What's New

The following are all current and archived announcements from the front page bulletin board.

21 October 2011: Recent staffing changes
Best wishes to Tom Christian, who has left his position with BG-BASE to become the Project Officer for the National Tree Collections of Scotland (NTCS). Tom's role will be to build and promote the NTCS network and to help site managers obtain support for looking after the collections. Thank you for your invaluable service Tom!

In his stead we welcome Carl Berthold (C.Berthold@rbge.ac.uk) to the BG-BASE team. Carl recently completed his Masters degree at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which included considerable use of geographic information systems (GIS). Welcome aboard Carl!

15 July 2011: Existing users add Preserved Collections module
Two long time users of the Living Collections module have added the Preserved Collections module as well. Both Royal Botanic Garden - Hamilton (Canada) and Jardín Botánico BUAP (Mexico) had been maintaining separate databases to manage their herbaria. This resulted in the separate maintenance of botanical names, geographic locations, collectors, and a host of other information. By incorporating their herbaria data into BG-BASE, all of this information is now shared, resulting in consistent data management and institutional views between the living and preserved collections at both sites.

1 June 2011: User notes
Just a few articles from the BG-BASE community...

Arnold Arboretum
Coastal Maine BG
Dunedin BG

1 December 2010: New additions to the BG-BASE support team
We are delighted to announce the addition of two new people joining the BG-BASE support team. Tom Christian has been based in our Edinburgh office this year while Mary Rager (Byrne) is working out of San Francisco. Both Tom and Mary will be involved in various activities for us, including providing technical support, on-site training, writing documentation, and testing new upgrades. Welcome to the BG-BASE team!

15 October 2010: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Auckland Botanic Gardens (New Zealand)
Rutgers Gardens (Princeton, NJ)
Budapest Zoo and Botanic Garden (Hungary)
Rhododendron Species Conservation Group (England)

1 July 2010: Technology Award
Kerry Walter and Mike O'Neal are presented with the 2010 Innovations in Technology award for their work with the Seeds of Success program. Capability was developed within BG-BASE to facilitate the recording of collection data in the field by SOS collectiing teams, which could then be incorporated electronically into the national office database.

21 May 2010: See us at the APGA annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, June 1-5, 2010
Please be sure to visit our booth during the Wednesday evening reception as well as all day Thursday in the exhibit hall. We hope to see you there!

21 May 2010: See us at the BGCI conference in Dublin, Ireland, June 13-19, 2010
Please be sure to visit our booth on Monday, June 14th. Kerry Walter and Mike O'Neal will also be giving separate presentations on Tuesday, June 15th. We hope to see you there!

21 May 2010: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Reader Rock Garden (Calgary, Canada)
Kent State University (Warren, OH)
The Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai (Key Largo, FL)
Tacoma Metro Parks (Tacoma, WA)
Rocky Mountain Research Station - USFS (Boise, ID)
University of Denver (Denver, CO)
University of California (Santa Cruz, CA)

25 August 2009: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
VanDusen Botanical Garden (Canada)
Atlanta History Center (Atlanta, GA)
Rivierenhof (Belgium)

10 May 2009: See us at the APGA annual conference in St. Louis, June 24-27, 2009
Be sure to attend our session on Friday, June 26th, 10:30am - 12:00pm, "Mapping Options with BG-BASE Collections Management Software". Please also be sure to visit our booth during the Wednesday evening reception as well as all day Thursday in the exhibit hall. We hope to see you there!

3 March 2009: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Vizcaya Museum and Garden (Miami, FL)
Oman Botanic Garden (Oman)
Gardens by the Bay (Singapore)

30 October 2008: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Hidden Lake Gardens (Tipton, MI)
Owl's Nest Estate (Stony Brook, NY)
Jardin Botanico Culiacan (Culiacan, Mexico)
Auckland Botanic Gardens (Auckland, New Zealand)

5 June 2008: BG-BASE and ESRI to form new partnership.
Founded in 1969, ESRI designs and develops the world's leading geographic information system (GIS) technology. In early May the developers of BG-BASE spent two days at ESRI headquarters working towards the goal of creating links between ESRI products and BG-BASE. It was an extraordinary opportunity to take advantage of ESRI.s .best and brightest. as we discussed various ways to foster these links and collaboration. We are very grateful to ESRI CEO Jack Dangermond, Charles Convis, and Angela Lee for supporting this project and our vision of integration between our two systems.

24 March 2008: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Bard College (New York, US)
British Embassy Residence - Washington (Washington, DC)
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (Kuwait City, Kuwait)
Naples Botanical Garden (Naples, FL)
Uppsala University Botanical Garden (Uppsala, Sweden)

26 September 2007: Version 6.8 is now available
This upgrade focuses primarily on the inclusion of "skins". "Skins" allow a user to customize entry windows to facilitate more effective use of the system. Contact us with your version number for full details and for download instructions. We strongly encourage all users of BG-BASE to upgrade to version 6.8 as soon as possible.

26 September 2007: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Blithewold Arboretum and Gardens (Rhode Island, US)
Haverford College Arboretum (Pennsylvania, US)
Mountain Top Arboretum (New York, US)
Taranaki Regional Council (New Zealand)

3 April 2007: BG-BASE at the 3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress

Look for us at the 3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Wuhan, China, from April 16-22. We will have a booth in the exhibit hall at the Science and Technology Conference Center and we will also be attending many of the scheduled sessions and events during the week. We look forward to seeing you!

3 April 2007: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE *
St. Louis Community College (Missouri, US)
International Waterlily and Water Garden Society (Oregon, US)
Heritage Museum and Gardens (Massachusetts, US)
Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (Taipei, Taiwan)
Glasgow Botanic Gardens (Glasgow, Scotland, UK)
Altamont (New York, US)

30 Jan 2007: Revelation Software User Conference, Seattle; BG-BASE staff attended this three day conference that brought together Revelation programmers from around the world to learn the latest tips and tricks.

13 March 2007: "Seeds of Success Technology Improvement Project", Desert Botanical Garden; pilot project in which several SOS field collecting teams were provided rugged laptops, GPS units, and copies of BG-BASE to facilitate data collection in the field.

19 June 2006: BG-BASE profiled on the Revelation Software web site.

24 April 2006: Producing labels from BG-BASE; National Botanic Garden of Belgium [PLANTCOL consortium members and staff of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium]

27 March 2006: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories (North Carolina, US)
Toronto Botanical Garden (Toronto, Canada)
Taltree Arboretum and Gardens (Indiana, US)
Nezahat Gkyigit Botanic Garden (Istanbul, Turkey)

27 March 2006: George Owusu-Afriyie, Director of Aburi Botanic Garden, describes how BG-BASE is helping to conserve medicinal plants in Ghana.

15 November 2005: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Botanical Garden of Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium)
Miami University - Hamilton, The Conservatory (Ohio, US)
Adelaide Botanic Garden (Adelaide, Australia)
Arboretum of The University of Central Florida (Florida, US)
University of California Davis Arboretum (California, US)
Quaker Hill Native Plant Garden (Pawling, New York)

2 August 2005: Two BG-BASE institutions make their herbaria data available on-line

Two institutions using the Preserved Collections module of BG-BASE to manage their herbaria have recently made their data available on-line. Click the link(s) below to search their collections.
George Safford Torrey Herbarium at the University of Connecticut (UCONN)
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E)
Check the multi-site frequently for updated data sets as well.

29 November 2004: Welcome to the following new users to BG-BASE
Jardin Botanico Francisco Xavier Clavijero (Jalapa, Mexico)
Bureau of Land Management (Washington, DC)
Willowwood Arboretum (New Jersey, US)
Reford Gardens (Quebec, Canada)
Chanticleer (Pennsylvania, US)

The following institutions are also now using BG-BASE as part of the PLANTCOL project in Belgium: Hortus Botanicus Lovaniensis (Leuven)
Stad Antwerpen Plantentuin (Antwerpen)
Hof ter Saksen (Beveren)
Arboretum Bokrijk (Bokrijk)

25 October 2004: Version 6.4 and updated QuickStart guide now available

Version 6.4 represents nearly a year of further development and contains (literally) thousands of changes and enhancements to the system. And, it's free for all Windows users of BG-BASE! Included in the upgrade is an updated QuickStart guide.
| ** This upgrade may only be applied to BG-BASE versions 6.2 and 6.3. **

If you are using an earlier version of BG-BASE, contact us with your version number for additional details. We strongly encourage all users of BG-BASE to upgrade to version 6.4 as soon as possible.

23 August 2004: European BG-BASE User's Group meeting held in the U.K.

A European BG-BASE User's Group meeting held in July 2004 at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

21 June 2004: BG-BASE Inc. to open office in Maine We are delighted to announce that we are opening a new office later this summer in Brunswick, Maine. Mike O'Neal will be re-locating to this area in late July, at which point he will begin to transition BG-BASE Inc. services and activities to the 'Pine Tree' state. The office at The Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Ohio will continue to operate until this transition has been completed (likely late fall), at which point all U.S.-based operations will be located in Maine. Operations at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh will not be affected. Further details will be posted as they become available, please contact Mike O'Neal if you have any questions.

17 June 2004: New installations in Belgium and Florida

Two new institutions recently joined the ranks of BG-BASE users. We are pleased to welcome Jardin Botanique National de Belgiqu (Brussels, Belgium, April 2004) and The Florida Botanical Gardens (Largo, Florida, May 2004) to the BG-BASE community.

24 May 2004: BG-BASE becomes Solution Partner with Revelation Software

The Solution Partner Program is reserved for companies that have a proven track record in developing and supporting software applications using Revelation Software products. Acceptance into this program will give us unprecedented access to Revelation's product support and marketing capabilities. Ever wonder who else uses products from Revelation Software? Take a look!

5 May 2004: BG-BASE User Group meeting to be held June 9th in Dallas, Texas

The annual BG-BASE User's Group meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 9th, from 1:00-2:15 pm in the State Room of the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The meeting is being held in conjunction with the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta annual conference. This year's meeting will feature an in-depth look at the latest version of BG-BASE and will include various tips and tricks to maximize your use of the system. Also be sure to visit us in the exhibit hall during the conference itself. See you there!

28 April 2004: BG-BASE at the Second World Botanic Gardens Congress

BG-BASE was the topic of a one-hour session presented by Kerry Walter on the first day of the Second World Botanic Gardens Congress held in Barcelona, Spain in April 2004. The presentation started with general aspects of plant records and then moved on to the ways in which BG-BASE has been designed to provide solutions to what are often inherently complex issues. Despite some notable 'challenges' caused by a data projector which took to turning itself off every 45 seconds, the session was well attended and resulted in a good deal of interest throughout the rest of the 5-day Congress.

12 April 2004: Nebraska to Norway, new installations

Two new institutions recently joined the ranks of BG-BASE users. We are pleased to welcome Lauritzen Gardens (Omaha, Nebraska, February 2004) and the Agder Museum of Natural History & Botanic Garden (Kristiansand, Norway, March, 2004) to the BG-BASE community. With the addition of Norway, BG-BASE is now used in 26 countries.

12 April 2004: Windows 98 workstation support being phased out

Revelation Software has recently released the requirements for their next version of OpenInsight (version 7). Version 7 will not be supported on any version of Windows 98. Accordingly, we will also be phasing out BG-BASE support of Windows 98 workstations within the next 5-7 months. Please plan accordingly!

12 April 2004: The Holden Arboretum receives Stanley Smith grant

The Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust has provided funding to The Holden Arboretum to facilitate the translation of the Living Collections help screens into Spanish. This will be done in conjunction with several DOS-to-Windows upgrades for existing Latin America sites, and will include a new installation and documentation workshop to be held in Xalapa, Mexico later this year. Many thanks to the Trust for its continued support!

March 2002: BG-BASE version 6!

BG-BASE version 6 for Windows was previewed in July 2001 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) in Denver, Colorado. This latest version represents 16 years of working with a variety of botanical gardens, arboreta, zoos, universities, and similar institutions to develop a comprehensive and standardized software application to manage your collections data. Utilizing OpenInsight as its new database engine, BG-BASE retains the variable-length fields and multivalue field capabilities built into all previous versions of the product. New to version 6 is the S/LIST Report Writer, an extremely flexible report wizard that allows users to include mixed fonts and various other formatting parameters directly into their reports ‘on the fly'. Existing reports are far easier to save and retrieve as needed, and printer management is now controlled in the same manner as all other Windows applications.

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