IrisBG
Coffee Chats
Rebuilding a Collection
Beth Hoffman , Franklin Park Conservatory
In our July Coffee Chat, Beth Hoffman, Plant Collections Manager at Franklin Park Conservatory, talks about what happens to a living collection when an iconic conservatory undergoes renovation. She shares how her team rebuilt and centralized plant records to support the renovation of the historic John F. Wolfe Palm House and the connected Dorothy M. Davis Showhouse.
Thanks to all of you who joined us! The Coffee Chat attendees were a good mix of users with 50% intermediate users, 50% of users identifying as novice.
The map below shows the gardens and arboreta represented by those who registered for the Coffee Chat - home offices not taken into consideration.
A few slides from Beth’s Presentation:
Updated Collection Policy, Plan and Manual to reflect the priorities for the new Conservatory and Collections in the Garden.
Original map for the Conservatory
Updated map using ArcGIS to create beds for inside the Greenhouse that can be viewed in IrisBG.
Q&A
Q: What changes to the collection policy are you most proud of?
A: Separating the collections out into thematic and scientific collections has been helpful to write down.
Q: How many people work in records and mapping?
A: Everyone in horticulture contributes to plant records. It may be adding to a request in the plant records Google Form, asking for something to be accessioned, or finding something. The plant records team is two full time people.
Q: Who were the people/what were their backgrounds for who becomes involved in plant records?
A: We are getting more people involved in terms of getting details from the horticulturists about the collection.
Q: Have there been things that have been included in the Master Plan that have helped you think about your collections differently?
A: Yes. The Show House has been used as a temporary display and the Master Plan has moved this area to become its own permanent display area.
Q: What is your background in ArcGIS? Are you using the IrisBG-ArcGIS integration?
A: I am self taught but have had the benefit of working at a University, where I received some formal training in GIS.
IrisBG Answer: You can learn more about the IrisBG-ArcGIS Mobile integration here (opens in a new tab). We have a resource list attached to the end of this article for learning about GIS (opens in a new tab) that was curated by the Plant Mapping Meetup Group (opens in a new tab)
Q: What are the top three differences between the new policy and the policy that was replaced?
A: It is more concise. Conservation and permitting were not included in the previous document. The core collections were not identified in the policy but will be identified in the plans so that they can change more easily.