thank you, and...
Dean and Peter,
Thank you for your responses. I don't think putting the burden of responsibility for providing full accessioning on the original collector is consistent with the purposes of academic and institutional herbaria. If the answer is that collectors provide the full spectrum of presumed herbarium services, why would anyone submit any vouchers? Why not just maintain them in my own collection, for instance? Or, why collect at all, if the information is not going to be available for sharing with others?
I trust my botanical skills in most cases, so for me, just noting occurrences will do. Dean, I've heard you cajole CNPS members to collect more, but putting yet more burden on volunteers, such as myself -- since I don't get paid by clients or CNPS for vouchering -- isn't really any kind of solution. If the botanical community recognizes the need for continuing documentation of botanical specimens, then we need to develop processes that encourage responsible collecting and vouchering, not discouraging individuals by making the process more time-consuming and seemingly pointless than it already is.
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