Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Dr. Stella Coakley welcomed the participants and explained the nature of Multi-state Initiatives.

Barkworth reviewed the progress made with respect to three goals the project had set for the year.

Goal 1: Obtain current information on all herbaria in the US. Letters or emails had been sent to all 602 herbaria listed in Index herbariorum, the international registry for herbaria, in May. As of July 1, 229 responses had been received. Among these herbaria, there were 43 million specimens of which 33% had been databased and 3% imaged. Telephone calls to non-responding herbaria revealed that some herbaria had been closed, others had not updated their contact information in Index herbariorum. Efforts to obtain additional information would be continued in August.

Goal 2. Develop three presentations concerning digitization. These are in development. Barkworth (Utah State University) has developed a preliminary video on barcoding and one on the information for labels; Legler (University of Washington) will investigate developing one on imaging specimens.

Goal 3; Raise $15,000 for operating expenses. No progress has been made toward this goal.

Murrell reviewed activities since the 2010 annual meeting. Other: Three of the task forces appointed at the NSF sponsored workshop presented reports. These were followed by presentation of the regional reports.

Goals discussed for the 2011 included developing a web site that would provide information about why a taxonomic change had been proposed - with links to the relevant papers; developing a taxonomic "cross-walk"; drafting a memorandum of agreement that could serve as a model for regional networks.

The reports were followed by open discussion. Comments made were on the need for more timely and more frequent communication among those involved, with our professional societies, and with the public.

They were posted to the project's web site (http://usvirtualherbarium.org) early in August, and a corrected version posted on September 6. The full regional reports are also available at the web site. The attachment contains the full, revised minutes.

Developed better knowledge concerning the status of US herbaria, their progress toward digitization, and the impediments to creation of integrated access to information in the nation's herbaria.

Created preliminary versions of videos designed to assist smaller herbaria digitize their collections.

Helped several small herbaria make contact with individuals who could assist them in taking steps towards digitization.

Outputs

Completed draft videos on why specimens should barcode and preparation of herbarium labels. In addition, developed a draft video on SYMBIOTA, free, open source content management software for integrating collection information that can also be used for label preparation and database management. It has been adopted by three of the project's regions. They have been posted to http://herbarium.usu.edu/SYMBIOTA for comment.Once approved, they will be placed on the project's web site.

Activities

Organization. A revision to the organization structure that had been proposed at the 2010 annual meeting was posted to the web site in the fall. After an open comment period, the revised structure was approved by the Steering Committee in January.

In September, the Steering Committee was renamed the Executive Committee. Several members of the old steering committee resigned because they were unable to commit the time needed by the project. Current Executive Committee members are: Mary Barkworth (Utah State University) and Zack Murrell (Appalachian State University) - Co-chairs; Ellen Dean (University of California - Davis)- Secretary, Ben Legler (University of Washington) - IT Representative, Elizabeth Sellers - USGS Representative, and Mark Mayfield (Kansas State University). In addition, the task forces were formally closed with thanks to the members for their efforts. Conducted a survey of US Herbaria. The number of returns has now increased to 46% - and the number of herbaria to 606 (from 602) despite some having been dropped from the list because they are closed.

Worked on videos (see above)

Milestones.

One new regional web site has come online: http://intermountainbiota.org. The Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria has begun to set up a SYMBIOTA-based portal. Several herbaria received NSF support for databasing their collections, either under the NSF's Biological Research Collections Program or as part of a Thematic Coordination Network under the NSF's Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program. Many other herbaria are quietly making progress. One reason for the survey is to help us track this progress more effectively. Obtaining current contact information is an important step in that direction.

An open meeting between representatives of the US Virtual Herbarium Project and iDigBio has been scheduled as part of the TDWG meetings in October, 2011.