Building a Global Library of Taxonomic Literature

Building a Global Library of

Taxonomic Literature

Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Institution Libraries & Biodiversity Heritage Library

XXVIII Congresso Brasileiro de ZoologiaBiodiversidade e Sustentabilidade

Johann Baptist von SpixSimiarum et Vespertilionum Brasiliensium Species Novae (1823)

Bavarian Expedition to Brazil, 1817-1820

InformaticsMarine Biological LaboratoryMissouri Botanical Garden

Species Pages & SecretariatSmithsonian

Education and OutreachSmithsonian & Harvard

Synthesis CenterField Museum

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

How much is there:

Core literature pre-1923: 100 million pages (?)

All pre-1923: 120-150 million pages

All literature: 280-320 million pages

Scanning Partner: Internet Archive

• Northeast Regional Scanning Facility (Boston)

• Jersey City Facility• University of Illinois• Natural History

Museum, London• Missouri Botanical

Garden (Non-Scribe operation)

• Fedscan (Library of Congress)

• Smithsonian Libraries

BHL Members: BHL-Europe

• Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

• Natural History Museum, UK• Narodni muzeum NMP CZ• Angewandte Informationstechnik

Forschungsgesellschaft mbH• Freie Universität Berlin FUBBGBM• Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Stiftung Öffentlichen Rechts• Naturhistorisches Museum Wien• Hungarian Natural History Museum• Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish

Academy of Sciences• University of Copenhagen

BHL Members: BHL-Europe

• Stichting Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Naturalis

• National Botanic Garden of Belgium• Royal Museum for Central Africa,• Royal Belgian Institute of Natural

Sciences• Bibliothèque nationale de France• Museum national d’histoire naturelle• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones

Cientificas• Università degli Studi di Firenze• Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh• Species 2000• John Wiley & Sons limited• Helsingin yliopisto UH-Viikki

BHL China

• Agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences now in place

• First joint technical meeting took place in January 2010

• BHL China portal in place

More than:40,000 volumes16 million pagesOnly 290 million to go!

Avg. monthly growth rate1,500 volumes 600,000 pagesSee you in 2048!

Now Online

Acquiring other content ...

Researches scanning their own work or literature relevant to their work

Journals that have scanned their content, but do not have a robust platform to host it

Biodiversity Heritage Library Permission ProcessWorking with non-profit publishers for sharing with the BHL

To digitize and mount works under copyright BHL must obtain permission from the copyright holders.

Many biodiversity journals and monographs are published by non-profit institutions or learned societies whose mission is to promote research and learning.

Some of these institutions have not sold their rights to commercial publishers and are open to sharing with the BHL.

So what? Does [fill in blank] do that?

… and more and faster?

So what? Does [fill in blank] do that?

… and more and faster?

BHL is all about OPEN & SHARING

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

An inordinate fondness for data

Stats: Usage

• Jan – Sep 2009– 266,000 visitors– 436,000 visits– 2.1million

pageviews

• Daily average– 970 visitors– 1,600 visits / day– 7,700 pageviews /

dayJan – Sep 2009

Launch to 30 Sep 2009

Global, coordinated developmentNew functionality from BHL-EuropeImproved storageSemantic interfaceOAIS-compliant preservation infrastructureBuilding a community of developersFunded & volunteerRubyBHLPyBHL

Open Software & Development

BHL 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.”

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, referencesUseful to Nomenclators, Reference SystemsIPNITropicos

Services: OpenURL Request

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/openurl?pid=title:3934&volume=3&issue=&spage=262&date=1856

http://www.tropicos.org/Name/1200408

Services: OpenURL Disambiguation

Looking for:

BHL returns:

Services: OpenURL Results

Encyclopedia of Life

522,000 species pages linked to BHL#1 referring site

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

Global BHLBased on open access

Open content

Collaboration

Shared development

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 ...

Thanks for sticking around!

Building a Global Library of

Taxonomic Literature

Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Institution Libraries & Biodiversity Heritage Library

XXVIII Congresso Brasileiro de ZoologiaBiodiversidade e Sustentabilidade