The SMASCH Project,funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is developing a database of text data and images of specimens that document the distribution and classification of the plants of California. The project began in 1992. By 1999, the SMASCH database at the University and Jepson Herbaria will contain records for approximately 300,000 accessions. In February 1996, NSF conducted a site visit to the SMASCH Project. As a result the MIP and the SMASCH Project are undertaking a redesign of our home page, preparing SMASCH for distribution through the WWW by July 31, 1996, and beginning data entry for the next year of the project (80,000 accession records will be entered during the next twelve months). The current status of our activities toward these goals is contained in "What's New" at "http://ucjeps.herb.berkeley.edu/smasch/". Tom Duncan ________________________________________________________________________________ Tom Duncan 510-642-6533 (voice) Museum Informatics Project ` 510-643-8856 (fax) 378 Doe Library [log in to unmask] University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 ________________________________________________________________________________