The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium links the data that accompanies
an herbarium specimen with information about the species, about the people who collected, named, and determined it, and the publication where the species was first described. Additionally, an unlimited number of multimedia attachments in the form of images, documents, video, or links to other websites can be attached to each record. The Virtual Herbarium Users guide describes in more detail how this information is organized.
Adding such supplemental information to the database record for an herbarium specimen not only makes it's story more complete, but also allows the record to serve as repository for (or link to) data and analyses derived from it. For example, a specimen record might contain images of the plant in the living condition, of the dried specimen, scanning electron micrographs of pollen or spores, notes from the collector's fieldbook, links to gene sequences derived from that are stored in GenBank, links to publications where the specimen is described or cited, and to the conservation status of the species.
The Virtual Herbarium obtained the capability to create fully augmented records in 2004; the first Virtual Herbarium project to be charged with creating such records is the Macrofungi Type Specimen Catalog. However, our goal is augment records in all Virtual Herbarium projects, as time and funds permit.
The Showcases listed below are sets of records from our various databasing projects that have been augmented to serve as examples of the type of supplemental data that are available.
The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium Showcase
Amazonian Showcase
Central America Showcase
Science Exhibit Specimen Showcase
Puerto Rico Showcase
Switchgrass Showcase