Website up for feedback

[Kathie Hodge]

I've finally got a basic website up and running. I'll work on it more
after the holiday weekend, hopefully with your input.

http://northeasternherbaria.org

One simple thing you can do is send me an image or two of your
favorite taxa for the rotating image display in the sidebar. I've put
up a few (fungusy) test images from which I can see that photos in
landscape view look best.

Needed bits of writing:

a page on why herbaria are important
a rationale for our demonstration project (and photos of the plants)

I'm unsure about whether to post a membership list with emails. Is
this private? Should it wait til we've invited others? Shall we put an
invitation directly on the website?

All suggestions are welcome. You can send minor corrections to my
email, kh...@cornell.edu, but I suggest you post anything that needs
discussion to this thread.

have a great weekend,
Kathie Hodge
kh...@cornell.edu
CNH Webmaster

[Dal...@aol.com]

Hi,

 

What size image files do you need?

 

thanks, Dorothy

 

Dorothy J. Allard, Ph.D.
Analytical Resources LLC
1331 Waterville Mt Rd
Bakersfield, VT 05441

802/827-9779
cell 802/279-4249

---

Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.

[Janet]

Kathie,

The web site looks great! The only suggestion I have is to make the
subsidisary goals bulleted points to make them a little easier to
identify at a glance (since there is no indentation for the "wrapped"
points). Attached below are parts of paragarphs from the proposal we
submitted to our dean for herbarium funding last winter. I've included
points on the general importance of herbaria and on the database. Feel
free to use/modify what you need for the web site. --Janet

IMPORTANCE:
[possibly pertinent parts of paragraph 1] Natural history collections
in New England are the source of much of the information we have about
the biology of our region, and are critical sources of data for long-
term monitoring of ecosystems. They serve as an invaluable reference
for ecology and biodiversity studies, systematic and evolutionary
investigations, and invasive and endangered species research. Unused
or inactive facilities lose value over time since specimens are not
reclassified as new data become available, and collections can degrade
if not properly maintained. Well-curated collections increase in value
because specimen holdings are updated and expanded, specimen quality
is constantly monitored, and specimen data are actively disseminated
to researchers, students, and the general public. In addition, an
active natural history collection provides numerous opportunities for
students to become involved as part of coursework, research, and work-
study.
[ppp of another paragraph] While our specimens represent plant species
worldwide, the Hodgdon Herbarium collections emphasize northeastern
North America and are especially strong in representing freshwater and
marine habitats. In that respect, our collections are uniquely
valuable in the region. The Hodgdon Herbarium contains a combination
of historic and recently collected specimens, including a number of
nomenclatural type specimens and voucher specimens supporting
taxonomic, ecological, and biogeographic research.
[ppp of another paragraph] The Hodgdon Herbarium is an important
resource for the support of research and teaching here at UNH, as well
as a source of information for scientists at other colleges and
universities, private ecological consulting firms, and federal, state,
and private agencies such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,
U.S.D.A. Forest Service, the N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau, and The
Nature Conservancy. The herbarium contains a wealth of biogeographic
and ecological habitat data in its specimen labels, and the plants
themselves are a valuable source of information on species morphology
and variability. The Hodgdon Herbarium collections have historical
value in documenting changes in the flora of the region, in features
such as occurrence, abundance, and flowering time. Our specimens also
serve as an important reference in the identification of plant
specimens, including poisonous plants, invasives, and species of
conservation concern in the state and region.

DEMO DATABASE:
[GENERAL] Over the past several years, the availability of computer-
related tools to facilitate specimen-level databasing of natural
history collections has increased dramatically. As a result, the
number of specimen collections from universities, natural history
museums, and other institutions that are available over the internet
has begun to grow rapidly. Large numbers of these collection databases
are tied together through regional, national, and international
internet portals, such as the National Biological Information
Infrastructure (NBII; www.NBII.gov) and the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility (GBIF; www.GBIF.net). Through these portals, it
is possible to search all of the networked specimen databases
simultaneous with a single query. Thus, this trend to database and
digitize images of natural history collections has increased their
intrinsic value by making the information readily available to a much
broader community. Access to collection data and images for such large
numbers of specimens opens the possibility for a wide range of studies
that would not have been feasible otherwise.
[DEMO] The collections housed by member institutions are quite
diverse; most have a local or regional focus, while also having unique
strengths. A combined regional database will provide a comprehensive
view of current and historic plant community structure in the
Northeast, which will be made available via the World Wide Web.

On Jul 6, 8:19 am, Dall...@aol.com wrote:
> Hi,
>
> What size image files do you need?
>
> thanks, Dorothy  
>
> Dorothy J.  Allard, Ph.D.
> Analytical Resources LLC
> 1331 Waterville Mt  Rd
> Bakersfield, VT 05441
>
> 802/827-9779
> cell  802/279-4249
>

> **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for
> fuel-efficient used cars.      (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

[AFF]

Hi Kathie,

The site looks great!

Cheers,

Alina.

On Jul 4, 1:52 am, Kathie Hodge <k...@cornell.edu> wrote:
> I've finally got a basic website up and running. I'll work on it more
> after the holiday weekend, hopefully with your input.
>
> http://northeasternherbaria.org
>
> One simple thing you can do is send me an image or two of your
> favorite taxa for the rotating image display in the sidebar. I've put
> up a few (fungusy) test images from which I can see that photos in
> landscape view look best.
>
> Needed bits of writing:
>
> a page on why herbaria are important
> a rationale for our demonstration project (and photos of the plants)
>
> I'm unsure about whether to post a membership list with emails. Is
> this private? Should it wait til we've invited others? Shall we put an
> invitation directly on the website?
>
> All suggestions are welcome. You can send minor corrections to my

> email, k...@cornell.edu, but I suggest you post anything that needs

> discussion to this thread.
>
> have a great weekend,
> Kathie Hodge

> k...@cornell.edu
> CNH Webmaster

[patrick...@yale.edu]

Hello Kathie,

Very nice job indeed!

Regarding your question about posting a membership list on the site,
we should post at least the member institution names perhaps breaking
it down geographically. It might be nice to have a total number of
members "tally". There are ways to provide email addresses that
minimize accessibility to web crawlers, but I'm don't know how
effective they are.

Regarding your question about placing an invitation to join directly
on the site, this sounds like a good idea. The wording could be
simple and we could place this on the Membership page (or create a new
page) and provide a link to an email address. By linking to it, we
could utilize this web invitation when sending out the initial email
invite (I'll start another post for invite email). If this sounds
like a good idea, I can begin working on this.

Regarding the links, it seems that this list could get quite large and
we might need to partition it and trim it down in the sidebar. For
example, there are several institutions in the region that provide
online access to data and it would be great to provide links to all of
these. A simple first step towards this could be achieved by placing
links to major national & international organizations (GBIF, SPNHC,
NSCA) under "Links" and then providing links to databases in the
network under "NE Region Databases" (or something like this). Links
to other regional nodes could go under "Other nodes". This could get
cluttered in sidebar, so it may be that a link to a page of links will
be needed for some of the categories. If there are no objections, I
can start working on this too.

Cheers,
Patrick