The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Collaborating Globally, Scanning Locally

Who lives/lived here?

Linnaeus classified ~ 15,000 plants and animals in the course of his publication

Today, the EOL lists 1,303,873 species pages

Specimen collections

Databases

Publications

Observations

‘Gray’ literature

Index cards

DNA sequences

Field notebooks

Taxonomic Impediment

In earlier times, all the information about species could be found in one place

What if we could tackle just a bit of this problem … books?

The Wherefore of BHL

In any well-appointed Natural History Library there should be found every book and every edition of every book dealing in the remotest way with the subjects concerned.

Charles Davies Sherborn Epilogue to Index Animalium, March 1922

So what if we could assemble thisLibrary … digitally?

2006 BHL is created

10 US and UK partners

Technology Library Science

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Problems of Mass Digitization of Library Materials

Mass digitization of Smithsonian Libraries collections aligns with the overall Smithsonian digitization strategy and remains a

center of excellence for rapid digitization at the SI Problems of Library Metadata

Reclassification of “Sperm Whale” over time

Problems of Taxonomic Science

20 Members and Affiliates16 Members• American Museum of Natural History • California Academy of Sciences Library• Cornell University Library• Harvard University Botany Libraries• Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology• Library of Congress• Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library• Missouri Botanical Garden Library• National Library Board (Singapore)• Natural History Museum, London • The New York Botanical Garden• Royal Botanic Garden, Kew• Smithsonian Libraries• United States Geological Survey Libraries• Washington University of St. Louis• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign4 Affiliates•Academy of Natural Sciences •The Field Museum• Natural History Museum, LA County• Chicago Botanic Garden

Secretariat and Technical StaffAugust 2011Program DirectorProgram ManagerCollections CoordinatorOutreach Manager

Technical DirectorProgrammerData Analyst

Global BHLBHL Central | BHL Africa | BHL Australia | BHL Brasil | BHL

China | BHL Egypt | BHL Europe | BHL Singapore

Global BHL Steering CommitteeAugust 2011 Vice Chair SecretaryChair

Biodiversity Heritage LibraryGlobal Governance

Major ExternalSources of Funding

• Secretariat and admin costs• Technical development• Central funds for scanning etc.• Total:– ~US$583,000 / year

• Smithsonian funding• Grants to member institutions• Annual dues (US$10,000)

from Members• Donations (~US$5,000

year/average)

INCOME

EXPENSES

Funding SourcesCentral Expenses

2013 BHL Member In-kind Staff FTE & Costs (incomplete)

16.95 FTE from the 15 member institutions$1,464,378 staff and other costs

(does not include Secretariat or Technical staff)

Fundraising PlansContinue to build our pipeline of annual donors

Continue to use social media for “soft asks” repurposing text/themes of appeals

Work with the Smithsonian’s Office of Foundation Relations to put together major gift ($100K-500K) proposals to several foundations

Continue other grant opportunities for partners

44,044,927 pages139,964 items77,510 titles

25 June 2014

Content Growth2007-2014

2007

2014146,798 visitors | November 2012

User Statistics: 2013 – 2014 (March)Unique Visitors: 664,645 / 55,387 per monthPage Views: 3,741,640New vs. Returning: 54.94% vs. 45.06%

233 countriesUsers in 245 Countries

TheMachineIsUs/ingUs<Response xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"><Status>ok</Status><Result><Item><ItemID>16800</ItemID><Volume/><Contributor>MBLWHOI Library</Contributor><Sponsor>MBLWHOI Library</Sponsor><Language>English</Language><LicenseUrl/><Rights/><DueDiligence/><CopyrightStatus/><CopyrightRegion/></Item></Result></Response>

87,594 mobile visits (32% iPad)March 2013 – March 2014

35,231 mobile visits (45% iPad)March 2012 – March 2013

36,928 visits from social media to BHL in 2013

13,400 visits from BHL’s own blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts

Funder: Institute of Museum and Library Services ($174,724 for US partners)

Partners: Center for Biodiversity Informatics, Missouri Botanical Garden, (US); National Centre for Text Mining, University of Manchester, (UK); Big Data Analytics Institute and Social Media Lab, Dalhousie University, (CAN).

Also participating: Smithsonian Institutions and Encyclopedia of Life.

24+ million total views | 89K + images (March 2014)

Field Notes and Archival Materials

Increase agreementswith publishers of in copyright materials

US Titles: 249UK Titles: 69TOTAL TITLES: 318

US Licensors: 92UK Licensors: 41

TOTAL LICENSORS: 133

October 2013

Awards

2013 ComputerWorld Award

2013 Council of Botanical and Horticulture Libraries

2011 Thackray Medal by the Society for the History of Natural History

2010 ALCTS award for outstanding collaboration

Bouchout Declaration Signatory

http://bouchoutdeclaration.org/

Our natural world is a source of food, water, resources, protection and enjoyment that our society needs. The richness and complexity of nature, and the speed of new discoveries made possible by genomic and digital technologies, challenge us to find new ways to benefit from and be better custodians of the natural world. Digital information management systems can bring together the wealth of information now dispersed in a myriad of different documents, institutions, and locations. With such systems, we can harness the benefits of rapid discovery and open up our legacy of over 260 years of biological observations.

“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”

I would like to thank your team for bringing this world of literature to my desk. Currently I am using much of your 18-20th century works to complete a rather difficult task for an Australian Government project. With this access the work could never be accomplished. Many, many thanks

“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”

I really appreciate your work. The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an excellent resource that regularly helps my assistant and I obtain original descriptions for plants .... I feel so privileged to be working in a day in age when such resources are so readily available and easy to obtain.

“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”“Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as I am right now working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me [when] I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is marvellous [what] you did for us which are badly in need of old literature. Thanks a lot.”

May I compliment you on this splendid service? The Library's invaluable for my work on seasonal variability of climate and vector-borne disease in British India, 1875-1940.

I am thrilled with what I have been able to find re: archaic mammary embryology some of which I had been hoping to find at the National Library of Medicine, and to get it through your program was a huge advantage

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

Charles Darwin, et al (1847)

The Wherefore of BHL

Looking Forward

In any well-appointed Natural History Library there should be found every book and every edition of every book dealing in the remotest way with the subjects concerned.

Charles Davies Sherborn Epilogue to Index Animalium, March 1922

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity ..,

… from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

Community / Partnership / Science / Content

Thank you!