Small Collections Grant
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Maintaining the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Herbarium (UNLV) through Continued Digitization of California Specimens
USA
Digitally image, Other
Cost (USD):
2000
UNLV
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Objective:
The UNLV Herbarium closed to the public at the conclusion of 2019 with the retirement of the collections manager and subsequent disintegration of funding with the onset of COVID-19. The author has begun to resurrect the herbarium as of Nov. 2020 with a small influx of funding to digitize some of the California collection as part of the multi-institutional CA Phenology Network effort. The primary objective of the present proposal is to allow for continuance of barcoding, imaging, phenology recording, and georeferencing of CA specimens housed at UNLV until longer-term funding can be secured.
Timetable:
The imaging station at UNLV has been fully built at this time and the author awaits only the arrival of the first 4,000 specimen barcodes to begin operations. We are on course to begin barcoding, recording phenology, and imaging of 1,000 specimens per month starting Dec. 2020. Meanwhile, georeferencing of 1,000 specimens per month will be conducted remotely throughout the funding period. Current funding (~$2,500) to digitize 4,000 specimens will thus allow for the herbarium to remain open until April 2021. If awarded IAPT funding, UNLV will commit to digitization of another 1,000 specimens per month from April through July. Critically, longer term funding to fully resurrect daily operations of the UNLV Herbarium is expected to be procured, securing the longevity of the work herein proposed. A proposal to fund the herbarium for three years was submitted to the U.S. NSF in August 2020. Beyond, after the current hiring freeze at UNLV due to COVID-19 is lifted, the Faculty of Life Sciences has voted to hire a future Professor of Plant Systematics and Herbarium Director. Without IAPT funding, the UNLV Herbarium is facing another temporary complete shutdown at the end of March 2021.
Scoring Rubric
Reviewer's name:
Collection Improvement (max. 120 points)
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Facilitating access to the physical collections by digitization (e.g., data entry, setting up database structure with an outline of the platform to be used, purchasing equipment, and imaging specimens) – up to 30 points.
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Enhancing physical collections by improving the conservation status of specimens in the herbarium (e.g., better folders, protecting covers, mounting paper, labeling, etc.) – up to 30 points.
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Curating specimens (e.g., updating families, species identification, identifying types) – up to 20 points.
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Increasing our understanding of the flora or funga by making new herbarium specimens available, such as processing of backlog or collecting and mounting of new specimens from understudied sites – up to 20 points.
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Securing collections by distribution of duplicates (or orphan collections) to other regional or international herbaria or shipping endangered collections to another herbarium – up to 20 points.
This proposal scores:
/120
Methods & Funding (max. 40 points)
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Match between the proposed budget and methods for the aims described – up to 10 points.
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Perceived need, the extent to which the project will benefit from IAPT funding: e.g., due to active floristic work or contribution to poorly collected sites, due to threatened conditions of collections, and for the degree of involvement of others (outreach and education). We give more points for herbaria in low- and middle-income countries – up to 20 points.
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Sharing duplicate specimens with other herbaria – up to 10 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Broader Impacts (max. 40 points)
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Degree of regional importance of the collection or the taxonomic importance of the targeted collection – up to 10 points.
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The project will yield durable benefits (specimens, digitized metadata, databases, websites) – up to 15 points.
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The project involves outreach/mentoring and broad dissemination – up to 15 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Year of last successful SCG application:
Has applicant applied for SCG before?:
Plan:
Funding of this proposal would allow the author to continue efforts digitizing CA specimens at UNLV in part through continued oversight of three student volunteers. Current funding allows for full digitization of 4,000 CA specimens at UNLV from 20 vascular plant families of particular phenological importance in the CA Floristic Province. Specimens will first be barcoded, recorded for phenology, imaged, then returned to the collection. All label information of all specimens at UNLV has already been transcribed and made publicly available. Then, the author will process the images, upload them to the data portal at CCH2.org, and thereafter facilitate georeferencing of specimens. The recruited student volunteers will conduct 75% of the specimen barcoding, imaging, phenology recording, and georeferencing efforts and the author will conduct 25% of these as well as 100% of additional imaging post-processing/curation efforts. The author is highly experienced with all aspects of the digitization workflow, having worked on such efforts at the University of Colorado Herbarium since 2013. Funding from IAPT would specifically allow for the purchase of 4,000 additional barcodes as well as a minimal stipend for the author to further the full digitization of most of the remainder of the CA collection housed at UNLV. Funding would therefore result in 8,000 fully digitized records at UNLV altogether, many of which represent unique collection localities across the biodiverse Mojave Desert.
Institution:
IH Code:
Country:
Target areas:
Applicant First Name/s:
email:
Barcoding, georeferencing, phenology recording
"Other" target:
Mathew T. Sharples
Applicant Last Name/s: