Examining the spectra of herbarium uses and users

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the spectrum of herbarium uses and users. A simplified classification of herbarium uses is presented and used to investigate the spectrum of uses of herbaria by means of a Web of Science survey covering the period 2013–16. To investigate the user profile of a herbarium, we categorised herbarium visitors to the Natural History Museum, London (BM), using the same categories, for the period September 2016–August 2017. The relative number of papers published across years in all categories, except phylogeny, was broadly consistent. Taxonomic work was the largest category with identification ranked second across years. Phylogeny was the only category to show a marked increase in the number of publications and a change in its ranking during the study period with a year-on-year increase evident. The visitor survey revealed that researchers undertaking taxonomic work account for the vast majority of visits. Research focused on the history of science was the second-largest class of v...