Dr. Donald Pfister is the Director of the Harvard University Herbaria, which together comprise the largest university-based plant collection in the U.S. The Herbaria contain approximately 5 million plant specimens, and the collections are actively used by visiting investigators and through specimen loan and exchange traffic. Dr. Pfister proposes to continue the current service to the research community (loan and exchange program, handling visitors and data queries), to create an integrated computer database for the Gray Card Index of plant names (320,000 records) and the Harvard vascular type specimens (80,000 records), and to install compactor storage units for a portion of the collection. The proposed collection improvement projects will significantly enhance the research impact of this internationally important collection. The new specimen storage systems will alleviate crowding and accommodate future growth, and the computerization efforts will greatly increase the community's access to the specimens and their associated data. Reference collections such as these are the primary research tool for many biological disciplines, and the continued growth and improvement of these collections is vital for future generations of research.
