9631192 Donoghue, et al. In partnership, Harvard University and the Research Collections in Systematics & Ecology Program have funded this project to support the services provided to the plant systematics community by the Harvard University Herbaria. Harvard's holdings of nearly 5,000,000 specimens of plants and fungi, along with its libraries and databases, form an indispensable resource for systematic and ecological studies and are actively used by the national and international botanical community. Approximately 62,000 specimens are handled by the Harvard Herbaria staff each year in outgoing and returning loans to other institutions, and an average of 500 scientist visit the Herbaria annually. Two Curatioral Assistants, who will be directly involved in the loan and visitor programs, will be hired during the tenure of this award, which also subsidizes the cost of packing materials and postal charges for shipping loans. Visitor facilities will be improved with the purchase of microscope and computer equipment. Harvard University will continue to proved most of the basic operating budget of the Herbaria while the NSF and earmarked Harvard funds support the exceptional service activities of these collections.
