News
on Standards:
BarCodes
Botanical Collectors Records at the
Harvard University Herbaria
DELTA
Expedition Acronyms
Geography
Index Herbariorum
ITF-2
New Standards?
BarCodes: (from a report
by Barry Conn)
Increasingly, herbaria and museums are using BarCode technology as
an automatic identification system for the management of their collections.
BarCodes allow data to be collected accurately and rapidly. This technology has
several benefits for the curation of collections. For example, it accurately
and rapidly monitors the movement of collections through the exchange and loans
programs. There are several BarCode formats, with the UPC (Universal Product
Code] format the most popular, being used extensively throughout supermarkets
as a Product code. But since Product codes are numeric only, with the exception
of CODE 128, they are less useful for herbaria and museums. Therefore for
Automatic Identification Applications, BarCode CODE 39 (or '3-of-99
Code) format has tended to become the recognised standard for Government
Manufacturing BarCode Industry, Education,and Business applications. For
examples of BarCodes used in Herbaria, please read Barry Conn's full technical
report on the TDWG web site, or visit
http://www.rbgsyd.gov.au/HISCOM/barcode/barcode.html
for further information
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Botanical Collectors Records at the
Harvard University Herbaria (from a report
by David Boufford)
The authority table of botanical collectors is the result of a
collaborative effort by staff members from the California Academy of Sciences
(CAS), Field Museum of Natural History (F), the Harvard University Herbaria (A,
AMES, ECON, FH, GH, NEBC), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO), New York, Botanical
Garden (NY) and SmithsonianInstitution (US), who met at Harvard University in
January, 1991, to discuss the establishment of an on-line national botanical
type specimen archive. The collectors file, based on a number of sources,
but in no way exhaustive in its coverage, is intended to serve as a
standard for data entry of botanical specimen records and to fill a gap in the
categories of standardized information currently available in electronic data
format. The files are currently available on the world wide web at
http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Data/Collectors/collectors.html
and a full version of this report (detailing plans for the future) is on the
TDWG web site.
A web-based submission form to facilitate the submission of new
collectors and corrections of old records should be available before
publication of this newsletter. The submission form will be available on
the Collectors webpage.
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DELTA: (from a report by Mike
Dallwitz)
The DELTA Standard and The Introduction to Computer Images are
available on the Net by following the link 'Programs and documentation' from
the DELTA HomePage at http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/
Both documents are also distributed with The DELTA programs, and can be printed
after the programs have been installed. The programs are also available at the
above site.
The specifications for the new DELTA format are also available on
the Net. The implemenation of a database system for DELTA is well under way. It
will be able to import and export DELTA-format files, without loss of
information, for data exchange and archival. And an Intkey version for Windows
95/NT has been released with the capacity to access data and images over the
Internet
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Expedition Acronyms: (from a
report by Andrew Sier)
The Problem: How to indicate the genetic origin of any would-be
cultivar?
In an effort to manage information on plant collectors some
institutions have devised their own codes. Voluntary adoption of a code-set by
several institutions may ultimately lead to the establishment of a widely used
standard. This would of course require close co-operation over the assignment
of new codes. Thus, RHS have proposed producing a Collector's Code Cross
reference.
The cross-reference would probably take the form of a simple
booklet and a searchable database on the Internet. This could be available at
the RHS web site (http://www.rhs.org.uk).
The RHS is currently writing to potential collaborators. If you would also
like tocontribute information and/or ideas please contact: Dr. Andrew Sier,
RHS Wisley. E-mail: andrews@rhs.org.uk.
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Geography: (from a report by Dick
Brummit)
The 2nd edition is ready to go to press and it is expected to be
available in hard copy as well as in electronic format before the next annual
meeting. This second edition tries to maintain the maximum of stability while
incorporating some changes to make it more acceptable to the users.Besides some
unavoidable nomenclatural changes (e.g. reSoviet Union), some area units are
redefined, among them: the ex-Yugoslavia, Eritrea, Tibet/Quinghai, Himalayas,
Meso-America, Brazil and Chile.
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Index Herbariorum: (from a report by
Patricia Homgren)
Updated entries for U.S. herbaria and individuals associated with
herbaria are available on the Now York Botanical Garden Web site at:
http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ih.html.
Updated entries for herbaria in Canada, Mexico, Botswana, Barbados, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, and Brazil will be available at the same
Web site very soon. Edition 9 is expected to be published in hard copy in the
year 2000.
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ITF-2: (from a report by
Diane Wyse Jackson)
Following the decision by BCGI to publish this, the final Draft was
sent to all members of BCGI last July. The content was accepted, but it is now
undergoing a professional rewrite. This will be done as soon as possible - it
is needed for the Botanic Garden International Congress in South Africa in
September 1998, so copies of the Published text should be available for the
TDWG meeting in Reading. The electronic version is available on BCGI's web
pages: http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/BCGI/index.html [URL no longer valid, 3/12/1999]
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NEW STANDARDS?
With the aim of extending the coverage
of TDWG to all biological sciences, extensions to current standards, and the
introduction of new standards are required. For example,could the current
Geography standard be extended to include marine zones? Ideas, suggestions and
offers of convening new subgroups will be willingly accepted!
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In this issue...
TDWG Meetings
TDWG 97 - The Highlights
TDWG 1999 and beyond!
News of Standards
Workshop
Membership
1997-1998 Executive
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