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Herbarium Practices and Ethics, III Authors: Richard K Herbarium Practices and Ethics, III Authors: Richard K. Rabeler, Harlan T. Svoboda, Barbara Thiers, L. Alan Prather, James A. Macklin, et. al. Source: Systematic Botany, 44(1) : 7-13 Published By: American Society of Plant Taxonomists URL: https://doi.org/10.1600/036364419X697840 BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Complete website, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/terms-of-use. Usage of BioOne Complete content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Downloaded From: https://bioone.org/journals/Systematic-Botany on 19 Feb 2019 Terms of Use: https://bioone.org/terms-of-use Systematic Botany (2019), 44(1): pp. 7–13 © Copyright 2019 by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists DOI 10.1600/036364419X697840 Date of publication February 5, 2019 Herbarium Practices and Ethics, III Richard K. Rabeler,1,11 Harlan T. Svoboda,2,3 Barbara Thiers,4 L. Alan Prather,5 James A. Macklin,6 Laura P. Lagomarsino,7 Lucas C. Majure,8,9 and Carolyn J. Ferguson10 1Herbarium, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108, USA; [email protected] 2Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, 315 Porter Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA; [email protected] 3Present address: U.S. National Arboretum, USDA-ARS, 3501 New York Avenue NE, Washington, District of Columbia 20002, USA 4William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York 10458, USA; [email protected] 5Herbarium, Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, 612 Wilson Road, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA; [email protected] 6Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0C6, Canada; [email protected] 7Shirley C. Tucker Herbarium, Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 202 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA; [email protected] 8Department of Research, Conservation and Collections, Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, Arizona 85008, USA; [email protected] 9Present address: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 379 Dickinson Hall, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA 10Herbarium, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, 116 Ackert Hall, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA; [email protected] 11Author for correspondence ([email protected]) Communicating Editor: Sven Buerki Abstract—The Systematics Collections Committee of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists has updated the recommendations on herbarium practices and ethics that were previously published by the Society in 1958 and 1973. The recommendations and considerations presented here are intended to provide a set of guidelines for proper management and care of herbarium collections. Keywords—Best practices, collections management, ethics, herbarium, natural history collections. The first report on desirable procedures in herbarium collections, and their curators, are responsible for (i) ensuring practices and ethics, under the auspices of the American So- the preservation and protection of specimens in perpetuity, (ii) ciety of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT), was published in 1958 making specimens and their data available for study, both (Kobuski et al. 1958). That report, as well as a revised version in physically and digitally, and (iii) fostering collections-based 1973 (Nevling 1973), was well received by and proved useful research. Access to the collections and data is normally fa- to curators, collections staff, and herbarium users alike. Be- cilitated by curators in several different ways, including: cause the number of practicing taxonomists has declined, it is digitizing specimens and making the data available online, more likely that non-systematists may find themselves in lending specimens to qualified scientists at other institutions charge of a collection, and since many new methods and with appropriate infrastructure for proper care, providing challenges have arisen since 1973, the ASPT Systematics facilities for visitors, and handling reasonable requests for Collections Committee has prepared this updated document. specimen information. At the same time, curators are obliged This report follows the basic outline of the previous reports to preserve the specimens for future use and should refuse the and is concerned primarily with the updating of several sec- use of specimens whenever their safety or integrity is in tions and adding commentary on basic herbarium operation question. and destructive sampling. While this is primarily aimed at curation of herbaria in the United States, we believe that basic Basic Herbarium Operation information on the curation of an herbarium will apply, and be of interest, to international readers as well. Besides the The Director or Curator of the herbarium should be aware content provided here, we encourage herbarium staff to keep of, and practice, sound management and preservation tech- up with current developments by joining the Herbaria Listserv niques. At the broadest scale, the collection should be housed ([email protected]) and participating in organizations such in a pest-free environment where climate, specifically hu- as the Society of Herbarium Curators (SHC) and the Society for midity and temperature, can be controlled. Many herbaria the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) to store their specimens in solid herbarium-style cases that close take advantage of community input and involvement. The with a tight seal (e.g. like that of a rubber gasket); the use of ASPT Systematics Collections Committee also hosts a Cura- open-face shelving for storage is also found in some herbaria. tors’ Meeting during the annual Botany conference. A carefully controlled operation plan, ideally maintaining As the botanical equivalent to natural history museums, the collections at temperatures between 60–65°F (15–18°C) herbaria are archives of plant biodiversity through space and and a relative humidity of about 50%, prevents the pro- time. Although their most fundamental role is to provide liferation of pests. However, this may not be desirable when taxonomic and nomenclatural documentation for systematic office or visitor working space is integrated with the collec- botany, herbarium specimens are increasingly used outside tions (see Bridson and Forman (2010), Hall (1988), and Lull and of systematics (see Soltis 2017). Institutions holding these Moore (1999) for additional suggestions on climatic regimes). 7 Downloaded From: https://bioone.org/journals/Systematic-Botany on 19 Feb 2019 Terms of Use: https://bioone.org/terms-of-use 8 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY [Volume 44 Thermometers and hygrometers should be placed throughout (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 2016) system, arranging the the herbarium to monitor (and record, if possible) temperature families in a linear representation of the current concept of and relative humidity, respectively. Integration of these in- relationships, (iii) retaining a traditional scheme, such as struments with an alarm system which would notify appro- Engler (1900), or (iv) creating a hybrid system, in which much priate herbarium staff to any problems in real time would be of a traditional framework is retained and the newer family desirable. concepts are integrated into that scheme (see Pace et al. 2017). Policies and procedures should be documented for general Below family level, genera and species are typically arranged use of the collection, including physical and virtual loans, alphabetically, though they are sometimes broken into large destructive sampling, specimen acquisition, data sharing, geographic areas first. No matter what filing system is used, it deaccessioning, image and data copyrights (if applicable), and is critical that employees and visitors be able to locate speci- others as required. Each specimen should bear the insignia mens in an efficient manner and that confusion about proper or logo of the institution, a unique identifier (i.e. accession location is minimized. number), and/or a barcode (if the specimen has been digi- tized). Every transaction should be documented, including Materials and Supplies accessioned and deaccessioned specimens, exchanges, gifts, loans, and transfers, and these records should be kept in an Herbaria, like other types of museums, are charged with accessible format indefinitely at the institution. Compiling preserving their collections in perpetuity. One of the most these records into a collection management system is rec- basic methods of preservation is using archival-quality ma- ommended for this purpose. Herbaria should be sure that the terials for all products that come into contact with the speci- specimens were collected with proper permission and/or men itself. Acid-free, cotton fiber (minimum of 25%) paper permits when applicable, and
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