SIL2011_03_August_2011

August 24, 2011

SIL BHL Staff Meeting

1. Howdy to Angel and Apolinar!
   Welcome to our SIL STRI colleagues visiting DC. We were unable to find them, so we greeted them in abstentia.
2. BHL governance and organizational structure changes
   Executive group: SIL, NHM, MBL, MOBOT, Kew, CAS, MCZ; Institutional council: ANSP, AMNH, NYBG, Field, HU-Bot, Cornell (new member!). MRK will take over as BHL Program Director when Tom Garnett retires in March 2012. Bianca Crowley will report to Martin (on paper) as of October 1. SIL received a Federal increase to our base budget of $125,000 to support BHL activities.
3. Some additions to the BHL web properties
   New social media links, a new logo and the donate button
4. Donate!
   We'll be able to take money. See the wiki donate page for more information.
5. Something about Life and Lit
   Will evaluate who will go soon
6. Something about the Chinese Academy of Sciences
   We'll build an agenda
7. 8.7 million species (give or take)
   Gil pointed out an article in the WPost with a quote by SI entomologist Terry Erwin. 8.7 million species exist on Earth, study estimates
8. Scan check box
   Scan Box checked or not to check: Rare records and nonrare records have had barcode switcharoos. Nonrare going to Rare etc etc. How important is it to get the box checked? -- [more detailed version of question from Diane] Can we do away with checkmarking the item record for the scanned copy? If there are multiple hard copies on the same bib record, it can be time-consuming to try to figure out which copy was actually sent to the scanner, and unless there are descriptive 590 notes that can be verified from the BHL scan, then it's nearly impossible to determine which copy got scanned without, say, going to the Cullman and pulling the various copies off the shelf to compare against the scan. As Suzanne says, the scanning may have been done from a non-rare branch copy which may or may not have been transferred to the Cullman by the time the 856 gets added to the record. If checking the scanned box still seems useful in general, can we at least leave the checkbox unchecked for situations where it's not clear? DECISION: Too much level of effort; if it is easy, do it; but if it is problematic, do not do it.
9. BHL Titles - SIL Purls. Yes? No? Does it matter? Should we be adding just the BHL URL, or the SIL PURL also, when both are available? Example: The PURL, http://www.sil.si.edu/eresources/silpurl.cfm?purl=2251726 , added to the Cullman record. DECISION: DO NOT USE SIL PURLS on BHL materials because BHL links are PURLS.