—+- Computer expanded use of Herbarium How do you discover what plants in the Weber State College herbarium were collected from the Weber River, near Morgan- or how do you compare all the plants collected at a certain time of year at a certain elevation? “The greatest thing since an herbarium is a computer retriever system,’ said Stephen L. Clark, assistant professor of Botany, who had an idea that sparked a round of events and involved a number of people Stephen Clark until completion. one The collection of dried and preserved plant specimens serves as a reference room, much as a library. There are over 15,000 specimens, representative of northern Utah and Utah in general. The plants have been gathered by faculty and students beginning in the late 19th century but its use has been limited. “Before the computer it was absolutely impossible to make comparisons. For the first time it is possible to take all 15,000 interest associate professor of Zoology. Both men have a deep interest in, and knowledge of, the computer. Dr. Jensen Also, Dr. Garth L. Welch, dean of School of Natural Sciences, was lending his support. A student work study is presently typing the information into the computer and building the master file. “As we add to the collection we can also add to the computer. We can get into comparative graphics and charts and statistical analysis,” said Professor Clark. Professor Clark sees wetland flora as the area where the WSC herbarium could make the most enrolled in several of Professor Crittenden’s classes. He became could build that collection and for further knowledge and so fascinated with the language that he decided to use “computer language” for his doctorate language requirement. significant contribution. “We become a place where people from all over the United send for wetland flora specimens.” States Armed with all this information, he went to Bob Miner, systems analyst at the computer center, and speaking loaded the information on the discussed the idea with Dr. Robert L. Capener, professor of Physics, and Dr. J. Neil Jensen, without which the program would have “died on the vine.” number of conversations Professor Clark realized the need with the others. This expands use of the herbarium considerably.” Professor Clark first got the BYU, the only other university in Utah who has a computer for an herbarium. Coming back to Weber, he a such a program, Professor Clark set out to talk with Charles Crittenden, associate professor of data processing, to learn to speak “computer language.” After a any information and compare lift from the group idea after a summer’s study at Robert Capener With this reinforcement and conviction of the feasibility of “the language,” relayed to him what was needed in the way of a plants and and J. Neil Jensen self-contained computer for use in teaching genetics. He has tried to get the genetics programmed into the computer along with a set of possible answers. If the student makes a correct choice the computer reaffirms. If the answer is incorrect the computer helps. It’s a self-teaching program. computer program herbarium. Mr. Miner computer for the wrote the program, and sorted information, producing labels or listings of that data. He generated labels for each specimen. It took several months to write the program. Behind the scenes, private funds were provided through the College Development Office for the purchase of a computer terminal and other hardware, wrote a small program for the computer to see if it would work and Dr. Capener “made every piece of equipment and himself available,” said Professor Clark. A motivating force on campus in computer science, Dr. Capener realizes the language of science is now computer language. “Computers are the only area where the price of things continues to go down. Competitive technology changes are so rapid - obsolete almost at the time of purchase. A $10,000 computer is more powerful now than a million dollar machine in the 50’s,” said Dr. Capener. He received a two-year grant, Charles Crittenden information ak largest in the U.S. in its category, to upgrade teaching to meet current technology. Dr. Jensen also obtained a grant to buy a small ste Sherree Luke and Dr. Garth Welch photos by Mike Schoenfeld Page 5