UNIVERISTY OF NORTH GEORGIA HERBARIUM PROJECT**

A herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens that have been pressed, identified, mounted to paper backing, and stored in protective cabinets. Large herbariums represent most collections available to researchers; however, they do not include smaller working herbaria due to a lack of digitization. Smaller herbaria face obstacles that include lack of funding and time available needed to process large numbers of specimens. During fall 2018, the University of North Georgia Herbarium Project (UNGHP) was awarded a University of North Georgia Presidential Innovation Incentive Award to alleviate these constraints by providing funding and staffing for the database. The goal of the UNG Herbarium Project is to process, database and record all herbarium specimens into one central network. The plant specimens, some of which are approximately 30 years old, were collected by undergraduate students through academic courses such as Identification of Vascular Flora (BIOL3329K ). Herbarium specimens continue to be collected by undergraduate students throughout each academic year. UNG research students, as well as public researchers, will have access to an online database which will provide access to properly curated and maintained specimens’ representative of the biodiversity within Northeast Georgia. The UNGHP also provides a framework by which new acquisitions can be included seamlessly into the existing natural history collection