The TAIF is the oldest herbarium in Taiwan. It was founded in 1904 by the Central Research Institute, during the Japanese colonial period. At present, it holds about 430,000 specimens, including nearly 30,000 ones dating from before WWII. Among them are more than 1,800 type specimens, which were designed as the standard of a species. The TAIF was moved from a site inside the Taipei Botanical Garden in 2000, and now occupies the second and third floors of the Forest Conservation Building. The collections have been divided into rooms filled with moveable cabinets: two rooms for gymnosperms and dicotyledons, one for monocotyledons, one for ferns, and one for wood specimens. There are laboratories for preparing and processing specimens, and a library devoted to plant taxonomy. The entire herbarium is maintained under a constant temperature and low relative humidity. The traditional paper records are difficult to update and limited data extension, so over the past few years the herbarium has been implementing computer-based records system. An online system has been developed, and the specimen can be searched from the website provided by the TAIF.