On-line Action Plan

Quick Links to parts of document

1. Preliminary information
2. Summary of Commitments
3. Description of Agency
4. Functions and Services provided by Agency
5. Services appropriate to provide online
6. Enhancements to services already online
7. Services inappropriate to provide online
8. Implementation strategies and timeframes
9. Impediments to the provision of services online
10. Legislative framework and implications
11. Evaluation strategies
12. Standards and guidelines
13. Other online issues
14. Web location of Online Action Plan

1. Preliminary information

Name of agency: Australian National Botanic Gardens
Agency address: GPO Box 1777, Canberra, ACT, 2601
URL of agency website: http://www.anbg.gov.au
Contact details of person responsible for the development of this Online Action Plan: Murray Fagg
Contact details of person responsible for the implementation of this Online Action Plan: Murray Fagg
Date this Plan was completed: 3 November 2000
Date by which this Plan will be revised: 30 June 2001

2. Summary of commitments

Services appropriate to provide online by 2001	Timeframe for the provision of this service online by 2001	Estimate of resources required
1. Data and information associated with growing Australian plants	Records currently online Spatial data not online	2 – 4 person-years
2. Data and information associated with studying Australian plants.	40% of records currently online 60% still to database	8 - 10 person-years
3. Images and information to promote Australian plants	On-going, 62% of best images still to digitise and make available. Only 0.5% supporting information completed.	2 – 4 person-years

3. Description of agency

a) The Australian National Botanic Gardens is a reserve declared under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, administered as part of the Department of the Environment and Heritage.

The mission of the Australian National Botanic Gardens is:

to grow, study and promote Australian plants.

To achieve the stated mission, the Gardens will strive to:

achieve excellence in the presentation of the Gardens to enable people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to enjoy and appreciate the values of Australian plants and botanic gardens;
maintain and enhance integrated living, herbarium and photographic collections of Australian flora, supported by the library collection;
provide high quality information and an educational resource for government, industry, scientific institutions and the community;
conduct and encourage research using the Gardens' living and herbarium collections;
foster understanding of the origins and values of Australia’s plant biodiversity, while promoting its protection, conservation and wise use;
provide a national focus for, and work in effective partnership with, other organisations in matters concerning botanic gardens, herbaria and Australian plant biodiversity; and
maintain an accountable, innovative and receptive organisation that is responsive to clients and new circumstances and which values staff contributions.

b) Current IT capabilities of the agency:

The ANBG and CPBR network and WWW server is based on Sun server hardware running the Solaris version of the Unix operating system.
It is managed by a staff of two who are also responsible for database design, applications development and data management. Internet access to these databases is an adjunct to the database development
The corporate database is built on Oracle version 8 and hold all the information if the Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS); this is a highly normalized relational database linking data from the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the Australian National Herbarium and the National Plant Photograph Index.
Gateways are provided from this database to the WWW, allowing real time public access to select live views of this data
Maintenance of these datasets is ongoing and the equivalent of 4 staff are employed in data entry and editing. Several staff and volunteers are engaged part time in preparing of textual and illustrative material for the WWW. 50% of one staff member's time contributes to management of the non-databased web pages.
Two staff are employed in botanical database design and information management.

c) Future IT challenges: (Explanation of any future IT challenges or other issues that have been identified.)

The legacy of 6,500 pre-June2000 web pages, some dating from 1993, with relevant and current information, pose a huge task in back-implementing OGO requirements for metadata and related information.
The legacy pages need to be individually assessed, recatalogued and restructured to reflect modern understanding of botanical knowledge management and changed organizational structures and responsibilities.
The integration of and reference to similar and related data from remote databases managed by different agencies is seen as the major challenge in the field of botanical data management.
Information c. 40% of the botanical collection of c. 1.3 million specimens is currently available through the database, and capturing the remainder with existing resources is going to be a significant challenge.
Innovative integration of diverse data types (plant names, specimens, species information, photographs, illustrations, etc.) is an ongoing task.
Much (most) of the botanical data of the ANBG and the CPBR is spatially based and the implementation of GIS and spatial visualization technology is seen as a major priority for the future.

4. Functions and services provided by your agency

Service	Description of service	Description of client groups	Volume of service provided per year	Is service already online / partly online	Area of agency responsible for service	Contact person in service area
Growing Australian Plants
1. Public presentation of Living collection	Present well labeled collection of Aust plants to visitors.	Visiting public	20,000 new plants planted in Gardens each year.	Databased information on collections on line	ANBG Living Collections	Paul Janssens
2. Maintenance of Scientific Living Collections	Maintain vouchered collection for scientific research	Scientific community	~100,000 specimens of 7,000 taxa maintained	Databased information on collections on line	ANBG Living Collections	Paul Janssens
3. Maintenance of records of location of Living Collection	Maintain accurate mapping records of plant locations within botanic gardens	Public and scientific community	Total stocktake of Gardens every 3 years	Spatial data (maps) not yet on line	ANBG Living Collections	Paul Janssens
4. Maintain collection of threatened species	Bring threatened species into cultivation	Conservation community	313 threatened plants maintained	Databased information on collections on line	ANBG Living Collections	Paul Janssens
Studying Australian Plants
1. Maintain Herbarium	Manage Aust’s largest collection of herbarium specimens	Scientific community	1,286,000 specimens maintained, ~20,000 added annually	Databased information on herbarium collections on line with restricted access	ANBG Botany	Brendan Lepschi
2. Undertake research	Conduct research on Aust’s native flora	Scientific community	Ongoing, regular publications in scientific journals	References to scientific publications on line	ANBG Botany	Jim Croft
3. Maintain scientific databases	Document Aust's native and related floras	Scientific community	~100,000 plant names maintained in APNI database	Plant name and collections databases on line	ANBG Botany	Jim Croft
4. Contribute to national and international databases	Maintain and contribute to national and international databases on plant names etc.	Scientific community national & international	~1,000,000 plant names maintained in IPNI database	Plant name and collections databases on line	ANBG Botany	Jim Croft
5. Develop botanical databases	Design and implement botanical database applications and botanical information standards	Scientific community national & international	Ongoing	Portals to databases and web based applications available on-line	ANBG Botany	Greg Whitbread
Promote Australian Plants
1. Interpret the collections	Make the collections informative and educational	Visiting public	Ongoing	Wide range of interpretive information on line	ANBG Visitor Services and Infrastructure	Rod Harvey
2. Operate educational service	Provide education services to schools and other teaching institutions.	Schools and students	~13,500 students participate each year	Wide range of school oriented material on line	ANBG Visitor Services and Infrastructure	Rod Harvey
3. Maintain photo collection	Collect and catalogue photos of Aust flora	Public Publishers Researchers	33,000 images maintained, ~500 added each year	Full Photo catalogue on line. Many images on line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
4. Maintain web site	Maintain web site to promote ANBG and Aust flora	National and international community	~7,000 web pages with a hit rate of 6,500 per day	Web site maintained	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Advisory services
1. Public plant identification service	Plant specimens identified for public, via Visitor Centre	General public	~300 specimens identified per year	Not applicable	ANBG Botany	Brendan Lepschi
2. Commercial plant identification service	Bulk or commercial plant identifications from herbarium specimens. Fee charged	National parks, consultants, etc	~400 commercial identifications per year	Not applicable	ANBG Botany	Brendan Lepschi
3. Email enquiry service	Email botanical enquiries from Aust and international answered	National and international community	~500 email enquiries answered per year	Via email	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Grants
	Not applicable
Information collecting and hosting
	Host web server for compatible organizations e.g. , ABRS, ACRA, SGAP, CHABG, CHAH, ANPC, Friends etc.	General community Members		On line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Information provision
	Information about the ANBG/CPBR agencies	National and international community		On line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Regulatory
	Plan of Management for ANBG	National and international community		On line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
	Agreements with external agencies	National and international community		On line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Secretariat
	Hosting Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens, Heads of Australian Herbaria, Australian Network for Plant Conservation	National and international community		On line	ANBG Botany	Murray Fagg
Other services or functions	Franchises and commercial operations in the ANBG	General community		On-line	ANBG Visitors Services and Infrastructure	Rod Harvey

5. Services appropriate to provide online

a) Criteria for determining services appropriate to provide online

All data maintained about the living collection, the scientific herbarium collection and the photograph collection will be made available on line subject to the following constraints:

resources to database the backlog of >200 years of scientific collections, currently only 40% databased
sensitive data of localities of rare or threatened plants, likely to further threaten their survival
scientific and technical work in progress
data subject to copyright, intellectual property or commercial-in-confidence constraints.

b) Identification of services appropriate to provide online

Services appropriate to provide online	Application of criteria to service / why the service is appropriate to provide online
1. Growing Australian plants	Records of living collection, horticultural data - accessible to public and scientific community, searchable.
2. Studying Australian plants	Records of scientific plant names, research herbarium collection - accessible to scientific community - restricted access to wider community, aids research, and range of community projects such as Landcare and revegetation.
3. Promote Australian plants	Photographs and wide range of horticultural, historical, cultural information held by the ANBG is made available online. It informs the community
4. Organization and structural information	Descriptive information of the Gardens management and organizational structure and context.

6. Enhancements to services already online.

Service already provided online	*Complexity level (1,2,3)**	Description of plans to review and upgrade services
1. Data about growing Australian plants	1, 2 Static and generated from database	Continually updated, database under continual development
2. Data related to the study of Australian plants	1, 2, 3 generated from database	Continually updated, database under continual development
3. Promotion of Australian plants	1, 2 static and generated from database	Continually updated, database under continual development
4. Organization and structural information	1 static.	Continually updated mannually in response to organizational change

7. Services inappropriate to provide online

Service inappropriate to provide online	Reasons why service is inappropriate to provide online
1. Growing Australian plants	needs soil, light, moisture etc
2. Study Australian plants	laboratory/herbarium based
3. Promote Australian plants	major aspect requires visit to site to see plants
4. Organization and structural information	Details of day-to-day internal management

8. Implementation strategies and timeframes

Name of service: Growing Australian Plants data access
Mechanisms to consult with users about the design and operation of the online service	Consultation with 'Friends of ANBG' as major community support group. Email feedback from wider Australian and international community Annual feedback from the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria
Who will be responsible for the development of a detailed project brief, and the development of the online service	Director Botany (Jim Croft)
Who will be responsible for the management and ongoing maintenance of the online service	Director Botany (Jim Croft)
What are the key steps that need to be taken to provide this service online	currently online
When will this service be provided online	currently online
What is the relative priority of providing this service online in comparison with other services to be provided online	currently online

Name of service: Data relating to studying Australian Plant
Mechanisms to consult with users about the design and operation of the online service	Email feedback from wider Australian and international scientific community. Annual feedback from the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria. Annual external reviews of science activities of the ANBG
Who will be responsible for the development of a detailed project brief, and the development of the online service	Director Botany (Jim Croft)
Who will be responsible for the management and ongoing maintenance of the online service	Director Botany (Jim Croft)
What are the key steps that need to be taken to provide this service online	all databased herbarium specimens currently online – databasing of the remainder of the collection is ongoing as resources become available
When will this service be provided online	all databased herbarium specimens currently online – databasing of the remainder of the collection is ongoing as resources become available
What is the relative priority of providing this service online in comparison with other services to be provided online	available and permitted data currently online – ongoing

Name of service: Promote Australian Plant
Mechanisms to consult with users about the design and operation of the online service	Consultation with 'Friends of ANBG' as major community support group. Email feedback from wider Australian and international community. Annual feedback from the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria and the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens
Who will be responsible for the development of a detailed project brief, and the development of the online service	Visual Resources Manager (Murray Fagg)
Who will be responsible for the management and ongoing maintenance of the online service	Visual Resources Manager (Murray Fagg)
What are the key steps that need to be taken to provide this service online	Available data currently online
When will this service be provided online	Available data currently online
What is the relative priority of providing this service online in comparison with other services to be provided online	Available data currently online - ongoing

9. Impediments to the provision of services online

Impediment	Strategies to address impediment
1. Resources to database remaining 60% of scientific herbarium specimens, backlog of photographs	Currently being undertaken at slow pace, grants and outside funding being sought. Exchange of duplicate data with other Australian herbaria to improve efficiency of data capture.
2. Resources to implement the presentation of records of location of living plants within botanic gardens in spatial format (maps) on web	Some aspects being undertaken as part of record keeping role, staff resources to present this on web not available.
3. Resources to develop innovative database applications and internet presentations of available data	Currently being undertaken at a slow pace, grants and outside funding being sought. Partnerships being established with other botanic gardens and herbaria
4. Running costs of IT hardware, and applications software and associated licences user licences.	Currently placing a strain on Gardens operational budgets.

10. Legislative frameworks and implications

There are no impediments in the legislation or other controlling documents relating to the Australian National Botanic Gardens:

the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

the Plan of Management for the Australian National Botanic Gardens 1993

11. Evaluation strategies

Service	Evaluation method	Evaluation date
1. Data relating to growing Australian plants	website statistics email feedback	weekly ongoing
2. Data relating to the studying of Australian plants	website statistics focus groups email feedback periodic interna and external reviews	weekly occasionally ongoing every 1 – 2 years
3. Promotion of Australian plants	website statistics email feedback	weekly ongoing

12. Standards and guidelines

Issue	Standard or guideline	Implementation requirements*	Progress towards implementation
Information provision	Online Information Service Obligations	New material - 1 June 2000, existing material - 1 December 2000	New material meets OGO obligations Much of these requirements handled by our parent government department Environment Australia. Those specific to the Australian National Botanic Gardens and the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research being routinely placed online
Metadata	Australian Government Locator Service Metadata Standard	New material - 1 June 2000, existing material - 1 December 2000	New material meets OGO obligations Metadata being added to backlog of >6,000 web pages progressively (daily) on a hierarchical basis of importance
Electronic publishing, record-keeping and archiving	Guidelines for Commonwealth Information Published in Electronic Formats E-Permanence Standard	New material - 1 June 2000, existing material - 1 December 2000	Backup daily Total website archived on tape quarterly
Accessibility	Discrimination Act Advisory Notes World Wide Web Access: Disability Web Content Accessibility Guidelines	New material - 1 June 2000, existing material - 1 December 2000	New material meets access requirements Backlog of >6,000 web pages being checked for access. Most meet requirements except <alt> image data, progressive implementation. Image graphics not used to textual content or headings. No PDF files on server No frames-only, nearly applications frame-free.
Authentication	Gatekeeper: A Strategy for Public Key Technology use in the Government	Ongoing	Compliance with these requirements handled by our parent government department Environment Australia.
Privacy	Guidelines for Federal and ACT Government World Wide Websites	1 June 2000	Compliance with these requirements handled by our parent government department Environment Australia.
Security	Australian Communications Security Instructions – 33	Ongoing	Compliance with these requirements handled by our parent government department Environment Australia.

13. Any other issues relevant to your agency’s activities to provide services online.

The Australian National Botanic Gardens hosts the Web presence to the following organizations considered to be compatible with its aims to grow, study and promote Australian plants:

Australian Biological Resources Study
Australian Systematic Botanical Society
Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria
Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens
Australian Network for Plant Conservation.
Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens
ICOM Marketing and Public Relations

14. Web location of completed Online Action Plan

The Government requires all agencies to provide access to their Online Action Plans on their websites.

URL of web location: http://www.anbg.gov.au/ogo/oap-anbg.html

Date Online Action Plan placed online: 3 November 2000

Last updated on July 13, 2011 by Murray Fagg (murray.fagg@deh.gov.au)