By John Tann, Collection Data Management Team Leader, Atlas of Living Australia
Moving data out of herbaria had been identified as a significant barrier to sharing data.
BioCASe is the web service that can deliver rich HISPID data associated with plant specimens held in herbaria. Setting up a herbarium data store with a working BioCASe service is quite complex and there has been only a limited amount of local knowledge on how to implement it.
The Atlas of Living Australia has sponsored Jörg Holetschek, a BioCASe specialist who works at the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, to come to Australia and build local expertise.
Jörg landed in Melbourne in early February from a snow-bound Germany. Herbarium technical and IT people flew in from other states to take part in a two-day workshop run by Jörg at the National Herbarium of Victoria. The participants, who came with a broad range of skills, all commented on Jörg’s great teaching and how much they gained from a dedicated hands-on workshop.
Jörg is spending February and March travelling to each state and territory in Australia. He will spend a week at each herbarium shoring up the local expertise and ensuring that specimen data is being delivered to Australia’s Virtual Herbarium and the Atlas of Living Australia.