A Vast Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library
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Transcript of A Vast Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library
Martin R. KalfatovicTwitter@BHLProgDirector
Program Director
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Smithsonian Libraries
17 March 2017
A Vast Library of LifeThe Biodiversity Heritage Library
“The cultivation of natural
history cannot be efficiently
carried out without reference to
an extensive library.”
Charles Darwin, et al (1847)
Inspiring Discovery through Free Access
to Biodiversity Knowledge
Over 10 years of inspiring discovery
15th
-21st
centuries
through free & open accessto biodiversity literature & archives
from the
Mission
The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research
methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity
literature openly available to the world as part of a
global biodiversity community.
Natural history literature and archives contain
information that is critical to studying life on Earth.
SPECIES
DESCRIPTIONS
DISTRIBUTION
RECORDS
HISTORY OF
SCIENTIFIC
DISCOVERY
CLIMATE
RECORDS
INFORMATION
ON EXTINCT
SPECIES
SCIENTIFIC
OBSERVATIONS
ECOSYSTEM
PROFILES
SCIENTIFIC
ILLUSTRATIONS
“Last year I threw down the gauntlet to [BHL staff] and asked if
there was any possibility of BHL arranging to have made available
the entire run of the UK periodical The Gardeners' Chronicle. I
asked because there is nowhere in my country of residence
(Denmark) that holds it, requiring that I make time consuming and
expensive research trips to London or Cambridge in the UK should I
wish to examine the periodical. I was amazed and delighted that
BHL has achieved what I asked. This contribution to the BHL
catalogue has been a real boon to my research.”
Dr. Toby MusgraveHorticulturalist & BotanistLecturer, Danish Institute for Study Abroad
EXTENSIVE
51+MILLIONPAGES
TITLES VOLUMES
114,000+ 194,000+
173+MILLIONINSTANCES OF TAXONOMIC NAMES
578+IN-COPYRIGHT TITLES LICENSED FOR BHL
AGREEMENTS
WITH 250+LICENSORS
*Stats as of February 2017
Systema naturae
per regna tria
naturae.Ed. 10, 1758.
Carl von Linne.
biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542
___________________
Considered the starting
point of zoological
nomenclature.
Listed about 10,000
species of organisms, of
which about 6,000 are
plants and 4,236 are
animals.
The earliest work in BHL is
Theophrasti De Historia plantarum liber primus
(1483)
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40913187
Not just “heritage”
collections
> 23% of BHL's collection of
188,970 items is post-1922
> 72.3% of BHL’s collection is
free of copyright restriction in
the United States
As of August 2016
Logbook of the
yacht "France"Whitney South Sea
Expedition of the American
Museum of Natural History
Volume: v.2 (1926-1928)
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44821245
__________________
BHL includes over 100,000
pages of Field Notes and
related archival material.
Ongoing transcription projects
will make these fully
searchable.
Bonn Zoological
Bulletin 61 (1): 135-
39 (July 2012)
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4482124
___________________
With the assistance of
BioStor, BHL now indexes
over 202,000 articles,
chapters or other “segments”
of BHL content.
These are all searchable
through the bibliographic
interface to BHL.
Scotopteryx kuznetzovi
(Wardikian, 1957)
(Lepidoptera, Geometridae,
Larentiinae),
a new species for the fauna of
Iran and Turkey
Hossein Rajaei Sh.* & Dieter
Stuning
Charles Darwin’s Library
biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/collection/darwi
nlibrary
___________________
A digital edition and virtual
reconstruction of the surviving
books owned by Charles Darwin.
It also provides full transcriptions of
his annotations and marks. These
works provide important insight into
the development of Darwin’s ideas
on evolution and natural selection.
"If this were true, adios theory"
Charles Darwin wrote these words
in response to reading Principles of
Geology, v. 2 (1837) by Charles
Lyell, who was arguing that changes
in species have limitations. Darwin,
on the other hand, argued that
changes in species are infinite and
continuous, an integral concept
crucial to his theory of evolution.
“[BHL] is a fantastic resource, making research possible
that would never have been considered in the past. I use it
to find information on particular species and also to find
source documents for further analysis. The ability to
search by taxon name is invaluable.”
Dr. Quentin GroomResearch Assistant and Biogeographer
Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium
OPEN
A Commitment to Open Access…
BHL is a charter signatory of the Bouchout Declaration
for Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management.
Fundamental principles of the Declaration:
Free & Open Use
Policies to Foster Free &
Open Access
Persistent Identifiers
Tracking Identifiers to
Ensure Attribution
Infrastructure, Standards &
Protocols to Improve Access
Linked Data
Sustainable Knowledge Management
Registers for Content &
Services
CUSTOM PDF
DOWNLOADS
517,000+
TO DATE
ARTICLE
INDEXING
202,000+
TO DATE
DOI
ASSIGNMENT
104,000+
TO DATE
BHL offers a range of free services
API &
DATA
EXPORTS
TAXONOMIC
NAME
SEARCHING
REFERENCE
MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
*Stats as of November 2016
Agatea violaris
Type specimen from the
U.S. National Herbarium
(Smithsonian Institution)
collected by the United
States Exploring
Expedition, 1838-1842
Agatea violaris
Type specimen from the
U.S. National Herbarium
(Smithsonian Institution)
collected by the United
States Exploring
Expedition, 1838-1842
Illustration from the USExEx
“Congratulations on a superior on-line library service that is of
great help to anybody that has no direct access to old literature
(like many scientists in developing countries). I used to be
located in the Natural History Museum in Leiden, Netherlands
with an excellent library, but after my retirement I moved to
Brazil and lost direct contact with the Leiden library. In many
cases BHL now provides what I am looking for.”
Dr. Marinus HoogmoedCurator of Reptiles and Amphibians, 1963-2003Naturalis Biodiversity Center
GLOBAL
1. London2. New York3. Mexico City4. Paris5. Sydney6. Berlin7. Washington8. Melbourne9. New Delhi10. Sao Paulo
Top 10 Cities by Sessions, CY 2016
1. Bangkok2. Quezon City3. Singapore4. Jakarta5. Hanoi6. Makati7. Kuala Lumpur8. Cebu City9. Ho Chi Minh City10. Surabaya
Top 10 ASEAN Cities by Sessions, CY 2016
5.9+MILLIONTOTAL USERS TO DATE
AVERAGE MONTHLY
USERS (CY16)109,000+
11+ MILLIONTOTAL WEBSITE VISITS TO DATE
AVERAGE MONTHLY
VISITS (CY16)176,000+
VISITS FROM
243COUNTRIES &
TERRITORIES
*Stats as of February 2017
8.51% sessions
Mobile Sessions CY 2015
10.45% sessions
Mobile Sessions CY 2016
Mobile sessions increase by 34.43% over the past year
“BHL is radically changing the status quo and
democratizing access to knowledge about
biodiversity. Now anyone in the world has
instant access to the original species
description in a couple of clicks.”
Dr. John SullivanEvolutionary BiologistAcademy of Natural Sciences, PhiladelphiaCornell University
GLOBAL &
COLLABORATIVE
BHL collaborates with and contributes
content to a variety of partners…
Two more recent collaboration opportunities
Engagement
BHL is used in exhibitions in our partner institutions, such as “Once There Were Billions” at the National Museum of Natural History.
“BHL provides an excellent service for studies
of marine and other biodiversity. I’ve said it
before, you folks do a great job. Keep up the
good work; you’ve got lots of admirers out
there.”
Dr. Thomas CarefootMarine BiologistUniversity of British Columbia, Canada
Expanding Directions
107,000+
IMAGES IN FLICKR
TOTAL IMAGES
TAGGED29,900+
202+MILLIONTOTAL VIEWS ON IMAGES
OF TOTAL FLICKR
COLLECTION TAGGED
TAGGED IMAGES IN
EOL
27% 18,000+
BHL FLICKR NAMED 1 OF WIRED’S
27 MUST-FOLLOW FEEDS IN
THE WORLD OF SCIENCE*Stats as of November 2016
WWW.FLICKR.COM/BIODIVLIBRARY
64,500+TOTAL FOLLOWERS ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
11,800+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
11,400+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
32,300+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
5,000+
AVERAGE MONTHLY
READERS (CY16)
2,300+
FOLLOW @BIODIVLIBRARY
*Stats as of February 2017
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
4,000+
AWARDS
• Digital Library Federation (DLF) 2016
Community/Capacity Award (joint recipient with
Archive of American Broadcasting).
2016
• Internet Archive Hero Award. Global Leaders
in Sharing Knowledge.
2015
• Laureate. IDG’s Computerworld Honors
Program.
• Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary
Merit. Council on Botanical and Horticultural
Libraries.
2013
• Victorian Government Arts Leadership
Recognition Award (BHL Australia).
2012
• John Thackray Medal. The Society for the
History of Natural History.
2011
• Outstanding Collaboration Award. Association
for Library Collections & Technical Services
(ALCTS).
2010
“Joining BHL represents a greater opportunity for CONABIO
to provide broader access to Mexico’s biodiversity knowledge
contained within published literature. We believe that only
with a well-informed society it is possible to develop and
strengthen a culture of appreciation and valuation of
Mexico’s natural capital.”
Dr. José SarukhánCONABIO National Coordinator
Mexico City, Mexico
In Closing …
A Larger Context …
Convention on Biodiversity (CBD Article 17, 1992)
“It shall also, where feasible, include repatriation of
information.”
A Larger Context …
Darwin Declaration (1998)
“The essential requirements for accessing and utilising this
global information are: that existing information held in literature
and by current experts is made available electronically”
A Larger Context …
The Biodiversity Commons
BHL strives to be part of that larger Biodiversity Commons and
provide a space for the literature of biodiversity to be widely
available
The Commons succeeds when,
among other elements, there is
"the presence of a community;
small and stable populations
with a thick social network and
social norms".
Elinor Ostrom, "Sustainable development and the
tragedy of commons" (2009)
By engaging with the larger biodiversity
community, by being a cornerstone of
the “biodiversity conmons,” and major
stakeholder institutions, BHL is creating
a sustainable biodiversity commons for
the literature of taxonomy.
The Sixth Extinction
The "normal" rate of extinction is one species every
four years.
Today, species are going extinct at a rate of FOUR per
HOUR.
THE STORY OF ENGAGEMENT USING OUTREACH TO
SHARE THE BHL STORY
Grace Costantino
Share your thoughts on social media using #BHLib
BHL Outreach and Communication Manager
OUTREACH STRATEGY USING OUR BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND SHARE OUR STORIES
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org
@BioDivLibrary on:
www.flickr.com/biodivlibrary
SUPPORTING ACCESS, RESEARCH & IMPACT Dr. Nura Abdul Karim
“SBG Library believes that BHL, with its rich digital repository of biological information, will continue to play an important role in botanical research and has indirectly also become a platform for long-term preservation of historical and legacy biodiversity literatures.”
DEPUTY DIRECTOR | Library, Training & External Relations. Singapore Botanic Gardens
SUPPORTING… Access
Dr. Nura Abdul Karim
“In Southeast Asia, many of the researchers in botanical institutions with very limited resources are hard-pressed to access important literature that may only be available in a few select libraries in the developed world. Information inequality between developing and developed world researchers can be narrowed with the availability of open access digital repositories.”
Plants, seeds and orchids outward register, 26 July 1957-27 October 1959.
Digitized by Singapore Botanic Gardens. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/206359.
SUPPORTING… Research
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3937.1.1
Dr. Nura Abdul Karim
“Taxonomy, systematic biology and conservation are more dependent on historic literature than many other fields of science. Access to a wider array of literature through BHL can have a profound and positive impact on biodiversity in the region as research can be more wide ranging, accurate and speedy and the data vital in many fields of science and conservation can be published in a much shorter timeframe.”
Plants and seeds inward register, 16 January 1920-28 August 1926. Digitized by Singapore Botanic Gardens. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/206637.
SUPPORTING… Library Impact
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3937.1.1
Dr. Nura Abdul Karim
“Over time, the SBG Library has amassed a good collection of rare and scholarly printed literature, housed in a climate-controlled archive room, which are accessible to, and utilised by, only a handful of privileged in-house researchers. Recently, SBG Library has embarked on a programme of restoring and digitising the collections. Access via BHL will allow far greater access to academics, researchers and students, and possibly even to the global public, than was ever possible before.” List of Books in Library. 1903-1909.
Digitized by Singapore Botanic Gardens. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/206736.
SUPPORTING SCIENCE Dr. Varad B. Giri
“BHL is doing a wonderful service for researchers like me, who work with limited resources in developing countries like India. For our recent paper dealing with a 180 year old taxonomic mystery, we needed to refer to many historical articles. Without the help of BHL, this would have taken more time or been very difficult.”
POST DOCTORAL FELLOW | National Centre for Biological Sciences (Bangalore, India)
SUPPORTING… Science
Hardwicke's bloodsucker. Previously classified as Brachysaura minor. By researching the taxonomic history of this species using BHL, in combination with molecular and morphological data, Dr. Giri and his coauthors provided a new name (Calotes minor) and placement for this species in a 2015 Vertebrate Zoology paper.
Published Online at: www.senckenberg.de /vertebrate-zoology
Calotes minor. Photo credit: Varad Giri
SUPPORTING… Science
“For a taxonomist like me, BHL is an amazing resource. BHL has had a big, positive impact on my research by putting all of the historical literature online where one can access it with ease. I strongly feel that if BHL would not have been available, I would not have performed good taxonomic work with such ease due to a lack of historical literature.” The original description of Calotes minor.
Dr. Giri downloaded this paper using BHL! The Zoological Journal. v. 3 (1827-1828). www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27485744. Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.
Dr. Varad B. Giri
SUPPORTING HISTORY OF SCIENCE RESEARCH Dr. Paul D. Brinkman
“BHL is a wonderful resource. I use a lot of old and obscure resources in my line of work, and BHL makes getting access to these sources a lot easier.”
HEAD OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE RESEARCH LAB | North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
SUPPORTING… History of Science
The Question: When did Charles Darwin become a "convinced transmutationist”? During, or after, the Beagle voyage? Forming an hypothesis requires access to Darwin’s publications and the books in his library. BHL provided these.
In a 2010 paper published in Journal of the History of Biology, Dr. Brinkman argues that Darwin’s own Beagle journals support the early conversion hypothesis. For example, Darwin discusses similarities between some of the fossils he was collecting and extant species - notably Glyptodontinae fossils and living armadillos.
Glyptodontinae are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armored armadillos. Description d'un nouveau genre d'édente fossile renfermant plusieurs espèces voisines du glyptodon. Digitized by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/181758.
SUPPORTING… History of Science
"I probably use old museum annual reports more than any other single resource on BHL. A lot of these old reports have been relegated to offsite storage at many university libraries, which can sometimes mean long delays. BHL, however, provides them at the click of a button!"
Dr. Paul D. Brinkman
Darwin's rhea (Rhea pennata). The existence of two distinct rhea species, coexisting in the same habitat, impacted Darwin’s ideas on the mutability of species. The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. Pt. 3 (Birds) (1841). Digitized by MBLWHOI Library. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14062633
SUPPORTING EDUCATION Dr. Tracey Hunter-Doniger
“Before photography, scientists used drawings to record what they saw. Scientists also had to be artists. These lesson plans are an opportunity for students to see how art and science are connected.”
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR | College of Charleston
Link to Catesby volumes in BHL and the Catesby lesson plans available to
teachers through PBS Learning Media!
SUPPORTING… Education
Example of the 3rd and 5th grade Catesby lesson, whereby students "zoom" in on details in the specimen being observed. Example by Dr. Tracey Hunter-Doniger.
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.1st ed. 1729-1747. Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/62015
SUPPORTING… Education
“Having access to this literature through BHL is a treasure. Being able to show the students the prints of the original artworks and use them to explain that these represent what Catesby saw and what he wanted to convey speaks volumes to the students.”
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.1st ed. 1729-1747. Digitized by Smithsonian Libraries. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/62015
Dr. Tracey Hunter-Doniger
SUPPORTING ART Emily Williams
“The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an amazing resource for visual artists! Any artist interested in learning about natural history and science would consider these rare resources invaluable.”
GLASS ARTIST & ADJUNCT ART PROFESSOR | Troy University
SUPPORTING… Art “This book features some very detailed illustrations on Crinoids.
The ability to visually understand how a Crinoid is structured becomes part of my unique creative process. Discovering an exciting branching pattern or joint segmentation may inspire an entire sculpture.”
Emily Williams
Manuel D’actinologie ou de Zoophytologie. 1850.
Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9321291.
Glass Seaweed sculpture by Emily Williams, 2014.
Created using borosilicate glass and a glass hand-torch.
SUPPORTING… Art
“Finding detailed illustrations of certain ocean life forms can be very difficult and time-consuming. Through the BHL website I can input various search terms to access an abundance of research materials. I am most drawn to the digitized books from the 19th century containing beautiful, detailed illustrations. Being a visual artist I find the high-resolution images invaluable. This allows me to enlarge and examine intricate illustrations as if using a microscope!”
Emily Williams Emily Williams creating Glass Seaweed sculpture in her Columbus, Georgia studio.
SUPPORTING TAXONOMY Dr. Barna Páll-Gergely
“Simply speaking we need three main things for a taxonomy: (1) type specimens of known species deposited in museums, (2) previously not examined material, and (3) literature. BHL provided nearly all the literature we needed.”
BIOLOGIST | Department of Biology, Shinshu University (Japan)
SUPPORTING TAXONOMY Vargapupa biheli
“We may think it is natural to have old literature online, but if we didn't, we would have serious trouble finding the relevant publications. Therefore I thought BHL definitely deserves a new species named after it for the help it provided.”
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3937.1.1
Dr. Barna Páll-Gergely
Thank You! Questions?
Martin R. Kalfatovic ([email protected]) Grace Costantino ([email protected])
Stay Connected with BHL! Follow @BioDivLibrary on social media
Join our Mailing List: library.si.edu/bhl-newsletter-signup