The N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium database: an e-research tool available for wider use

Abstract

The N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium (NE) at the University of New England (UNE) has >85,000 vascular plant specimens, including >150 types, housed in a purpose built facility. Herbarium NE is registered with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (cites.org) listed and recognised internationally (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/), and able to exchange specimens with, borrow from and lend to other recognised herbaria. Herbarium NE is a: • Resource for taxonomic, ecological and other university and herbarium research • Repository for scientific vouchers that underpin various biological activities such as plant classification, vegetation surveys, rare and threatened plant investigations, botanical studies, etc. • Provider of data for clients. Associated collections of Herbarium NE with voucher specimens in the core collection include: • a collection of samples dried on silica gel to preserve DNA (Si gel collection) • a collection of samples preserved and stored in liquid fixatives (Spirit collection) • a collection of living material, mostly from current or past research projects in a glasshouse, shade house or gardens surrounding Botany (Living collection) • a collection of digital images of plants and their community taken in the field, of herbarium specimens housed in Herbarium NE, and from subsequent macroscopic or microscopic investigation of material gathered. In Australia, the Herbarium of the Northern Territory and the Queensland Herbarium established databases in the early 1980s. By 1987 Herbarium NE established its first database of specimen records for a collection of c. 35,000 specimens. Over the next two decades the database was hosted on a variety of hardware using at least six different software programs. At the time of scoping the current herbarium database redevelopment in the late 2000s, several off-the shelf-programs were available, but each had inherent limitations or idiosyncrasies that left the option of development of a new system worthwhile.