promote all aspects of digitisation of herbarium information Representatives: – all Government Herbaria – University Herbaria representative – New Zealand Herbaria representative – ad hoc invitees: key partners (ABRS, ERIN) and collaborators

Digitisation of herbarium data in Australia Since mid 1970s herbarium information data-processed Digitisation was driven by need for Census and Spatial data Development of standards important In the 1980s HISPID - An herbarium specimen-label data interchange standard was developed HISPID used with specimens exchanged and loaned between Australian herbaria

Australian electronic plant, algal and fungal data: 1 Censuses Vascular plants – full Australian coverage Nomenclator: Australian Plant Name Index Cryptogams – incomplete Fungi – incomplete, macrofungi current project for national census Algae – national census of marine algae; freshwater algae Specimen data 40% of 6.5 million specimens in Australian Govt herbaria Textual Descriptions: vascular plants % coverage Flora of Australia, plus monographs: 60% State floras (SA, NSW, Tas, Vic, ACT – 95-99% coverage Regional: Qld 62%, NT 70%, WA 40%) non-vascular plants, algae, fungi - Overall very incomplete coverage National handbooks (Flora of Australia) Regional or state handbooks (Marine Benthic Flora of Southern Australia; Lichens of SA; Mosses of SA)

Australian electronic plant, algal and fungal data: 2 Image data Image banks: few herbaria (CANB, PERTH) Other image banks: specialists, a number in Botanic Gardens, Societies, other Govt agencies e.g. weeds Identification tools Many - mostly using LucID and DELTA, other applications Tropical Rainforest (Whiffin & Christophel); Cycad Pages (Hill) Notable on CD: Angiosperm families (World, Australian); Australian Rainforest Trees, Eucalyptus; Acacia. On Web: WA Flora Catalogue, Cycad Pages, WattleWeb, NSW Flora On-line

Australian eFloras and other digital products

Aim of Prototype: – demonstrate functional capabilities of a distributed network on Internet – demonstrate the collective capability of IT expertise in Australian herbaria – highlight the custodianship and legitimate claim by Australian herbaria to be stakeholders in Australian plant biodiversity projects – highlight the need to resource data capture and delivery – emphasise the essential underlying partnership Development of Australia’s Virtual Herbarium (VAH)

The Australian Government herbaria Partners in the initial prototype 1999: Initial prototype - Acacia data from all mainland herbaria via a single query H I S C O M Common mulga Acacia aneura

The Australian Government herbaria Partners in the initial prototype

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium Stage 1 Web development

Benefits of AVH over traditional herbarium practices Sharing technological advances –Continue sharing IT developments Move to sharing data: avoid duplication of effort –Duplicate specimens –Image banks –Descriptions –ID tools: simple and complex Develop an on-line information system: effectively electronic Flora of Australia Maximises limited resources

Benefits of AVH over traditional herbarium practices Regional herbaria: distributed system or linkage to major State State censuses: a thing of the past? Increased accessibility to collections by Community Publication - an On-line shared resource

Australia’s Virtual Herbarium New opportunities Involving Community and other User groups Increased collecting - gaps in plant distribution data obvious Increased use of current plant systematic information New (and continued) partnerships Access to other data and information through partnerships of mutual benefit to custodians Capacity to link to International networks