SCHOENINGER, ROBIN*, CORINNA GRIES, and THOMAS H. NASH. Lichen Herbarium, Department of Plant Biology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871601, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1601, USA. - Herbarium Databases: Creation, Maintenance and Access via the Internet.
The use of databases in herbarium management has become a vital tool
in the organization and analysis of large collections. With a well
thought-out structure, a database can yield a wealth of uses, ranging
from basic management tasks, e.g., generating specimen labels,
maintaining an annotation history, the management of specimen loans
and exchanges, to a more advanced analysis of label data, e.g.,
creating distribution maps or analyzing community relationships. The
Microsoft Access 2000 lichen herbarium database, developed at the
Arizona State University Lichen Herbarium uses state-of-the-art
programming options to facilitate uniformity in data entry, reduction
of spelling errors and data updates according to taxonomic name
changes. A barcode system for herbarium specimens is used as a
relatively inexpensive method of accurately retrieving digital label
data. Likewise, the World Wide Web holds vast possibilities for
querying herbarium collections databases. Researchers around the world
can quickly and accurately view herbarium holdings to select specimens
for future loans or retrieve a list of the species collected in a
region. A web-searchable interface, created in collaboration with the
Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University, uses
JSP, JavaScript, and Java Beans technologies to conduct queries on the
ASU lichen herbarium database as well as other ASU collections
databases available over the Internet.
Key words: database, herbarium, internet