Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

held in conjunction with Botany 2008 at the University of British Columbia

Chair: Mary Barkworth

Others: Aaron Liston, Mary Mayfield, Zack Murrell, Jenn Pollock (all members of the USVH steering committee); 43 other individuals, representing 35 different institutions/agencies/companies.

Barkworth opened by summarizing the background to the meeting and announcing that the Council of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists had formally endorsed the goal of seeking to make development of a national virtual herbarium (USVH) for the United States a formal project under the auspices of the Agricultural Experiment Station system. USVH will provide a single portal for accessing information in all the nations herbaria and will be built on, and in collaboration with, existing and developing regional herbarium networks.

Some of the reasons cited for developing USVH:

" To stress the importance of collections as sources of information

" To facilitate sharing and integrating information from multiple herbaria

" To help those working in herbaria

Some individuals commented that stakeholders, those whom we think would want to use herbarium information, should have been present. It was explained that, in the view of the committee, the most important step was to ensure that the herbarium community was supportive of the project. This was the function of the present meeting, and the multiple presentations during the week. Nevertheless, it is important that we understand the needs of our potential users, which means that we should invite them to participate in discussions once the initial organizational aspects have been addressed.

In discussion of priorities, several speakers emphasized that the greatest need was support for data entry. Different methods of increasing the efficiency of data entry were discussed. It was soon evident that herbaria differ substantially in non-financial resources that they can draw on. Consequently, finding multiple approaches to any problem is desirable.

It was suggested that all herbaria should focus on entering all their US specimens of 2-3 taxa that might be of general interest, e.g, a weed, a widespread native species, and a species with ornamental potential. The species selected should also be easy to identify and have an uncomplicated nomenclatural history.

The importance of working with existing initiatives, such as the Biodiversity Collections Index and TROPICOS, was emphasized. The Missouri Botanical Garden has agreed to support the project by facilitating of TROPICOS as an authoritative source of names for North American plants.

It was emphasized that USVH will be developed by collaboration, collaboration with the regional networks, with other initiatives, and among those who work in herbaria.

The implications of being a project within the Agricultural Experiment Station system were discussed. The financial implications, other than the possibility of one person per state receiving support to attend the annual meeting, were not known. It was pointed out that the linkage had already served to make more AES directors aware of herbaria and that also brought herbaria to the attention of the Extension Service, two groups with extensive experience in projects with national scope. The involvement of NBII was also proving mutually beneficial. Barkworth also commented that all herbaria should continue their own efforts to obtain funding, that the USVH project would assist in any way it could, but it might be more through workshops on best practices and information to support applications for funding rather than through direct funding of data entry.

For the second part of the meeting, the participants were asked to discuss what the priorities should be for the first year. The following are some of the activities presented:

" Develop a means, such as a Wiki, for discussing ideas and setting goals between meetings.

" Regional consortia should take responsibility for locating all the herbaria within their region, including those not listed in Index Herbariorum.

" Consider developing a basic portal using information already being made available to NBII.

" Demonstrate the power of pooling our data, by asking herbaria to enter all their records of 2-3 taxa that a) are rarely misidentified, b) have not been subject to many name changes, and c) would be of interest to potential user groups such as an invasive weed and a rare plant.

" Set up a Web site that shows progress in databasing a few weedy taxa so that the public and media could follow the progress, not only of databasing but also of the spread of a weed.

" Develop mechanisms for sharing best practices for efficient digitization of specimens.

" Provide a Web site that shows our progress in identifying the number of herbaria in the US and their status with respect to databasing, imaging, and information sharing.

There were many lively discussions during the meeting, which eventually adjourned around 12.30 pm.

1. Requested formal endorsement of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) for pursuing collaborative development of a national virtual herbarium within the framework of the Agriculture Experiment Station System. Request approved.

2. Sponsored a meeting with those engaged in developing regional herbarium networks and those involved in major projects with which the USVH project needs to engage. In preparing for this meeting, and at the meeting itself, the role of the USVH Coordinating Committee relative to other initiatives was clarified and the support of other organizations for development of USVH was secured. One of the reasons for this meeting was to emphasize that the goal of the USVH was to promote collaboration, not to duplicate existing work. Report posted.

3. Sponsored an open meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the ASPT and Botanical Society of American (BSA) that was attended by 44 individuals. At this meeting, input was requested, and received, concerning short term and long term goals for the project. Major concerns were securing funding for data entry and providing clear, practical assistance in implementing best practices in data entry. It was emphasized that herbaria and consortia should continue to pursue their own funding resources, that the function of the USVH committee was to promote collaboration, sharing, and seeking funding for aspects that would have wide benefits. Report posted.

4. Requested Peter Raven's support, as President of the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), of the project and linkage to TROPICOS, the nomenclatural resource developed by MBG. Although intended primarily for internal use, because of MBGs active and widespread collecting program, TROPICOS is now the best available nomenclatural resource for those working with plants. Expressed agreement in principal.

5. In response to a suggestion made at the open meeting, Christopher Hardy,(Minersville University of Pennsylvania) established a Wiki site for USVH.

6. Jason Best (Botanical Research Institute of Texas) established a RedMine site for managing the USVH project on a server of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

7. Jenn Pollock, NBII, created a preliminary Web site for USVH on the NBII site. This Web site will be opened once we have a) a map showing where US herbaria are located, which are databasing, and which are sharing data and b) a Web interface for deploying, in an attractive and effective manner, USVH information. There are already several herbaria that are providing information to NBII that can be used; the need is for an attractive, fast, intuitive search tool.