The Biodiversity Heritage Library Portal: The Rectification of Names

Biodiversity Heritage Library MeetingMuseum of Comparative Zoology, February 7-8, 2007

Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Institution Libraries

Biodiversity Heritage LibraryPortal

The Rectification of Names



…Names…Rectification of Names (Cheng Ming)What is necessary is to rectify names …

If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.

The Analects of ConfuciusBook 13, verse 3 (Legge translation, 1980)



Our first thought:

BiodiversityHeritageLibrary.org





Since we would be covering more than botany, the obvious choice was:

ZoBo.org

Maria Sibylla Merian Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium, [1705]



BoZo.org

Or we could give plants precedence:



Maybe TWO portals were needed:

Botanicus.org

Adam LonicerKreuterbuch: künstliche Conterfeytunge der Bäume, Stauden, Hecken …, 1582



Faunicus.org

Reginald PocockBiologia Centrali-AmericanaChilopoda and Diplopoda, 1910



The Wine Advisory BoardThe California Way1950

Omnivoricus.org



NotDeadThings.org

Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de BuffonHistoire naturelle : générale et particulière (Oiseaux), 1799-1808



Extinctionary.org

Othniel Charles MarshThe dinosaurs of North America, 1896



Maybe something to tie into the Encyclopedia of Life:

• LibraryofLife.org• WikiBioLitty.org

Levinus VincentElenchus tabularum, pinacothecarum, atque nonnullorum cimeliorum . . ., 1719



Or inspired by the All Species Foundation or Species 2000:

Omnibiosis.org

Vitalis.org

Allogy.orgFriedrich Heinrich von Kittlitz

Beschreibung mehrerer neuer oder wenig gekannterArten des Geschlechtes Acanthurus, im stillen Ocean …

1834



• BioSpeciesBrary.org

• FloraunaBrary.org

• BioBrary.org• LifeBrary.org

• BioLitBrary.org

Maybe we need to include the “L” word in some way:

Gaspar SchottMechanica hydraulico-pneumatica, 1657



Or maybe something more “metadata-y”

• QHQKQL.org

• Z672.org

• Z265.org

• UDC574.org

Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de BuffonHistoire naturelle : générale et particulière (Oiseaux), 1799-1808

Histoire naturelle générale et particulière…vol. 14. (1766)



Or more of a 18th century library

LibraryofNaturalCuriosities.org




But in German …

WunderkammerBibliothekKatalogDerLebendenSachen.org




So we’d better stick with English:

CardCatalogofLife.org

Massachusetts. Zoological and Botanical SurveyReports on the fishes, reptiles and birds of Massachusetts, 1839



… and make allowances:

CardCatalog(ue)ofLife.org

Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

Our reptiles and batrachians; … indigenous to Great Britain, 1893



Or perhaps just stay enigmatic …

42.museum

Antonín FričFauna der Gaskohle und der Kalksteine…1893-



Suggestions????



Thanks To

• Chris Freeland

• Doug Holland

• Suzanne Pilsk• Neil Thomson

A Fathead (genus Psychrolutes)

Technology

The Biodiversity Heritage Library Portal: The Rectification of Names