Sharing Data for Biodiversity: The Biodiversity Heritage Library

Sharing Data for Biodiversity Biodiversity Heritage Library

Martin R. Kalfatovic :: Internet Archive Leaders' Forum :: 21 October 2010

Biodiversity Heritage Library American Museum of

Natural History Field Museum California Academy of

Sciences Museum of Comparative

Zoology (Harvard) New York Botanical

Garden Natural History Museum

(London)

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Missouri Botanical Garden

Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia)

Marine Biological Laboratory/WHOI

Harvard Botany Libraries

BHL Global data sharing

BHL Global

BHL Europe

BHL China

BHL Global

Brasil

Australia

Egypt

Achievements

> Digitization of biodiversity literature

> Creation of a global partnership> Engagement of the research

community

31+ million pages

Six Continents

~1.5 m users

231 countries

AccessPutting biodiversity literature in the hands of researchersSet the data freeSuck it; mash it; broadcast itIncreaseReuse, recyle, expand

An inordinate fondness for data

The Machine is Using Us

• Direct Traffic: 16.55%• Referring Sites: 22.20%

– EOL– Wikipedia: – Tropicos– Smithsonian– BioOne– Animal Base

• Search Engines: 61.15%

Open Software & DevelopmentBHL Bits:Portal code, utilities, serviceshttp://code.google.com/p/bhl-bits/Taxonomic Literature GroupGoogle Group for discussion of “taxonomic literature & the services required to make literature interoperable within biodiversity research and biodiversity informatics.”http://groups.google.com/group/taxonlit

Open Data

DownloadsSimple tab-delimited exports of core data http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/data/BHLExportSchema.pdf

Data modelDB schema as ERD http://bhl-bits.googlecode.com/files/20090930_BHLDataModel.pdf

ServicesNames ServiceReturn all occurrences of a name throughout BHL digitized corpusDocumentation: http://bit.ly/2e6sg9Access to 51million name strings using TaxonFinder1.4million unique namesWorking out a strategy for obscure speciesAlgorithm improvements to detect nomenclatural & taxonomic acts

OpenURLFacilitate links to citations: protologues, articles, referencesDocumentation: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/openurlhelp.aspxUseful to Nomenclators, Reference SystemsIPNITropicos

Other Consumers

EarthCape LabsSort/Search capabilities with harvested namesYouTube demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw7qw87JTOs

BioGUIDBHL Name Timelinehttp://bioguid.info/bhl/

BHL Name Comparisonhttp://bioguid.info/bhl/compare.php

BioStor Images

Global data sharing requiresa social infrastructure

Dear Sir / Madam Can i just congratulate you on an absolutely brilliant online resource. I am compiling a report on an invasive hydromedusae and could not believe the ease and efficiency of this web page which genuinely saved me weeks of my life

Dear Sir / Madam Can i just congratulate you on an absolutely brilliant online resource. I am compiling a report on an invasive hydromedusae and could not believe the ease and efficiency of this web page which genuinely saved me weeks of my life

What Users Say

Dear Biodiversity Heritage Library: I am in awe of your work. Thank you so much. As an illustrator who scans a lot of my work, I know how very onerous the task is. Many thanks!

Dear Biodiversity Heritage Library: I am in awe of your work. Thank you so much. As an illustrator who scans a lot of my work, I know how very onerous the task is. Many thanks!

Just a quick line to thank you and your organisation for the foresight and generosity in allowing these works to be dowloaded.

Just a quick line to thank you and your organisation for the foresight and generosity in allowing these works to be dowloaded.

Specimen collections Databases Publications Observations ‘Gray’ literature Index cards Field notebooks

Taxonomic Impediment

In any well-appointed Natural History Library there should be found every book and every edition of every book dealing in the remotest way with the subjects concerned.

Charles Davies Sherborn, Epilogue to Index Animalium, March 1922

The Biodiversity Heritage Library

Extensive. Open. Global.

Thank You

Thanks to:Chris Freeland, Bianca Crowley, Suzanne Pilsk, Team BHL Global