Small Collections Grant

At this moment our herbarium has 70000 botanical collections (including 100 Types) from all over the country. Our collection owns the botanical samples associated with chemical and biomedical prospection of Venezuelan plants being bio tested under the Genetic Resources Access Contract between IVIC and the Venezuelan government. As a whole, our data was managed through a database (Filemaker) only by the professionals and personnel associated with the herbarium, and it collapsed due to the amount of data when it reached 60000 botanical registers, 10000 high-quality plant images, and 3000 bibliographic references. Our hardware collapsed too. We are planning to continue the specimen databasing and digitization and want to barcode all exsiccatae, so we require a much more powerful computer system than we were using previously, a barcode system that includes a handheld scanner, its software and a printer. This is our main objective, thinking this will let and conduct us to put all our associated data (biological and ecological plant information, coordinates, reported uses), plus images on the webpage of our institution, which has scientific, educational and conservation purposes.