Linnean Society of London CARLS Project, UK

Website:  www.linnean.org
Grant Awarded: $890,000

We granted $0.9 million over three years to the Linnean Society of London to help it create digital images of all its collections (the CARLS project).

The Linnean Society is the world's oldest extant biology society. It was founded in 1788 after Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), whose botanical and zoological collections and library have been in the Society's keeping since 1829. The Society remains a leading forum for contemporary discussions on genetics, natural history, systematics, biology and the history of plant and animal taxonomy.

The Linnean Society holds several important 18th century animal and plant collections. It encourages access to these specimens for historical and scientific research. The Society’s aim is to make these unique and irreplaceable specimens available worldwide in high-resolution format on the internet.

To do this, it has initiated the CARLS Project, (Computerised Access to the Records of the Linnean Society Project), which creates digital images of all the items in its collections. The society needs funds for this project, for nine inter-related smaller projects within it, and for the necessary technical staff, hardware, software, publicity and evaluation. CARLS will enable wider access to the collections, which are otherwise rarely seen, as safety concerns preclude regular handling.

Our grant will focus on the following projects:

- The Linnean Herbarium Project
- The Linnean Insects and Other Arthropods Project
- The Linnean Correspondence Project.