Small Collections Grant
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Accelerating the digitisation and online publication of type specimens held at Cambridge University Herbarium (CGE)
United Kingdom
Database, Digitally image, Other
Cost (USD):
1962
CGE
Cambridge University Herbarium
Objective:
• Digitise at least 1,000 currently inaccessible type specimens in the CGE collection
• Make these images and records freely available online via the Cambridge Digital Library , GBIF, and JSTOR Plants within a month of the funded portion of the project
• Publicise the work (and funder) via at least one blog and press release
• Accelerate efforts to digitise CGE specimens and make them available online, leveraging funding for future digitisation work, and develop and facilitate collections-based research
• Initiate a regular Summer vacation Herbarium internship to digitise CGE specimens
Timetable:
July/August 2020
Student intern to spend 5 weeks:
• Barcoding and imaging type specimens
• Recording basic data into the new CGE database
• Delivering data for at least 1000 specimens* to collaborators at Cambridge Digital Library
• Write and publish at least one blog for the University of Cambridge Museums and Collections website
September 2020
Dr Gardiner to:
• Ensure all specimen images and records successfully published and freely accessible online at Cambridge Digital Library, in a specific CGE collection
• Publish a press release crediting funder and announcing the release of the images and acceleration of the digitisation of CGE specimens
*min 50 specimens per day, allowing for training, orientation, retrieval and re-filing of specimens, and dealing with minor curatorial queries and repairs needed (checking names, placing detached fragments into new capsules, attaching determination slips, etc). Likely many more specimens will be digitised, and these figures will represent very conservative estimates.
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:
CGE holds an estimated 50,000 type specimens but was not part of the major herbarium digitisation projects over the last 20 years and very few CGE specimens have ever been digitised*. Several thousand type specimens are curated into red ‘type folders’ and would make an ideal student project to make available relatively quickly.
A successful internal funding application last year has provided a high resolution camera and light-box imaging set-up in the Herbarium, and funds to pay for secure and backed up long-term storage and hosting of a specific ‘Cambridge University Herbarium’ collection within the Cambridge Digital Library (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk). CGE has recently joined GBIF as a publisher, and will serve all specimen data to GBIF (and type specimens to JSTOR Plants) in the future.
NB. Although CGE is not technically a ‘small collection’ (with an estimated 1.1M specimens, from all over the world, and collected over more than 300 years), it has received very little attention or funding in recent decades. The collection is known to be scientifically and historically important, but is currently poorly known, inaccessible, and has a single member of staff (Dr Gardiner), appointed late 2017 and working on a funding and research strategy for the future of CGE.
* the only significant projects were those to photograph c.900 specimens collected by Charles Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle and 149 type specimens during the early stages of the African Plants Initiative.
Institution:
IH Code:
Country:
Target areas:
Applicant First Name/s:
email:
Make type specimen images and data freely available online; Initiate regular Summer vacation Herbarium internship
"Other" target:
Lauren M. Gardiner
Applicant Last Name/s: