Innovations in Information
The
Future in Information
From a certain perspective, RBG Kew is an information-based institute. Information is stored in specimens, on paper, and digitally on disks; importantly, it also resides inside people’s heads, along with other skills such as the ability to make connections and interpretation. A fundamental role of the Information Services Department is to give Kew’s experts access to its information base, to provide the tools whereby the application of that expertise transforms the information into knowledge, and then to transmit that knowledge to the world. Information in itself is not innovative. The expert interpretation of information gives rise to innovation.
There are many tools available to assist us in achieving this task. Information technology (IT) is maturing, and is well beyond the simple automation stage. IT is facilitating the connection of information resources by using sophisticated networking techniques, focused applications and browsers. For the first time the totality of Kew’s information may be shared across the organisation. The application of IT to relieve valuable staff resources from the simple and repetitive is giving way to the development of systems which enable Kew’s experts to use these resources in different ways. For Kew, its intranet represents a key platform for information connectivity, providing a basis for integration previously denied by software incompatibilities. The prudent application of IT can elevate expertise to its rightful place, focusing expertise more fully on interpretation and application of information.
Kew’s library and archives, a relatively static information resource amassed over more than two centuries, is unique botanically, historically, socially and culturally. But it is not a museum piece. Accessing this information presents different challenges which have given rise to a new generation of information professionals, individuals who know where to find information, and what important connections and relationships exist.
Combining its world-leading expertise with the pragmatic use of leading edge (not bleeding edge) technologies adds value to Kew’s massive information base, creating a new workable asset for Kew - the provision of knowledge to the global community. Innovation stems from people and their ability to see a better future.
Head, Information Services Department
Gardens Mapping
RBG Kew has developed a versatile mapping system for its living collections comprising Autocad computer aided design, a specially developed Field Information System (FIS) and the Living Collections Database (LCD). Surveys of the Kew and Wakehurst sites have recorded all trees in the gardens areas, and Arboretum staff now use the FIS to survey new trees as they are planted. At Wakehurst previously unaccessioned woodland matrix trees have been incorporated into the database. Although current effort is concentrated on tree surveys, the mapping system is capable of recording any plant.
Steve Ruddy, working with Ken Bailey, Dr Tony Cox and Sarah Edwards, has developed software to enable staff to display LCD records from ‘clickable’ tree maps or to generate plant maps from database queries. The use of internet technology will, in the future, provide the means to supply this information via the World Wide Web.
Horticultural Archives
A lesser known asset of Kew is a collection of tools and materials used in the gardens mostly dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The items are not on public display but in response to increased interest in garden history the collection is being photographed and catalogued. Images are being taken with an Olympus c-800L digital camera at 512x384 px resolution to give acceptable image quality without high data storage demand, and items are being bar coded to ensure rapid identification. Both of these systems are being considered for wider application in Kew’s collections.
Left:
Mark Bridger using FIS to survey trees in Kew’s new Japanese
Garden. The garden, with its newly restored Japanese Gateway, was
officially opened on October 8 1996 by HRH Princess Alexandra and
Her Imperial Highness Princess Sayako.
Contact: Steve Ruddy (0181-332 5514)
C-values database
The DNA amount in the unreplicated haploid genome (its C-value) varies over 1000-fold among angiosperms but tends to be characteristic of a taxon. C-values are widely used for reference and analysis in many fields ranging from cell and molecular biology to systematics and ecology. Kew cytologists have pooled genome size data from five separate compilations into one list for almost 3,000 species, cited from over 300 original sources, which represent about 1% of the global angiosperm flora. To speed its availability, a first version of this list was recently published in an electronic form at http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/cval/database1.html.
A meeting on ‘Angiosperm genome size’ will be held at Kew on 11-12 September 1997 to discuss the significance of genome size in systematics and evolution, ecology and cell biology.
Contact: Prof Mike Bennett (0181-332 5322) email: dnac-value@rbgkew.org.uk
Wood Anatomy
An Afro-European Wood Anatomy Symposium (Linnean Society and Kew, 2-5 October 1996) was organised by Drs Peter Gasson and David Cutler in association with IAWA and IUFRO. The meeting addressed many new concepts, such as the effect of pollution on wood structure, and considered the management of wood collections as an information and research resource. Abstracts of 67 papers appeared in IAWA Journal 17: 231.
Left: TS Inga marginata
wood
Contact: Dr Peter Gasson (0181-332 5330)
The IBIS project
An Internet Botanical Information Server (IBIS) is being developed at Kew as a means of recording, assimilating and disseminating information on plant systematics. IBIS will be an interactive tree viewing system on the Internet that concurrently displays a ‘tree’ at any taxonomic level together with information appropriate to the region selected. The user will navigate within the tree simply by ‘clicking’ on a terminal branch to display a more detailed tree, e.g. from a family tree to a genus tree. At the deepest level where tree terminals represent species, a good quality picture and various additional information will be displayed. Initially the tree will be based on the rbcL data of Dr Mark Chase and co-workers but it will eventually incorporate other sources of taxonomic evidence to produce a composite picture of angiosperm systematics. Dr Tony Cox, who is developing IBIS, was the recipient of Kew’s first Science Innovation Award.
Left: Netscape screen display being developed for
IBIS.
Contact: Dr Tony Cox (0181-332 5360)
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