Progress report

2010 has been the project's best year yet, with over 27,000 specimens documented. Work during 2010 has concentrated on the University of Birmingham's British herbarium collection, which is now fully documented and accessible on the website.

In 2011 the project will continue to work on specimens from Gloucester Museum and will make a start on documenting the South London Botanical Institute's collection. The first batch of SLBI specimens is now on-line on the website and, with the help of members of the institute, the plan is to photograph their entire British collection over the coming year.

In addition to the huge volunteer effort documenting specimens, a lot of effort has gone into researching background biographical information about many of the botanists who have collected the specimens the project is working on. Building on this work, in the new year the BSBI plans to add a new section to their website, collating this research so that it can be made more widely accessible.

As the h@h project continues to grow, I'd be really keen to be able to include more collections. There are already some plans to work on new collections over the coming year, but I would be keen to expand the project to include additional herbaria. If you know of a museum or university collection that might like to collaborate with the project then please let me know.

Data generated by the project is all freely accessible on the website and, when integrated with other public databases, contributes to building a more complete understanding of changes in biodiversity over the past 200 years. The records documented by project volunteers are actively being used by many county-recorders and the huge photographic archive that the project is accumulating is becoming an import resource that helps to protect the collections of the participating herbaria and makes their collections readily accessible.

To date the project has documented over 75,000 herbarium sheets, but there are thousands more specimens yet to be worked on. Herbaria@home is a project driven by volunteer involvement so your ideas, suggestions and support are vital for the continued success of the project. Thank you for all your efforts so far and on behalf of the herbaria@home project may I wish you a very happy and prosperous 2011.

Regards

Tom Humphrey

Biographies

It is useful and interesting to know about historical botanists - who they were, what they did, and what plants they collected. Some people want to study family history and trace their botanical ancestors, whether they were daring explorers, country parsons  or convicts deported to the colonies.

For us it is valuable to have information about the ability of historical botanists, so we can put their specimens into context.

For these reasons we have an ongoing project to collect biographies of historical botanists, which is hosted on the Herbaria at Home web site, where links can be made to images of the very specimens they collected.

Contribute to the project

You can contribute by writing or editing a page of the Wiki. It is not difficult. First, you must get a username and password so you can log onto Herbaria at Home. Use your real name and choose an easy password - there’s no money at risk here.

>> Register on herbaria at Home.

Next, you should visit the Wiki pages and have a look at some of the accounts already written. If you know anything about botanists from your part of the country, you can click on the ‘Edit’ button and add to the account.

>> Go to the Wiki

Herbaria at Home is a project to database herbaria with materials relating to the British Isles. It was started in 2006 by Tom Humphreyand Leander Wolstenholme. Since then it has proven to be very useful to the BSBI and has been adopted by the Society as a permanent project under the auspices of our Database Committee.

The Herbaria at Home project now ranks about 10th in size amongst botanical databases, in terms of the number of smarties [refer to the Atlas page for an explanation of recording] it holds and generates each year, exceeded only by some of the larger counties.

What is Herbaria at Home?

The main problem with digitzing herbaria is the scale of the task. Since the BSBI started computerising its data in 1955, we have managed to computerise about 30 milllion records (most of them modern field records). We believe there may be the same number again still waiting to be digitized in herbaria - a truly enormous task.

Herbaria at Home uses large numbers of people to get an otherwise impossible task accomplished - a process sometimes known as crowd sourcing. As such, it is a novel and affordable way forward for biological recording. The BSBI has always pioneered and supported such collaborative action as an effective way to get things done.

Digitizing herbarium sheets is both educational and entertaining. For added incentive, you will also be entered into our competitive league table of the most active contributors (although, of course, that is not our true motive...).

>>> Log on to Herbaria at Home and have a go at digitizing.

The first thing you will need to do is register as a user. We need to know who everyone is so we can trace their work and make sure it is of a high standard. No trolls welcome, thanks. When you register, you can use your own name or an alias, if you prefer to remain anonymous. Choose a password that is easy to remember - there aren’t any security issues. We don’t ask for your bank details.

The next task is to choose a set of herbarium sheets to work on. There is a command to select 4 sheets randomly on the first page of the site. This produces an image of each sheet and a database form for you to type the details into. Quite often you will find that, when you start typing the name of a person or a site, it will appear in a drop-down list that you can select from. Always do this if an appropriate entry comes up.

Sometimes you will get stuck, either because the name isn’t there, or because you can’t read it. You can skip these items - someone else will come along and deal with it at a later date. Or, if you need help, you can type a column in the ‘user comments’ box, which will then be posted on the bulletin board. You will usually get an answer from someone within 24 hours. More advanced users will browse through existing sheets to match handwriting samples or check whether there are any other specimens that collector made on that day.

Herbaria at Home is run by Tom Humphrey.

The project manager and Chair of Database Committee is Alex Lockton.

We are enormously grateful to the following for supporting the project: the curators of the collections, Shropshire Botanical Society, Shropshire County Council, Defra, Dan Wrench, Opal, The Big Lottery Fund.