Small Collections Grant
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Back from the brink: a new chance for Liberia’s National Herbarium
Liberia
Curate specimens, Conserve
Cost (USD):
2955
NHL
Forest Training Institute / National Herbarium of Liberia
Objective:
We propose a project of 1 year that will address: 1) improvement and maintenance of the herbarium general physical conditions, to allow its adequate use and expansion; 2) demands for adequate training of curatorial staff and students. In addition, we will strive to 3) promote the activities of the herbarium nationally and internationally, as a means to strengthen its identity as a national herbarium for Liberia, and help secure future partnerships.
Timetable:
Q1:
- Purchase of essential equipment, herbarium supplies and plant identification tools
- Purchase of textbooks: plant identification, morphology and herbarium techniques
Q2:
- Website development
- Public release of social media accounts
Q3:
- Public release of the website
Q4:
- Training course in “Herbarium Techniques” for curation staff and volunteers and students of FTI, organised with support of Missouri Botanical Garden
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
0
Year of last successful SCG application:
Has applicant applied for SCG before?:
No
Plan:
1) refurbish the herbarium with essential permanent equipment and herbarium supplies : this will guarantee the adequate preservation of our collections and ensure the continuation of botanical studies in the long term;
2) train our curators in plant identification and curation techniques: part of the requested IAPT grant will cover the purchase of the textbooks “Plant Identification of Tropical Plant Families” and “Herbarium Handbook”, which will integrate its small library; MBG’s botanists will strive to continuously mentor and train the NHL curators remotely, engage them in future collecting trips of MBG in the region (e.g. Guinea) and once further funding is available, to sponsor their visit to Paris herbarium for further training in plant identification, curation best practices and herbarium database management (e.g. use of the Tropicos database).
3) strengthen the identity of the herbarium in the region and internationally, through the creation of a website, social media and professional network accounts, where we publicise our activities: this will help to leverage the acquisition of further funding and partnerships for future work, and raise the enthusiasm of local scientists for studying botany;
Impact and dissemination of results:
• Website of the herbarium ;
• Creation of social media and professional network accounts (e.g. LinkedIn) where the activities of NHL will be regularly promoted.
• Hosting of further training courses at NHL, both self-organised and with
Institution:
IH Code:
Country:
Target areas:
Applicant First Name/s:
email:
Improve the herbarium's general physical collections, train curators, and promote our activities
"Other" target:
Philomena
Yarwoah
Applicant Last Name/s: