Southern African herbarium needs assessment

SABONET Report No. 6
G.F. Smith, C.K. Willis & M. Mössmer
1999
A4, soft cover, 88 pp.
ISBN 1-919795-45-6
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The first step towards achieving SABONET’s objective of expanding and improving herbarium collections was determining the needs of as many herbaria as possible within the region. SABONET and the then National Botanical Institute (NBI) (now SANBI) of South Africa started conducting a survey of herbaria during 1998. Fifty-five herbaria in the following countries were included: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The SABONET/NBI needs assessment survey is the most detailed and comprehensive one yet conducted in the region. Previous botanical surveys did not cover all the southern African countries, and not all the main collections in the subcontinent were targeted. The communication network established by SABONET has made it possible to survey all the important collections in the ten SABONET countries. In addition, all the needs of the herbaria have been translated into financial terms. For the first time, policy makers and managers of collections will have a clear indication of the exact monetary needs of specific collections for maintenance and development.

The report presents the survey results in five sections: taxon holdings, libraries and literature, capital equipment, staffing, and computerisation. Each section consists of a summary of the results for the entire region, which is followed by a more detailed discussion for each country, where applicable. The appendixes provide detailed information for individual herbaria, arranged by country.

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