Scanning Locally, Collaborating GloballyThe Biodiversity Heritage Library

Martin R. Kalfatovic | BHL Program Director | Smithsonian LibrariesVALA 2014 | Melbourne, Australia | 5 February 2014

Good afternoon!

صباح الخير

Bon Jour

¡Buenos días

Bom dia

Habari ya asubuhi

Goeie môre

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

Members … Washington University is #14

14 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• Natural History Museum, London • The New York Botanical Garden• Royal Botanic Garden, Kew• Smithsonian Institution Libraries• United States Geological Survey Libraries• Washington University of St. Louis

Affiliates

Affiliates

Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia at Drexel University

The Field Museum Library

Newest Affiliate:

Technology Library Science

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Specimen collections

Databases

Publications

Observations

‘Gray’ literature

Index cards

Field notebooks

Taxonomic Impediment

Problems of Mass Digitization of Library Materials

42,498,407 pages130,484 volumes71,945 titles

4 February 2014

Content Growth2007-2014

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

User Statistics: 2007 - 2013Visitors: 3,628,088Page Views: 17,604,395New vs. Returning: 50.06% vs. 49.04%

2007

2013146,798 visitors | November 2012

233 countriesUsers in 233 Countries

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Awards● 2013 ComputerWorld Award●

● 2013 Council of Botanical and Horticulture Libraries

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

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● 2010 ALCTS award for outstanding collaboration

“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.”

What an absolutely wonderful site. It is a treasure trove of information. Thank you!

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 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.

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

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

And now on to our panel

Thank you!

Grazie!Obrigado!Danke!Tack!Děkuju!Merci!Dank u!Asante!Tak!Благодарю!Köszönöm!