This symposium was sponsored by CBHL, and was developed by CBHL's Resources Assessment for Preservation and Access Committee (RAPAC).

The symposium was co-sponsored by the Historical Section of the Botanical Society of America.

Introduction

Topic of this Symposium is the need for strategic thinking and collaborative action on many fronts in order to preserve the documentary record in botany for the future.

This symposium has three topical sections:
what needs to be preserved and why;
technical constraints and challenges;
how preservation can be pursued on a large scale by leveraging individual projects and efforts.

Because preservation of the past and ongoing botanical record cannot be effected by librarians and archivists alone, it's imperative to bring such practitioners together with botanists, particularly as the current botanical record is shifting in part to electronic form.

The issues to be considered are both complex and interesting, and the decision path is not simple.

The problem of an endangered documentary record in botany is global and pressing, and fortunately changes in communications technology make collaborative and coordinated efforts increasingly more feasible.

This program will give its audience much to think about in terms of the way botanists go about their work and communicate their research, as well as what kind of botanical documentary record they want to have available over the long term, and how realistically they can expect to have what they want and need in this regard.

Conveners

Malcolm Beasley
    (The Natural History Museum, London, UK)

Charlotte Tancin
    (Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA)

Abstracts and links to papers

The Botanical Documentary Record

Laurence J. Dorr
(Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA)
Larry Dorr spoke as both a creater and user of botanical records, talking about his own use of different parts of the botanical documentary record in the course of doing research for his 1997 book, Plant collectors in Madagascar and the Comoro Islands.

Changes in Botanical Communication:
Information on tap

James L. Reveal
(Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-5815, USA)
The traditional importance of libraries as the primary resource for published botanical information is being challenged by neglect of libraries and the growing use of the World Wide Web. Entering a new millenium we face an ever exploding wealth of information and ever increasingly limited funding for all aspects of science. Botanists must come to grips with the fate of libraries, library holdings, and the importance of preserving and conserving our intellectual past. We must also work to ensure that critical information on the ever changing World Wide Web be captured as a permanent resource for future generations. As a step, I urge the botanical community to join with librarians and others to establish international conservation and acquisition priorities to assure a continuation of our traditional record of botanical discoveries and observations.

Appraising Botanical Records:
Knowing what to keep

Sylvia M. D.FitzGerald
(Library & Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK)
The difference between publications and records is explained, as is the need to consider all records, whatever their physical format. The essence of good appraisal is twofold:
understanding how and why the records were created, and their interrelationships;
appreciating the subsequent use of records, especially as primary source material.
Scientists, especially systematists, create a great variety of records containing data, mostly unpublished. Field and laboratory records may be needed again in subsequent research in the same discipline, but may also be relevant to other disciplines, such as conservation, economic development, horticulture, design, history, geography, biography, and fed back into the source area years later. Scientists need to consider the future of their records. Administrative records and correspondence are also useful long- term for the organization or person creating the records, and for others. Procedures for analysis and selection are suggested, and the impact of new perspectives among archivists world-wide is considered.

Preserving Original Sources:
Why should we maintain original source material; what are the alternatives?

Judith Reed
(The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458, USA)
As botanical information is increasingly available electronically, it becomes important to understand the reasons for retaining and maintaining original source material, at least in libraries of key institutions worldwide. In facing the problem of deterioration of materials, it is vital to realize that digitization alone is not the solution. At present, a hybrid approach to preservation holds the best and most practical promise for successfully maintaining original source materials, considering shrinking library budgets. This paper will present and discuss a number of valid solutions currently in use and how they can be used in conjunction with one another to create a sound institutional preservation plan with a view to the future. These range from the implementation of more traditional conservation techniques to use of modern technologies.

The Electronic Botanical Library:
The way to preserve our heritage of botanical research?

Malcolm Beasley
(Botany Library, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, England, UK)
Current technological advances and the Internet extend the traditional contact between library and user. Interaction now includes e-mail, personal searching of catalogues, electronic document delivery and viewing of documents. Such developments raise the inseparable issues of access to botanical literature and its preservation and conservation. Custodians of scientific literature that is often hundreds of years old must realise its fragility, relatively temporary nature and importance as a resource for research. Has the time now come to preserve and disseminate botanical information by electronic means? That is perhaps an irreversible step, yet one being driven by scientific expectation, need and development. The implications are discussed in the context of a major international research library.

Discipline Based Approaches to Preserving the Published Record

Samuel Demas
(Carleton College, Northfield, MN, USA)
This paper will briefly review existing models for setting priorities for preserving the published record, focusing on efforts to develop a disciplinary approach to selection for preservation. Examples in other scientific disciplines, notably medicine and agriculture, will be presented. Essential elements of a plan for preserving the literature of a discipline will be explicated. Steps in devising and implementing a disciplinary plan and the requisite conditions for success will be discussed, as will techniques for implementation, including: methods for involving scientists and scholars in the effort, techniques for compiling a taxonomy of the literature, methods of setting priorities within component parts of the literature, and techniques for structuring cooperative preservation projects. Recommendations for proceeding with such work in the botanical sciences will be proffered for discussion.

An Introduction to the Documentation Strategy Concept:
A potentially powerful tool for preserving the botanical record

Margaret L. Hedstrom
(School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)
Documentation strategies are collaborative efforts to establish priorities and divide responsibility for preserving the historical records of a discipline, topic, or place. Successful documentation strategies have addressed the preservation of records from the perspective of a particular discipline (e.g. physics and chemistry), yet many other documentation strategy initiatives have failed. This study will examine critical success factors and suggest approaches for designing a documentation strategy for botanical records. Archivists, librarians, and botanists who are concerned about preserving botanical documentation may be able to mobilize the strong disciplinary focus and an awareness of the long-term value and appeal of botanical records to gain support for preserving botanical records.

The CBHL Symposium presented at the XVI International Botanical Congress

CBHL's Resources Assessment for Preservation and Access Committee (RAPAC)

Core Literature Project: Historical Monographs in Botanical Sciences

Glossary in preservation

Links to professional organizations and associations

Links for plant libraries and archives resources