The National Herbarium (SRGH) and Botanic Garden of Zimbabwe (NHBG) is an institute for research and information on Zimbabwean plants. The institute has over five hundred thousand (500 000) dried plant specimens in the herbarium and over 90% of Zimbabwe’s woody plant species in 23 sections of the Botanic Garden. In 1996, the institute adopted the South African National Herbarium, Pretoria (PRE), Computerized Information System (PRECIS) database when it became part of the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET). PRECIS database is used to store information extracted from herbarium specimen labels, thus maintaining an electronic record of herbarium collections. The information captured includes plant names, collector, locality, habitat and plant habit. The database has no function to upload or link to  images or to get distribution using a GIS program. To date, over 112 000 herbarium specimens have been entered into this database, representing about 5993 taxa (species, subspecies and varieties). Data entry into PRECIS prioritized specimens with Zimbabwean localities. However the development of the PRECIS database has since stopped and it only runs on Windows XP, which is no longer supported by Microsoft and does not run on current computer hardware available to most users. The institute has considered adopting the Botanical Research And Herbarium Management System (BRAHMS), which we learnt is used by other herbaria. However, BRAHMS could not be implemented without training since it has a steep learning curve. The institute has a very small budget that cannot cover training. The institute is currently searching for a new database system that facilitates data sharing with other herbaria and enables capturing data of live plant specimens in the garden along with their specific locations. The database system should be easy to learn, have a user-friendly interface, work both as a stand-alone and as a multiuser network, allow the printing of specimen labels and the creation of new queries. Ideally the system should allow easy linking to a GIS program and permit images to be uploaded. However, the Internet connection at the institute is very slow and sometimes not available, hence an internet-based system would not be the best option.