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Free & Open Access to
Biodiversity Literature
An Introduction to the
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Grace Costantino
November 8, 2016
“The cultivation
of natural history
cannot be
efficiently carried
out without
reference to an
extensive library.”
Charles Darwin, et al (1847)
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
noun | \tak-suh-nom-ik im-ped-uh-muh nt\
Taxonomic Impediment
Much of this literature is available in
only a few select libraries in the
developed world. Lack of literature is
a major impediment to the efficiency
of scientific research.
“Science is all about disseminating knowledge
and building upon what has come before, yet so
much of our knowledge of plants and animals
has remained inaccessible to those who could
make use of it. This has been a big part of the
‘taxonomic impediment.’”
Dr. John SullivanEvolutionary Biologist
Academy of Natural Sciences, PhiladelphiaCornell University
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
is changing this by providing free
and open online access to library
collections from around the world.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
(www.biodiversitylibrary.org) is an open access digital
library for biodiversity literature and archives.
Inspiring Discovery through Free Access
to Biodiversity Knowledge
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.
BHL is a Global Consortium
16MEMBERS
AS OF NOVEMBER 2016
16AFFILIATES60+ WORLDWIDE PARTNERS
FUNDING SOURCES
• Federal Funding• Federal allocation to Smithsonian
Libraries
• Member and Affiliate Dues
• Institutional Endowments
• Grants• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• Arcadia Fund
• Council on Library & Information
Resources
• Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation
• Institute of Museum & Library Services
• JRS Foundation
• MacArthur Foundation
• Mellon Foundation
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Richard Lounsbery Foundation
• Donations
• Product Development
• Institutional Subventions
• In-Kind Contributions
50+MILLIONPAGES
TITLES VOLUMES
111,000+ 189,000+
172+MILLIONINSTANCES OF TAXONOMIC NAMES
530+IN-COPYRIGHT TITLES LICENSED FOR BHL
AGREEMENTS
WITH 230+LICENSORS
*Stats as of November 2016
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.
Svenska spindlar.1757.
Carl Clerck.
biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/119890
___________________
Only work whose names
take precedence over
Linnaean names.
First animals in modern
zoology to have obtained a
valid scientific name in the
Linnaean system.
The natural history of
Carolina, Florida and the
Bahama Islands.
1729-1747.
Mark Catesby.
biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/62015
___________________
The first fully illustrated book on the
flora and fauna of North America.
Linnaeus cited Catesby extensively
in Species Plantarum and Systema
Naturae. For some of these
references, Catesby was the sole
source of information for Linnaeus
on a given species, and Catesby's
illustrations serve as the type for
several of Linnaeus' species
names.
Lily thorn (Catesbaea spinosa).
Catesby is the only source that
Linnaeus cited when naming
Catesbaea spinosa in Species
Plantarum (1753). This engraving
serves as the type for this name.
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.
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
Anatomy of a BHL Book
Taxonomic Name
Recognition
Download
Options
Social Media
Tools
Species Bibliographies
Click on Link to
View Page
View Taxonomy Source
Information
55,000+TOTAL FOLLOWERS ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
10,800+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
10,900+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
26,000+
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
4,900+
AVERAGE MONTHLY
READERS (CY16)
2,300+
FOLLOW @BIODIVLIBRARY
*Stats as of November 2016
TOTAL FOLLOWERS
2,400+* BHL Instagram launched August 2016
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
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Field Notes Project
• Funded by Council on Library and
Information Resources (CLIR) in 2015
as part of Digitizing Hidden Special
Collections and Archives.
• Two-year award for $491,713.
• Will coordinate work to digitize field
notes, assign metadata, and publish
online through BHL & Internet Archive.
• Lead Institutions: Smithsonian Libraries
and Smithsonian Institution Archives.
• Participating Institutions: Missouri
Botanical Garden, Peter H. Raven
Library; American Museum of Natural
History; Yale Peabody Museum;
Harvard University Herbaria, Botany
Libraries; Harvard University, Museum
of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr
Library; University of California,
Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate
Zoology; The New York Botanical
Garden, The LuEsther T. Mertz Library;
The Field Museum; and Internet
Archive.
Expanding Access to
Biodiversity Literature
• Funded by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) in 2015 as part
of the National Leadership Grants for
Libraries program.
• Two-year award for $846,457.
• Will help libraries, museums, and
natural history societies make their
content more widely available by
providing the tools and support
necessary to facilitate contribution to
the Digital Public Library of America
(DPLA) through BHL.
• Lead Institution: The New York
Botanical Garden.
• Participating Institutions: Harvard Ernst
Mayr Library of the Museum of
Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Missouri
Botanical Garden (MBG), and
Smithsonian Libraries (SIL).
• Progress to date: 2274 volumes (169
titles; 245,434 pages); 86 in copyright
titles from 45 contributors.
Foundations to Actions:
Extending Innovations in Digital
Libraries in Partnership with
NDSR Learners
• A digital stewardship residency project
funded by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS).
• Two-year award for $370,756.
• 5 residents at 6 geographically-
distributed partners will plan and
develop a next generation digital library
using the Biodiversity Heritage Library
(BHL) as a test-bed.
• Outcomes will include a best practices
document for digital libraries
incorporating transcriptions, image
searching, collection analysis
techniques and improved connections
to museums, archives and other
relevant databases.
• Lead Institution: Harvard MCZ.
• Participating Institutions: Field Museum
of Natural History, Chicago Botanic
Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden,
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural
History, and Smithsonian Libraries.
“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
"I think BHL is one of the most important and
useful resources online right now. Judging by
how often I use it, I’d say it has an impact on
my research commensurate with that of
Google Scholar or Web of Science.”
Andrew DursoPh.D. Student, HerpetologyBiology DepartmentUtah State University
“I am pretty sure I exclaimed ‘this is amazing!’
out loud as soon as I discovered BHL, and I
immediately bookmarked it in my browser. As a
non-profit society, CNPS doesn’t have sufficient
funds to subscribe to online journal databases.
BHL helps fill this void by providing such
resources freely to the public.”
Aaron SimsRare Plant Botanist
California Native Plant Society (CNPS)
“BHL is a tremendous and extremely valuable
resource. It has done an enormous amount to
enhance the capacity of developing countries
to undertake taxonomic research on their
biota.”
Dr. Dai HerbertMalacologistKwaZulu-Natal Museum, PietermaritzburgUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg
“BHL is an awesomely useful resource! It’s
very helpful to have the BHL when I’m
traveling away from ‘home base.’ No need to
carry around a rare 120 year old book if you
can just open a scanned file of it on your
computer.”
Dr. Christopher MahInvertebrate ZoologistSmithsonian National Museum of Natural History
