Mission
CURRENT Mission Summary Document |
Working Group Plan |
Mission Discussions |
ARCHIVE Mission Discussions |
Mission Goals
CURRENT Mission Summary Document
See
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F5UINkNxe46m-IyyzBkHU7-hMeaXW49vyMPaY5EwBaA/edit#
Working Group Plan
Mission Working Group: Grace Costantino (Lead), Clare Flemming, Matthew Person, Diana Shih
Goals:
- To have Final DRAFT Mission statement to submit to BHL Institutional Council (IC) by end of November
- Would be ideal to include new Mission statement with new user interface update planned for release end of December, early January
Mission Discussions
BHL Staff call on Oct 18
ARCHIVE Mission Discussions
Working mission
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
IS
- an international collaboration of natural history libraries working together
TO
- make biodiversity literature available for use by the widest possible audience
HOW
- through open access and sustainable management.
WHY
- Much of this literature is rare or has limited global distribution. More than any other digital library platform, our collection and services are centered on the history and future of biodiversity literature.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an international collaboration of libraries, museums, and research institutions working together to make biodiversity literature available for use by the widest possible audience through an open access environment and sustainable management of its resources. Much of this literature is rare or has limited global distribution. More than any other digital library, this collection and its associated services are centered on the history and future of biodiversity literature.
PLEASE USE 4 "~" IN A ROW TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS
-
Nov 23, 2009 Sustainable management might need to be defined a bit more in terms of something, management of...?
-
Nov 23, 2009 Yup. Yer right. And I see another opportunity for clarification. SO, how's this: " ...to make biodiversity literature available for use TO the widest possible audience through an open access platform and sustainable management of it's resources." (tools and data). Or is the term platform too geeky?
-
Nov 23, 2009how about "an open access environment"?? - or is environment too publisher-oriented?
-
Nov 24, 2009 this is excellent. I have just at this moment finished some editing on the alcts award doc, and my first reaction to this was: I should cut and paste this into the award doc., in other words, this says it, says is well...the "don't self promote" side of me thinks that "More than any other..." is an excellent way of saying climb aboard, don't be left behind in the stagecoach dust. "history and future of biodiversity literature"...very forward thinking.
-
Nov 24, 2009Looking good. How about "this collection and associated services" rather than "our". Also, not just natural history libraries but "libraries, museums and research institutes" to fully incorporate some of the members (especially in Europe).
-
Nov 30, 2009 I agree with Matt this is an excellent mission statement. It's flexible, broad and mentions future endeavors. My two comments are the wording "sustainable management"---not clear what that means and can't think of another way of phrasing what I think you are trying to get to. Also, I agree with Connie that rather than natural history libraries, the term "libraries, museums, and research institutes" should be used. That allows for more cooperation in the future.
Suggested Revisions
- Doug: digitize is restrictive? Bring in content instead? Make literature available is better wording?
- Remove the following:
- types of libraries (but keep the word libraries)
- the word "published" (manuscripts could be included)
- "biodiversity commons."
- Make it short and clean. "tweetable"
- How do we capture who we are?
- Sustainable use is fuzzy and a better term – don’t use preservation. Open access and “responsible” use – Access is sustainable.
Mission Goals
Working goals taken from the strategic plan, at present a combination of strategic goals and mission goals -- the focus here will be identifying and drafting goals that support our mission statement:
Establish the major corpus of digitized biodiversity publications on the web.
Through scanning its members library collections, through sharing with partner projects, and through cooperation with content providers BHL will establish the most comprehensive collections of digitized, openly accessible, biodiversity publications available on the web
- Parameters of biodiversity collection
- (Globalize)
- we’re scanning, working with content providers, permissions, Martin: est. parameters of what collections policy / corpus is biodiversity universe (corpus) is.
Improve access to accurate, documented information about the world’s biodiversity.
The BHL will create services for disambiguating the complex web of 250 years practice of citing and documenting biodiversity literature and will create a repository for community-vetted bibliographies in support of ongoing research.
- Accuracy? – how do we know it’s accurate? A lot of revision in literature.
- Improve access to information based upon sound scientific principles/practices about the world’s biodiversity
Improve the efficiency of biological research for users.
The BHL Portal will be regularly improved and further integrated with the Encyclopedia of Life and other biodiversity projects.
- Open services for re-use of data by Rod Page
- provide open services for re-use of data, anywhere and by anyone.
Preserve the textual (original) record of biodiversity for the future.
The BHL will ensure that the corpus of biodiversity literature is available for future generations using the most effective technical and social practices ???
- – should be a goal! – BHL will ensure that the corpus of biodiversity literature is available for future generations – end sentence there. Add community contribution idea? Do we want to encourage that? Repository? Effective technical practices? Are we going to be there to make sure literature is available in the future?
Globalize the BHL.
The BHL will seek international collaborative projects to ensure and demonstrate that the legacy of biodiversity research belongs to all of humanity and is the exclusive provenance of no one country.
- Share our workflows, dedup, coop w/ other BHL & int’l collections of biodiversity lit.
- Are we have to provide a global repository? Covered in first one? We’re already reaching out. Shouldn’t be its own separate goal? This isn’t just for use. Ensure that the legacy of biodiversity literature belongs to all of humanity. Cooperate with other efforts to ensure efficiency. Sharing workflows. Sharing knowledge. Cooperate with other BHL things, other international collectives of biodiversity literature. Use globalize rather than internationalize??
lipscombb Nov 23, 2009 Sustainable management might need to be defined a bit more in terms of something, management of...?
d_wheeler Nov 23, 2009 Yup. Yer right. And I see another opportunity for clarification. SO, how's this: " ...to make biodiversity literature available for use TO the widest possible audience through an open access platform and sustainable management of it's resources." (tools and data). Or is the term platform too geeky?
cgiannoni Nov 23, 2009how about "an open access environment"?? - or is environment too publisher-oriented?
matt707 Nov 24, 2009 this is excellent. I have just at this moment finished some editing on the alcts award doc, and my first reaction to this was: I should cut and paste this into the award doc., in other words, this says it, says is well...the "don't self promote" side of me thinks that "More than any other..." is an excellent way of saying climb aboard, don't be left behind in the stagecoach dust. "history and future of biodiversity literature"...very forward thinking.
ConnieR Nov 24, 2009Looking good. How about "this collection and associated services" rather than "our". Also, not just natural history libraries but "libraries, museums and research institutes" to fully incorporate some of the members (especially in Europe).
EverlyR Nov 30, 2009 I agree with Matt this is an excellent mission statement. It's flexible, broad and mentions future endeavors. My two comments are the wording "sustainable management"---not clear what that means and can't think of another way of phrasing what I think you are trying to get to. Also, I agree with Connie that rather than natural history libraries, the term "libraries, museums, and research institutes" should be used. That allows for more cooperation in the future.