The Cabinet of Lichens’ activities start with the presentation of online resources for (beginner) lichenologists. Frank Bungartz (Arizona State University) will present “A beginner’s course to managing records of lichenized fungi in the Consortium of Lichen Herbaria – managing specimen data, benefiting from taxonomic resources, and creating checklists”.
The Consortium of Lichen Herbaria (https://lichenportal.org/) is an international biodiversity data platform built on the software Symbiota. The platform unites lichen herbaria from all over the world. The Consortium allows collections to be managed live directly online, or institutions can share their data as a snapshot, periodically updating the specimen records. Individual users can manage their own data also individually as part of personal collections. Integrated into this biodiversity data platform is a large taxonomic thesaurus that helps to avoid orthographic errors and keeps track of currently accepted names and their synonyms. Taxon profiles provide species descriptions and illustrations. Sophisticated querying tools built into the platform allow users to query and download data, work on species inventories and create checklists based on voucher specimens and literature reports. If you are new to the Consortium this workshop will provide an overview how the system can be used to access and manage biodiversity data, including your own specimen records. Beginners will be introduced on how to contribute and manage their data and thus learn to use the Consortium as a resource for dealing with the information gained from assembling and managing a collection of lichen specimens.