Biology society to go digital

The collections include 1,564 shells

The world's oldest biological society plans to make all its major collections available in a digital format.

The Linnean Society's collections comprise almost 40,000 specimens of plants, insects, fish and shells, many of which date to the 18th Century.

The society was founded in London in 1788 and takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.

The scientist is perhaps best known for devising a system for classifying and ranking plants using Latin names.

The system he first expounded in the 1730s formed the basis of modern taxonomy which describes all living things on Earth.

The aim of the new project is to get the entire collection digitised in time for the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus' birth in 2007.

Biological priority

The society has to bid for National Lottery money to secure the future of the ambitious project.

"The biological collection's a priority and the archives as well," the society's archivist Gina Douglas told BBC News Online.

Imaging software will be used to compile many images of a specimen at several different angles, creating a lifelike impression of depth and clarity so that it can be viewed in detail.

"Things like insects will need lots of pictures whereas the plants will be straightforward scans," Ms Douglas added.

The collections comprise the specimens belonging to Carl Linnaeus, which include about 14,000 plants, 158 fish, 1,564 shells and 3,198 insects - which were purchased from Linnaeus' widow in 1784 by the society's founder James Edward Smith.

In addition, the society may digitise a collection of plants and seeds collected by Smith himself.

The society wants to make the collections freely available on its internet site.

The society also wants to make 1,600 volumes of Linnaeus' books, 3,000 manuscripts of correspondence and its society catalogues available online.