Digitization and the richness of type Digitization and the richness of type specimens at the Paris Herbarium -specimens at the Paris Herbarium -

Pascale Chesselet & Jean-Noël LabatPascale Chesselet & Jean-Noël Labat

Muséum National d’Histoire NaturelleMuséum National d’Histoire NaturelleParis, FranceParis, France

Spotlight onSpotlight on the Global Plants Initiative the Global Plants Initiative

Global PlantsGlobal PlantsInitiativeInitiative

The aim of GPI:The aim of GPI:

To build a comprehensive online research To build a comprehensive online research tool aggregating and linking scholarly tool aggregating and linking scholarly botanical resources around the worldbotanical resources around the world

http://plants.jstor.org

International collaborationInternational collaboration148 institutes in 52 countries148 institutes in 52 countries

24 bit colour, 600 dpi, TiffOriginal scans ± 200 MegFlashpix technology ± 50-80 Meg – multiple versions of files within itselfFSI Viewer

High-Resolution Type Specimens and Supporting MaterialsHigh-Resolution Type Specimens and Supporting Materials

High resolutionHigh resolution

8 X what can be seen with the naked eye8 X what can be seen with the naked eye

Herbier NationalHerbier Nationalde Paris (P & PC)de Paris (P & PC)

Paris, Kew, New York, Geneva ………

11 million specimens

> 600 000 types

Vascular Plants & Cryptogams

Type specimen digitizationType specimen digitization

Search for typesVerification

Bar code Label data capture

Image scan

Joseph Pitton de TournefortVoyage to the Middle East 1700-17021700-1702

DataDissectionsDetailmeasurements

AnnotationsOriginal polynomial

Siphonia brasiliensis Willd. Triticum durum Desf.

Types of economically important plants

Total: 978 108 specimens digitized of which 120 773 are types

Geographic coverage of type secimens

America

Asia

Oceania

New Caledonia

North Africa

Tropical Africa

Madagascar

Europe

Vascular Plants Cryptogams

African Plants InitiativeAfrican Plants Initiative

453 609 objects453 609 objects

118 collections118 collections

114 contributors114 contributors

31 countries31 countries

4 years4 years

± 60 000 species± 60 000 species

API - Taxonomic backboneAPI - Taxonomic backbone

JSTOR Plant ScienceJSTOR Plant Science

At the end of the project, the database should host 2.2 million type specimens that will be digitized, ingested and available on the website by 2012

Features of GPI

Linking related materials - literature on Jstor

Several languages: English, French, Portuguese & Spanish

Materials available: from archival documents to periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, reference works, maps, specimens, illustrations….

Advanced online tools…and more….

How people are using GPI

Research (GPI, JStor)Research (GPI, JStor)

Discovery (microscope surrogate)Discovery (microscope surrogate)

Measuring & recording measurementsMeasuring & recording measurements

Species identificationSpecies identification

Plant usesPlant uses

SharingSharing

Editing and refining the dataEditing and refining the data

OutcomeOutcome

Comprehensive datasetsComprehensive datasets

Data repatriationData repatriation

Tools for taxonomistsTools for taxonomists

Building capacity - taxonomistsBuilding capacity - taxonomists

Fundamental species data (types) Fundamental species data (types) available world-wideavailable world-wide