The NYBG LuEsther T. Mertz Library incorporates the latest technology along with traditional means of information gathering and delivery. The Library also has established network access to these tools and in addition has mounted four local databases that provide inventory and searching capability to some of the Library's non-book collections. A public-access World Wide Web station was installed in the Library in 1996. Within the next few years, the Library expects to expand its services to provide direct electronic access to full-text and illustrative materials. The Garden's Commitment One of the Garden's major commitments is the dissemination of research results and information to the scientific community and to the general public through the publication of scholarly journals, monographs, and books.
Communication is crucial as part of the Garden's mission in order to relay information and research.
To support this commitment, the Garden runs the NYBG Press. This major publication effort, dating back to 1896, is the largest publishing program of any independent botanical garden in the world. The NYBG operates one of the world's most active research programs in systematic and economic botany. NYBG's staff of more than 100 researchers and technicians, including Ph.D. botanists, concentrates on the systematics of New World plants and explores tropical regions where plant diversity is rapidly vanishing. The institution also is active in training the next generation of botanists through graduate programs here and through field research abroad.