Cataloguing our collections
The Museum's Herbarium holds over 333,000 botanical specimens, including 200,000 angiosperms, 5,000 gymnosperms, 30,000 pteridophytes, 21,500 mosses, 12,300 liverworts, 22,000 algae, 27,200 lichens, and 1,000 timber samples.
In 1989, computerised herbarium management enabled the electronic storage of information regarding individual species and specimens. All new accessions since 1989, have been recorded electronically. There have also been ongoing projects, funded by the NZ Lottery Board, to enter backlog records. As of June 2013 over 250,000 records have been databased including all non-vascular specimens and all vascular material collected in New Zealand.
Acknowledgement
Digitising the vascular type specimens was funded by a grant from the Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (TFBIS) Programme; databasing backlog specimens and incorporating AKU herbarium has been assisted by New Zealand Lottery Board grants.