DigiBotA

Digitization of Botanical Collections in Austrian Herbaria is a joint effort of Austrian public herbaria to develop and install IT based networking infrastructure. Modern webbased technologies are utilized for presentation of the holdings to a broader public besides scientific usage. Label information is acquired according to standards for global exchange of biological data ( ABCD ). In addition, for important collections, especially type material, high resolution digital images are provided and form the basis of virtual herbaria.

The main goal is to facilitate data entry and sharing of the data via the internet. Data capture at the individual institutions covers various plant groups at different levels, e.g. complete holding of specimens (BREG), plants of Styria (GJO), historical collections of Nees van Esenbeck (GZU), plants of Tyrol (IBF), central European collections of H. Melzer (LI), Grass-family (W), and Handel-Mazzetti's collections from China (WU). The project was launched late August 2004. After a period of 18 months we envisage the presention of approximately 180.000 datasets together with 40.000 digital images of herbarium specimens. Searching the contents is provided through the GBIF- and BIOCASE-networks, and the Virtual Herbaria Austria .

The project is mainly funded by the participating institutions. However, substantial support has been granted by GBIF-DIGIT seed money program.

Participating Institutions

INatura / Dornbirn / Herbarium BREG
Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum / Graz / Herbarium GJO
Karl-Franzens-University of Graz / Graz / Herbarium GZU
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum / Innsbruck / Herbarium IBF
Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum / Linz / Herbarium LI
Museum of Natural History Vienna / Vienna / Herbarium W
University of Vienna / Herbarium WU

For detailed information on the project contact - Heimo Rainer