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3 Years On: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. Martin R. Kalfatovic. BHL Australia Kick Off Meeting: Melbourne Museum. 1 June 2010. Melbourne, Australia.
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Three Years On:The Biodiversity Heritage Library
Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Institution Libraries &
Biodiversity Heritage Library
BHL Australian Node Meeting ~ Museum Victoria ~ 1 June 2010
United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
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 and OutreachSmithsonian & 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 ...
BHL Advantages• Use of the articles will
increase as evidenced by citation upsurge
• Long-term management of the digital assets is provided by the BHL at no cost
• Publishers’ content is embedded in the emerging knowledge ecology that is sweeping biology in this century
• Structural mark-up of backfiles into conformance with NLM DTD (just starting)
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 … for Chris!
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)