NBII Supports Development of the United States Virtual Herbarium (USVH)

Ms. Elizabeth Sellers, Manager, NBII Botany Project, is providing national NBII coordination and representation as a member of the Steering Committee of the United States Virtual Herbarium (USVH) project. The USVH is the primary project of an alliance of U.S. herbaria, regional herbarium networks, universities, and other organizations and individuals from across the country and its territories to digitize all botanical specimens in U.S. herbaria. Ms. Sellers and several NBII Program representatives (J. Carlino, J. Freeney, M. Lane, G. Palanisamy, L. Russell, and I. SanGil), participated in a recent NSF-sponsored workshop where 64 scientists and herbarium curators worked to define the USVH concept, organizational and technological infrastructure, and identify issues and tasks associated with its continued development. In our capacity as the U.S. Node to Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and a nationally recognized authority on bioinformatics, the NBII will provide expertise on data hosting and publishing, and help guide the USVH project through participation at regional, national, and international levels.

(Photo: Alpine primrose (Primula angustifolia) in bloom. Contributed by the Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian. Photo by © 2008 Ted Niehaus. )