In our July Coffee Chat, Patricia, BGCI’s Head of Membership and Conservation Services, shared the latest updates from BGCI—including the new PlantSearch Communication Facility, an exciting addition to the PlantSearch platform.
This dynamic new feature creates a dedicated communication space where garden staff and researchers can request information or material from other institutions. While originally designed for garden professionals, BGCI encourages researchers and conservation practitioners beyond the botanical garden community to use this tool as well.
A key update: garden staff can now view the institutions they are contacting, while researchers unaffiliated with a garden can still submit blind requests.
| Thanks to all of you who joined us! The Coffee Chat attendees were mostly intermediate users with 67% and 33% novice. |
The map below shows the gardens and arboreta represented by those who registered for the Coffee Chat - home offices not taken into consideration.
Q & A
Q: At times only a portion of my spreadsheet is accepted in PlantSearch. Do you have any advice?
A: Sometime uploading a portion of your collection at a time is helpful. You also have the option to add rather than replace when uploading. You can of course send BGCI a copy of the data for a detailed review. Here is a link to an article and video about how to use PlantSearch that you can look at for reference.
Here is an article about exporting BGCI reports from IrisBG.
Q: Is there a place that records your last upload?
A: The date that each record was added is noted in PlantSearch.
Q: Is it possible to change who is associated with the BGCI account?
A: Yes. You can request access to edit a garden's plant list on the website. Also it is helpful to let us know if someone retires so that we can remove that email address from the access list.
Q: How often is the Taxonomy updated in PlantSearch?
A: It will be updated every six months to correspond with updates to World Flora Online.
Learn more about BGCI Membership and Programs at: https://www.bgci.org/
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