An Introduction to the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Institution Libraries &

Biodiversity Heritage Library

BHL Australian Node Meetings National Library of Australia

4 June 2010

Topics Covered

• Background on BHL• Scope of the BHL• Content for BHL• Internal BHL

communications, structure, working organization

• Communication• Use & Users• Going Global

How Did We Get Here?

Yet another physical difficulty is the task of assembling the library and indexes which will enable the student to work under proper conditions…. the beginner must now be prepared to spend liberally, or else must establish himself in an institution where a large library exists; if he work by himself with only a few books, he will have to confine himself to a very narrow specialty indeed.

'The Limitations of Taxonomy' by J.M. Aldrich, Science, April 22, 1927, vol. LXV, no. 1686, p.381

The Taxonomic Impediment

2003. Telluride. Encyclopedia of Life meeting

February 2005. London. Library and Laboratory: the Marriage of Research, Data and Taxonomic Literature

May 2005. Washington. Ground work for the Biodiversity Heritage Library

June 2006. Washington. Organizational and Technical meeting

August 2006. New York Botanical Garden. BHL Director’s Meeting.

October 2006. St. Louis/San Francisco. Technical meetings

February 2007. Museum of Comparative Zoology. Organizational meeting

May 2007. Encyclopedia of Life and BHL Portal Launch. Washington DC.

BHL Timeline

American Museum of Natural History (New York)

Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia

California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco)

Field Museum (Chicago)

Natural History Museum (London)

Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington)

Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis)

New York Botanical Garden (New York)

Royal Botanic Garden, Kew

Botany Libraries, Harvard University

Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Encyclopedia of Life…imagine for a moment that all the diversity of the world were finally revealed and then described, say one page to a species. The description would contain the scientific name, a photograph or drawing, a brief diagnosis, and information of where the species if found. If published in conventional book form … this Great Encyclopedia of Life would occupy 60 meters of library shelf per million species … 100 million species of organisms … would extend through 6 kilometers of shelving …

E.O. Wilson (1992)

OH

O

H2N

OHH

InformaticsMarine Biological LaboratoryMissouri Botanical Garden

Species Pages & SecretariatSmithsonian

Education + LearningSmithsonian & Harvard

Synthesis CenterField Museum

Initial grant from the MacArthur and Sloan Foundations (as part of the Encyclopedia of Life grant)

Additional support from parent institutions

Additional grants from the Moore Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services

Funding

Scope of BHL

How Much Is There?

Define Core literature using major indicies, viz. TL-2, ZooRecord, Index Animalium, BPH, etc.

Estimate number of pages for serials and monographs based on BHL statistics.

Estimate ratio of pre-1923 literature to post-1923 literature from Zoo Record

Estimated 495,000,000 pages of core biodiversity literature.

100,000,000 of the core biodiversity literature is pre-1923 and likely, though not certainly, in the public domain.

Content for BHL

The Internet Archive• 501(c)(3) organization• Dedicated to “Universal Access to

Human Knowledge”• Founder of the Open Content Alliance• Provides:

– Mass scanning– Archival storage of files– Image processing– Technology development

Scanning Facilities• Northeast Regional

Scanning Facility (Boston)

• Jersey City Facility• Natural History

Museum, London• Fedscan (Library of

Congress)• Smithsonian Libraries• Missouri Botanical

Garden (Non-Scribe operation)

• Local library solutions

Permissions

• Seek permissions from copyright holders

• Opt in Copyright Model: The BHL will actively work with professional societies and associations to integrate their publications into the BHL in a way that serves the societies’ missions and goals

• BHL will digitize learned society backfiles and mount them through the BHL Portal at no cost.

• Will provide a set of files to the publishers for reuse as they see fit

Successes

• Entomological News• Journal of Hymenoptera

Research• Herpetological Review• Publications of the San Diego

Natural History Museum• California Academy of

Sciences publications• And more ...

More than:79,707 volumes29.9 million pages

Avg. monthly growth rate1,500 volumes 600,000 pages

Now Online

More than:79,707 volumes29.9 million pagesOnly 465 million to go!

Avg. monthly growth rate1,500 volumes 600,000 pagesSee you in 2088!

Now Online

Use & Users

BHL is all about OPEN & SHARING

• Librarians & libraries• Taxonomic community• Educators• Students• Policy makers• Unknown new users

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

An inordinate fondness for data

Organization & Communication

BHL Organization

• Executive Council• Institutional Council• Staff Group• Technical Group• Collections Group• Field Notebooks• Ad hoc groups

Communication

Management byFlying Around

Chris & Martin's2009 Roadshow

New Tools & Tech

New Tools & Tech

Metadata: Feedback

Assigned to library staff for review & resolution

Going Global

And so...

The cultivation of natural science cannot be efficiently carried on without reference to an extensive library

Charles Darwin, et al. (1847)

Darwin, C. R. et al. 1847. Copy of Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury [Lord John Russell], respecting the Management of the British Museum. Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers 1847, paper number (268), volume XXXIV.253 (13 April): 1-3. [Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online]

Extensive.

Extensive.Open.

Extensive.Open.Global.

1.9 million known species … most described once in a hard to find article …

Wouldn't it be nice to know more about your neighbors ...

And now, stick around!

Picture CreditsJohann Christian Daniel von Schreber

Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen (1826-)

Frederick McCoyProdromus of the Zoology of Victoria set out to describe the Colony's fauna (1885-90)

Richard LydekkerA hand-book to the marsupialia and monotremata (1896)

Jacob Christian SchäfferElementa entomologica (1766)

Charles WilkesNarrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Volume 3 (1845)