Digitisation / Cataloguing of non-textual objects: Indexing and digitization of the herbarium of wild and cultivated plants of IPK Gatersleben

• Applicants: Dr. Helmut Knüpffer; Dr. Klaus Pistrick
• Subject Area: Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 203711222

A large proportion (about 100,000 specimens) of the Gatersleben Herbarium (GAT) of the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), one of the largest herbaria of cultivated plants and their wild relatives (416,000 specimens), will be indexed, scanned with 600x600 dpi and made accessible online. In addition to herbarium specimens of the living collection of the genebank, another focus is on herbarium material belonging to intensively studied plant groups (e.g. the genera Allium L. and Hordeum L.). Voucher specimens for molecular and cytogenetic studies, which are deposited in herbaria for ex post review and further studies, will also be digitized. The scanned herbarium specimens will be indexed by collecting label data (e.g., barcode number, scientific name, country, locality of origin, collector, collection date, collection number, accession number of the IPK genebank). This will require historical handwritten labels partly in old German script to be transliterated and interpreted. All information recorded will be linked to the IPK Genebank Information System (GBIS) and made freely online accessible via the "German Virtual Herbarium" (BMBF-funded) and other portals, including national and international biodiversity information networks (e.g. Global Biodiversity Information Facility – GBIF). The images will be long-term archived at the IPK.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)