Overview
The Biodiversity Information Management team works to digitize and make freely available NYBG’s world-renowned botanical natural history collection and other science-related resources.
The Steere Herbarium, cornerstone to the Garden’s plant research and conservation program, is a museum collection of more than 7.8 million archivally preserved specimens of vascular plants, bryophytes, algae, fungi, and lichens collected from all over the world throughout the last few centuries.
Digitization of the Steere Herbarium began in 1995, and has become an integral part of Herbarium daily operations. Numerous dedicated staff, interns, and volunteers work toward a common goal: to catalog, image, and georeference every specimen in the collection.
Funding for digitization is provided primarily through grants and donors. A summary of past and current projects is available on our projects page.
Collections Management System
Axiell’s EMu collections management system is the primary repository for all digitized collections maintained by NYBG’s Science Department.
This system contains millions of digital records and multimedia files pertaining to the Virtual Herbarium, Index Herbariorum, the DNA Bank, Pfizer Laboratory’s structural botany collections, Electronic Floras and Monographs, and the Index to American Botanical Literature.
EMu is also used to produce specimen labels for new collections, track all specimen loans, and track visitors to the Herbarium.
Digital Imaging Center
The Digital Imaging Center is the heart of NYBG’s specimen imaging program. This 787-sq.-ft. studio space is dedicated to digitally photographing the Herbarium’s 7.8 million specimens.
Overseen by the Herbarium Digital Asset Manager, Kimberly Watson, a large team of staff and volunteers efficiently produce an average of 40,000 images per month, or 500,000 per year.
The Digital Imaging Center is available for use by specimen cataloguing projects, staff or graduate student research projects, undergraduate internships, and Mertz Library digitization projects.
Specimens are photographed at one of ten camera workstations, each equipped with a full-frame digital SLR camera and continuous lighting equipment. The images are saved to a centralized storage network from which the Herbarium Digital Asset Manager performs a series of post-processing and quality control steps. Ultimately, JPEG derivatives are uploaded to EMu and published through the Virtual Herbarium, while archival copies are stored and backed-up in perpetuity.
For more information on NYBG imaging protocols, equipment, and post-processing procedures, see our Digitization Resources page.
Geographic Information Systems
The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory applies state-of-the-art tools and concepts in GIS and geospatial data science toward discovering and exploring spatial patterns of botanical species and groups. One of the primary data sources for these analyses are herbarium specimens, most of which were collected before GPS was available. The GIS Lab oversees the georeferencing of herbarium specimens following standardized protocols, making millions of data points available for spatial analyses.
Web Development
Digitization of the collection would not be complete without publishing these data to the web. No matter where you are, we bring context for the plant specimens we have digitized to your screen. Our online database has made it easy for researchers and other users to acquire data and understand global patterns of plant diversity. Access to our collections- and research-based websites is available through Science Digital.
To explore our specimen data, please visit the Virtual Herbarium.
Digitization Protocols
Highly efficient and productive protocols are necessary to reach the Herbarium’s digitization goal in a timely manner.
Most projects begin with an indexing step, where large portions of the herbarium are catalogued with minimal data including the specimen’s scientific name and barcode number. Next all specimens are imaged in the Digital Imaging Center. The images are then post-processed, uploaded to EMu, and processed through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The OCR-generated text files are uploaded to EMu, resulting in specimen records with label text that can be queried through the Virtual Herbarium until transcription is completed.
The OCR text can also be queried in EMu, enabling digitizers to group specimen images with similar collection labels for more efficient transcription. Grouped images are rapidly transcribed into EMu’s customized rapid data entry fields.
Integrated Publishing Toolkit
All digitized NY herbarium records are currently available for harvesting through the NYBG Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT).
The IPT is used to make our data available to data aggregators like GBIF and iDigBio and is open to anyone interested in using our data.