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From HISCOM

This wiki is managed by the Herbarium Information Systems Committee and is available to the botanically interested public. It contains the Committee's working documents.

Wiki contribution and editing is enabled for registered HISCOM participants, including all HISCOM members and invited observers.

1 Purpose
2 Participants
3 Products
4 Meetings
5 Discussion Papers
6 Technical Manuals
- 6.1 Older Manuals
7 Links

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Purpose

HISCOM is the longest running subcommittee of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH) having been established in 1995.

The Herbarium Information Systems Committee (HISCOM) has representatives of the computing and information technology programs of each participating institution and deals with the development and application of new technologies to herbarium management, botanical research and information delivery. HISCOM's flagship project is the Australia's Virtual Herbarium.

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Participants

Participants in HISCOM include information technology representatives from each of the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory herbaria and and representatives from the New Zealand herbaria. Representatives from related projects are invited to participate and collaborate.

Australian National Herbarium (CANB) - Greg Whitbread; Jim Croft
National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) - Alison Vaughan, Niels Klazenga
National Herbarium of New South Wales (NSW) - Karen Wilson; Gary Chapple
Northern Territory Herbarium (DNA) - Donna Lewis
Queensland Herbarium (BRI) - Peter Bostock
State Herbarium of South Australia (AD) - Bill Barker; Paul Coddington
Tasmanian Herbarium (HO) - Laurence Paine
Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH) - Ben Richardson; Alex Chapman

Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) - Helen Thompson

Representatives from the Australian Fauna Collections Information Group (FCIG) technical subcommittee of the Council of Heads of Australasian Fauna Collections (CHAFC) are invited to participate in HISCOM meetings and teleconferences.

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Products

HISCOM is responsible to creating and maintaining a number of key products servicing the botancial information management Australian herbarium and botanical taxonomic communities.

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Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH)

Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH) is HISCOM's flagship project, providing integrated access to information form all Australian herbaria. Its current focus is on herbarium specimen records.

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Early Warning System (EWS)

Early Warning System (EWS) is a adaptation of the AVH specimen information technology to provide dynamic alerts of changes in range or occurrence of Australian plant species.

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Herbarium Information Standards and Protocols for Interchange of Data (HISPID)

Herbarium Information Standards and Protocols for Interchange of Data (HISPID) is the primary specification used by Australian herbaria to exchange collections data; its focus is on specimen label data.

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Online Flora Information Systems

Online Flora Information Systems are an emerging focus for botanical information management in Australia. HISCOM is working towards a nationally consistent information specification.

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Meetings

HISCOM conducts it business through meetings, teleconferences and technical workshops involving all HISCOM participants. The agendas, minutes and outcomes of these are documented on this wiki.

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Teleconferences

HISCOM holds several teleconferences a year to enssure progress between annual meetings. A teleconference is usually scheduled before each CHAH meeting or teleconference to enable effective reporting of HISCOM activity. Agendas and minutes are documented on this wiki.

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Extraordinary Workshops

HISCOM periodically arranges technical workshops to address particular information management problems or manage particular information management projects. Materials for these and outcomes from the workshops are documented on this wiki.

Wrappers for herbarium data - workshop and rolling circus, commences Melbourne 4-5 February 2010
HISCOM ad hoc AVH Workshop, Melbourne 27 November 2008
CHAH/HISCOM Workshop: Future of the AVH, Melbourne 26 November 2008
HISCOM/CHAH Workshop: Towards a common approach to Australasian Electronic Floras, Adelaide 3–4 December 2007
HISPID/ABCD Workshop, Adelaide 6–8 June 2007

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Annual General Meetings

HISCOM holds a formal face to face meeting at least once a year. To maximize benefit of attendance these meetinings are often timed to coincide with other national botanical meetings and conferences. Agendas and minutes are documented on this wiki.