OCT09 BHL IC

BHL Institutional Council Conference Call
October 8, 2009

Present: Daniane Mizzy, Judy Warnement, Christine Gianonni, Connie Rinaldo, Tom Garnett, Graham Higley, Doug Holland, Cathy Norton, Martin Kalfatovic, Susan Fraser, Chris Mills, Larry Currie, Elizabeth Babcock


1. BHL Staff meeting in early November
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Most people responded positively. Tom assumes that we agree that this is a good use of funds based on responses. Everyone agreed to proceed.

2. Extra BHL IC meeting
Should we add on an extra IC meeting to this staff meeting? Cathy noted that the staff members would like the IC to understand their frustrations and successes and so the IC should dovetail with this meeting. Connie agreed. Tom noted that there are some extremely important IC issues that need to be discussed separately. Martin Kalfatovic suggested a potential schedule: start worker meeting at noon on Nov 2, full day Tuesday and half day Wed. then half day IC on Wed Nov 4 and another half day on Thursday. So then IC can sit in on last half day of worker group. This is at the Smithsonian. General agreement, although Susan Fraser noted that she has a conflict. Susan may be able to send a surrogate. Graham also can't attend. Can fund at least one worker rep from each library. Other participants will have to pay own lodging/travel but meals covered. Doug asked if this would change the spring date but Tom said no, still late March-early April for IC annual meeting.

3. Ingesting of Additional Internet Archive biodiversity texts
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There are some problems and issues that have been discussed on the wiki. Much of the material is suitable for inclusion in BHL. There is varying opinion about whether we move forward with ingest or postpone. Participants in the discussion are looking for decision from IC. Connie noted that we should move ahead and Graham noted that ingesting large amounts of material would help improve the de-duping tools being worked on in Europe. Martin thought we should look into tweaking current de-duping tool to improve it before ingest. Cathy noted that there may be little that can be done. Martin would like to see the tool de-dupe against the portal. General agreement that we should move forward with ingest. There are legitimate issues but BHL should QA and move ahead with the ingest.

4. Quality Assurance issues: Susan
Susan thought recommendations would come to IC and then we would adopt or not. Susan noted that if future funding depends on agreeing to QA recommendations, perhaps this should be discussed at an IC meeting. Tom noted that we need a summary of issues, because there are different levels (before and after scanning, for instance). Tom will add to agenda for Nov. meeting.

5. Report on the EOL Steering Committee

Relationship with EOL summary--EOL objective is to create web page for every species on the planet. BHL is a major component of the EOL and is currently funded by the MacArthur grant that funds the EOL. These will be curated pages. Currently several hundred thousand EOL species pages have only a name and links to the BHL literature. So EOL considers us an important partner and supplier of content and we are on the Steering Committee. EOL has 25 mill committed from MacArthur/Sloan and 25 Mill from cornerstone institutions over 5 years. We have received substantial funding from EOL. Formal meeting minutes from latest EOL SC are forthcoming.

The EOL Steering Committee heard the BHL report from Tom and it was well received. Their assessment is that BHL is well ahead of curve. Delivery of content to BHL is on the verge of being global. Sustainability is a big issue. Elizabeth asked about funding timeline--we have completed first 2 years and have commitment for last 3. EOL is working with Wikipedia but some issues--still struggling with partnership possibilities. EOL pages are curated but if in Wikipedia, they will be changeable. Credit and recognition for content providers is another topic being discussed. Nathan Wilson, a computer scientist, is the new head of the Bioinformatics Group (BIG). There will be a new Product Manager as well. He will ensure that deliverables are delivered on time and according to spec. Will all of the component brands be integrated and
where is the input? What will this mean for user interface for BHL? Rules and procedures to go on site reviewed--for take-down, for instance. It is a requirement for MacArthur grant to have these messages and it is also a legal issue.

Collaborations and partnerships--Egypt and South Africa are on the way; Central America and Brasil are in discussions. Atlas of Living Australia will be a regional EOL : interested in contributing literature and data mining applications.

NSF: Dimensions of biodiversity--structuring biodiversity marketplace in US.; program to measure biodiversity and this works well with EOL to document and quantify biodiversity. Jim Edwards invited to participate. He is working with many Federal agencies on a North American EOL, e.g. EPA, FWS, USDA, USGS, NASA. Drifting toward a structure with series of regional EOLs with some kind of collaborating global structure.

European open access ejournal focused entirely on descriptive taxonomy with design for extraction of data into BHL/EOL (like Zootaxa, Zookeys). EDIT is funder but will be owned and run by big European museums.

6. Other issues? Judy reported that there is no information yet on TL2. Still waiting to hear back from Brill. Tom has been in touch with director and staff members from BIERME (Sao Paulo, Brazil) providers of open access journals. Meeting 16th October with CRIA to consider workshop with Brazilians in Jan/Feb. They have a significant amount of biodiversity content already digitized. Areas of strong mutual interest and they have strong IT infrastructure.


ACTION: Tom and Susan will develop agenda for Nov IC meeting. This will include QA recommendations discussion.
ACTION: Martin will pursue tweaking of de-duping tool with Chris but we will move on with ingest if tweaking will cause delay.
ACTION: Ingest away, once Martin talks to Chris.