BHL Accomplishments 2007

BHL Accomplishments 2007

• Presentation. Suzanne Pilsk (Smithsonian) gave an overview of metadata needs for the BHL at the Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group meeting in at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Seattle, January 21, 2007.

• Meeting. BHL Members met at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. February 7-8, 2007.
• Meeting.Martin Kalfatovic (Smithsonian), Chris Freeland (MOBOT), Cathy Norton (MBLWHOI), and Neil Sarkar (MBLWHOI) attended the EOL Informatics Workshop meeting at Woods Hole, Mass. February 11, 2007.
• Meeting. Martin Kalfatovic (Smithsonian), Chris Freeland (MOBOT), and Neil Sarkar (MBLWHOI) attended the Data Curation meeting held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. February 16, 2007.

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• Scanning Center. Works begins on Marine Biological Laboratory materials at the Boston Library Consortium scanning facility. April 2007.
• Organizational. Smithsonian Institution Libraries forms the SIL BHL Task force comprised of eight staff and charged with overseeing all SIL BHL related activities. April 11, 2007.
• Presentation. Biodiversity Heritage Library by Tom Garnett, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. National Museum of Natural History Board, Science Committee. April 12, 2007. Washington, D.C.
• Presentation. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) Project by Graham Higley, The Natural History Museum (London). London Librarians and Archivsts Group: All Change: Adapt and Thrive in a Digital Age. April 26, 2007. London, United Kingdom
• Web. BHL blog debuts. April 30, 2007.
• Presentation: Digital Choices: Google and Open Content Alliance, Cathy Norton. University of Connecticut, Spring Forum.

• Scanning Center. Works begins on Fieldiana collection at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign scanning facility. May 2007.
• Technical. The Smithsonian Scribe machine arrived in Washington, May 5, 2007.
• Presentation. The Biodiversity Heritage Library: A Cornerstone of the Encyclopedia of Life by Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The Field Museum of Natural History. May 8, 2007. Chicago, IL.
• Meeting. BHL staff and Internet Archive staff (Brewster Kahle, Robert Miller, Linda Freuh) met to work on setting up the SIL Scribe machine in the National Museum of Natural History, May 7-8, 2007.
• Publicity. The BHL officially went live today with the launch of the Encyclopedia of Life. After a press event at the National Press Club (Washington), EOL, BHL, friends, and supporters gathered at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington to celebrate the official launch of the project.
• Meeting. The BHL Executive Board met in Washington, May 10, 2007.
• Presentation. Open Access to Biodiversity Literature: The Biodiversity Heritage Library by Tom Garnett and Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) Council Meeting. May 15, 2007. Washington, DC.
• Publicity. BHL was mentioned with EOL during NPR's Science Friday during segments with Gary Borisy in relationship to EOL, and Brewster Kahle in relationship to book scanning.

• Meeting. Smithsonian (Martin Kalfatovic, Keri Thompson, Courtney Shaw) and Missouri Botanical Garden staff (Chris Freeland) met with University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign staff to discuss scanning workflow and collaboration. June 12, 2007.
• Presentations. On June 25, 2007, BHL member staff gave presentations to a group of about 50 librarians attending the American Library Association Annual meeting in Washington, DC.
  • Presentation. The Biodiversity Heritage Library: A Cornerstone of the Encyclopedia of Life. Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. BHL @ SIL. June 25, 2007. Washington, DC.
  • Presentation. An Overview of the New York Botanical Garden Digitizing Program. John Mignault, Systems Librarian, The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden. BHL @ SIL. June 25, 2007. Washington, DC.
  • Presentation. Universal Access to Human Knowledge: Book Scanning at the Internet Archive. Robert Miller, Director of Books, Internet Archive. BHL @ SIL. June 25, 2007. Washington, DC.

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• Scanning Center. On August 15, 2007, Internet Archive staff (Melissa Bell) began scanning BHL materials at Smithsonian Libraries. The Smithsonian Libraries' Scribe joins operations in Boston, London, and Urbana-Champaign that are contributing to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
• Technical. Chris Freeland, Tom Garnett, Martin Kalfatovic met at SI with Sandy Payette, Executive Director of the Fedora Commons, and Thornton Staples, UVA about the possible use of Fedora as a platform for the BHL.
• Scanning Center. NINE new Scribes arrived in Boston bringing the total to TEN. A complete POD is now in place... Hiring and training IA staff to be reading for October 07 is the plan.

• Publicity. BHL Public Work Plan September 2007 BHLPublicPlan0907.doc
• Meeting. BHL members met at the Missouri Botanical Garden, September 12-13, 12007.
• Meeting. Chris Freeland and Neil Thomson attended the TDGW meeting on behalf of BHL.
• Presentation. Biodiversity Hertiage Library: Progress and Potential by Chris Freeland. TDWG Meeting, September 17, 2007. Bratislava, Slovakia. Freeland_UserNeeds.pptFreeland_UserNeeds.pptFreeland_UserNeeds.ppt
• Funding. Smithsonian Libraries received $200,000 for FY 2007 and FY 2008 from the Under Secretary for Science's Office to support BHL related activities.

• Report to the EOL Secretariat BHL 10.07 quarterly report.doc
• Page and volume counts worksheetbook1.xls
• Permissions granted permissons.granted. oct07.xls
• Titles Scanned by IA alltitles.xls

• Presentation. The Biodiversity Heritage Library Mass Digitizing Project: A Grandeur in this View of Digital Libraries by Martin R. Kalfatovic and Suzanne C. Pilsk, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. LITA National Forum, October 12, 2007. Denver, Colorado.
• Meeting. BHL members (Chris Freeland, Cathy Norton, Suzanne Pilsk, Bernard Scaife, Tom Garnett, John Mignault, John Furfey, etc) attended the Open Content Alliance meeting in San Francisco, October 17, 2007.
• Presentation. Applying Taxonomic Intelligence to Digitization Initiatives by Cathy Norton, Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library. Translating the Value of the Research Library / Information Futures Institute. October 27, 2007. Mountain View, CA.
• Presentation. Applying Taxonomic Intelligence to Digitization Initiatives ... but First... by Cathy Norton, Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library. Avoiding Extinction: Translating the Value of the Research Library / Memorial Sloan Kettering Center Center Library. October 24, 2007. New York, NY.
• Presentation. Biodiversity Heritage Library Project “Underway” Taxonomic Intelligence for LARGE Scale Digitization Projects by Cathy Norton, Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library. 33rd IAMSLIC: Changes on the Horizon. October 7-11, 2007. Sarasota. FL.
• Scanning Center. NYBG begin planning/doing scanning at NYPL (John Mignault please update/correct)

• Presentation. Digitizing Entomology: The Biodiversity Heritage Library at the Smithsonian. Martin R. Kalfatovic. National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology Staff Meeting. Martin R. Kalfatovic. November 26, 2007. Washington, DC.
• Scanning Center. First shipment of Ernst Mayr Library material to OCA Scanning Center at Boston Public Library. This is a 'sample' shipment of 73 items that the Scanning Center will use to test the process and the Z39.50 connection with the Harvard catalog (HOLLIS).

• Scanning Center. Smithsonian Libraries is nearing completion for an agreement to use an Internet Archive Scanning Center being set up at the Library of Congress for BHL scanning. The Washington Regional Scanning Center is expected to be operational in February 2008.
• BHL Quarterly Report December 2007