The Biodiversity Heritage Library 30 million pages of taxonomic literature & you

Rebecca A. Morin

User Services LibrarianCalifornia Academy of Sciences

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http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org

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The BHL is…

• Part of the Encyclopedia of Life

• A consortium of 12 major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions

• Dedicated to digitizing, serving, and preserving the legacy literature of biodiversity

• Committed to Open Access

• Free for anyone with an internet connection

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Members

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

Partners & Contributors

Internet Archive

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Library of Congress

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Who Pays For It?

• MacArthur and Sloan Foundations

• Supplemental grants in place for specific development

• Support from member institutions

• Additional grants underway

Who Uses It?

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• January-September 2009

• 431,107 visits

• 2,162,220 page views

• 226 countries or territories

• Visitors

• More than 80% seek information in

• Systematics

• Taxonomy

• Nomenclature

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Encyclopedia of Life

Encyclopedia of Life/BHL Interface

EOL BHL

PAGE LEVEL ACCESS @ THE TAXONOMIC NAME

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Why?

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That’s Why!

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Multiple Means of Access

• BHL: 18.4%

• Referring Sites: 29%

• EOL

• Wikipedia:

• Tropicos

• Smithsonian

• BioOne

• Animal Base

• Search Engines: 52.2%

Source: Google Analytics (15 March - 03 May 2010)

BHL Survey 2010

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What does BHL do for me?

• Bibliographies

• Name Searching

• Taxonomic Intelligence

• Complete Items

• PDF Creation

• APIs

• Stable URLs

Bibliographies & Name Searching

How to find literature on Chiroderma salvini

• Via EOL

• Name search in BHL

• Direct URL entry

• Works for any uninomial, binomial, or trinomial

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BHL Name Search

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Name Search URL

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Download Complete Items

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Download an Article

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PDF Generation

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APIs

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http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/api2/docs/docs.html

Access to data:

•Scientific Name

•Author

•Title

•Volume

•Page

Persistent URLs

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What can I do for BHL?

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HELP ENABLE ARTICLE-LEVEL DISCOVERY!

Fill in article

information when you create a

PDF!

Citebank

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http://citebank.org/

Citebank

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User-Contributed Articles

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BHL Survey 2010

Need to Improve

• Searching

• Working with results

• Metadata quality

• Online viewer Wish List

• Faster PDF generation

• Search inside the viewer

• Submit scanning requests

• Download hi-res images

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SOME SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS

BHL Needs You!

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@BioDivLibrary

http://twitter.com/BioDivLibrary

BHL Needs You!

What are we up to?

Friend!

Follow!

Watch!

Share!

Like!

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BHL Needs You!

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Image Credits

Fitzinger, Leopold Joseph Franz Johann. Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere. Wien: K.K. Hof-und Staatsdruckerei, 1867. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/24580.

Gould, John. The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N., during the years 1832 to 1836 : Published with the approval of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury. Pt. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1841. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/49676.

Sowerby, James. The British miscellany, or, coloured figures of new, rare, or little known animal subjects many not before ascertained to be inhabitants of the British Isles and chiefly in the possession of the author, James Sowerby. London: R. Taylor & Co, 1806. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91785.

Curtis's botanical magazine. London ; New York: Academic Press. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91677.

Imperato, Ferrante. Dell'historia naturale di Ferrante Imperato napolitano Libri XXVIII. Nella quale ordinatamente si tratta della diversa condition di miniere, e pietre. Con alcune historie di piante et animali; sin hora non date in luce. Napoli: C. Vitale, 1599. http://www.sil.si.edu/ImageGalaxy/imageGalaxy_enlarge.cfm?id_image=2712.

Alston, Edward R. Biologia centrali-americana. Mammalia. [London : Pub. for the editors by R. H. Porter], 1879-1882. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/14587.

Sulzer, J. H. Dr. Sulzers Abgekürtze Geschichte der Insecten: Nach dem Linaeischen System. Winterthur: Bey H. Steiner, 1776. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/42901.

Martens, Eduard von. Biologia Centrali-Americana. Land and freshwater mollusca. [London : Pub. for the editors by R.H. Porter], 1890-1901. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/14587.

Taylor, John W. Monograph of the land & freshwater Mollusca of the British isles. Leeds: Taylor brothers, 1894-19. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47421.

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THANK YOU!

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Special Thanks to:

The Biodiversity Heritage Library

Research Division of the California Academy of Sciences

SPNCH & CBA/ABC 2010

rmorin@calacademy.org

@tiny_librarian

http://www.twitter.com/tiny_librarian