Polaes Collection from the University of White Plains

The University of White Plains is a well recognized tertiary education institution in Guatemala and a national reference for biodiversity research. The Plant Biology Department keeps a medium-size herbarium containing approximately 80,000 specimens collected in and around the local region and dating from the mid-20th century to the present. The collection includes important specimens including types and endemics.

Currently, the collection care is assigned to the Professor of Plant Systematics, who performs curatorial tasks as well as their regular research and teaching work. The Departmental Admin is responsible for day-to-day administrative tasks for the herbarium such as purchasing consumables including paper and labels. Faculty staff and students collaborating within the department occasionally work on and update the identifications on the specimens and there are two retired botanists who regularly volunteer in the collection assisting the Professor to prepare loans.

The University already has an online search for its library collections which is maintained by the University’s central web-team on externally hosted servers. No natural history specimens are currently served via this platform.

The Head of the Plant Biology Department has recently secured a 50,000USD, two-year grant to image and publish the botanical collections' information online. The team wants to use this opportunity to establish a permanent digitization and publishing protocol that will increase the herbarium's visibility and continue to attract funding.