bhlstaffcallsep2018
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Dial from U.S.: 1-877-860-3058
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Passcode 961479
Lead: Bianca Crowley
Notetaker: Grace Costantino
Charge: Biodiversity Heritage Library Staff share the collaborative responsibility for the daily operation, improvement, and promotion of the BHL as related to the
mission and goals of the Library and its participating institutions. Staff participate in project communications, including monthly conference calls, BHL's issue tracking system, and various outreach and engagement activities. Staff are responsible for the digitization, discoverability and maintenance of content contributed to the BHL repository by its participating institutions.
Attendees (All) -
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Agenda and Notes
Reminder: Toggle Mute/Unmute using *6
New to the call? Please introduce yourself and welcome!
Committee Updates
Secretariat
- Pan-BHL scanning fund (Bianca for Carolyn)
- The Pan-BHL fund was briefly opened and then promptly spent and closed. Those of you who use the fund may have seen that we were quickly overspent and Carolyn has been in touch with those who requested funds to coordinate on getting back within budget. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact her.
- While we were very glad to see that the fund is helping our Members add more content we also understand that these smaller allotments are not ideal and Carolyn sends her apologies for any frustration with the process. She and some of our SIL colleagues (notably Keri and Jackie) are working to establish a new contract that will follow a more predictable model with the ability to add larger allotments as we did in the past. We don’t yet have a date for when that is available but will share information as it progresses.
- Public wiki migration (Grace)
- New public wiki LAUNCHED @ https://about.biodiversitylibrary.org/ -- Congrats!
- More info: https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2018/09/announcing-the-new-about-bhl-site.html
- Our *public* wiki has been transformed into a new Wordpress website (no longer a wiki) hosted on Smithsonian servers at about.biodiversitylibrary.org. It replaces the public wiki previously available on Wikispaces. All relevant content from Wikispaces has been migrated to new site and the links have been updated on the BHL website. A full copy of the Wikispaces *public* wiki has been downloaded and stored on Smithsonian servers for archival purposes.
- Note: To be clear, this new “About” site is *separate* from the private wiki that we use for internal documentation, meeting notes, etc. The new About site only replaces our *public* wiki, which provides information to the public about BHL, our projects, press room content, tools and services and volunteer opportunities, etc.
- The *Public* Wiki site on Wikispaces is now retired (made private) – staff and the public will no longer be able to access it.
- We’ll continue to improve this site over time. Let Bianca and Grace know if there are any questions or things you’d like to see improved.
- Private wiki in progress
THIS wiki to close for editing COB (ET) Friday September 21**
- to launch on Oct 1
- Screen shot of new wiki https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RCP7LWhqaLva_v33nlwN3hVOPW6phtge
- We are transferring our *private* wiki (currently hosted on Wikispaces) to Confluence, hosted via Smithsonian. The new private wiki will continue to be a wiki (hosted on Confluence) and be private from the public. We’ll continue to keep internal documentation, meeting notes, etc. here.
- Bianca has received requests from many staff to receive logins for the new Confluence site. Bianca will submit those to Smithsonian IT to set up accounts for us. If you have not yet requested access to the new Confluence wiki, please do so by emailing Bianca when you can.
- The new *private* wiki will launch on October 1.
- Thanks to Joel for doing the migration from Wikispaces to Confluence.
- THIS Wikispaces wiki to close for editing COB (ET) Friday September 21. It will no longer be available for editing after this date. Will still be accessible to view pages, but no changes will be allowed.
Technical Team (Joel Richard)
- The tech team is moving forward on loading field note transcriptions into the BHL website through the admin dash. More info forthcoming, so stay tuned.
- We have completed work on full text search. Any new requests can come through Gemini and we’ll addressing as we can going forward.
- Macaw – Australian colleagues sent a note via the Macaw discussion group with questions about upgrades. Joel will evaluate and provide information in future.
- There was a problem with the biodiversity exhibitions website (biodiversityexhibition.com) some weeks ago. Problems seem to be resolved now, but we’re keeping an eye on it and are exploring whether we should possibly take it over and archive it in a way so that it’s less vulnerable.
- Joel talking to cataloging committee to assist in picking up VIAF numbers for authors in BHL. Looking to automate process as much as possible while still being reliable. More details in Cataloging Committee notes.
Executive Council / Members**
FYI Collections Committee (Bianca Crowley)
- Committee on hiatus as Bianca devotes time to private wiki. Hoping to get back to it in October.
Cataloging Group (Bianca for Diana Duncan)
- Discussed proposal by Joel Richard to use OCLC numbers from titles in BHL to retrieve VIAF identifiers.
- He has run a test and Cataloging group will review results to see if this data can be used to help us cleanup duplicate creator records in BHL database
- Questions about the work or want to participate? Let cataloging group know via Diana Duncan.
- BHL Metadata Model Meeting Oct 29-30 in DC
- discussed preparations and planning documents needed; working on collecting ideas to help build agenda
- purpose of meeting to plan for BHL Version 2; working with Index Data https://www.indexdata.com/ on a Metadata Model refresh.
Project updates
No representatives on call.
- NDSR: 2018, "IMLS Grant documentation and data":
Round Robin (All)
- BHL response to Museu Nacional fire in Brazil --
- https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2018/09/bhl-statement-on-the-fire-at-the-national-museum-of-brazil.html
- Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro
- BHL staff are in touch with SciELO colleagues in Brazil to see how we can provide support during this time, facilitate uploading museum publications to BHL, and building a Museu Nacional collection in BHL. SciELO is working with the Museum to digitize their publications and these are being uploaded to BHL. Library publications of Museum were spared because they were stored offsite.
- Grace will be working with SciELO colleagues to publicize BHL’s activities in response to the fire (including new collection and content uploads) when they are ready. If you have activities from your institution that you want to share/include, email Grace.
- Any updates about BHL happenings at your institution?
- Tomoko: I am now on the Dataset Working Group, which will be exploring data hosting issues. The group will be meeting next week. Tomoko will be contacting different members for input regarding managing datasets, budgets, etc.
- Feel free to share any staff (e.g. like round robin things) updates via Staff listserv.
Outreach Update (Grace Costantino)
Next Call
- Bianca: Last time we talked, we posed a question about the current BHL staff call schedule, moving from monthly to bi-monthly. Majority of people were comfortable with bi-monthly calls, so for time being we will stick with this schedule. However, if we find that there is a problem with communication or we need more frequent check-ins, please contact Bianca and we can always make changes.
- Anticipated next call: November 15, 2018
