Testimonials

Testimonials

See also BHL ReUse Examples
iTunes U Praise
See more online BHL mentions here.

2018

Staff Testimonials re: full text search, received via email May 7-8, 2018:
Marty Schlabach:
Terrific! Congratulations to all!! The utility of BHL just increased tremendously. We thought BHL was great before, it’s even better now. It’ll be fun to hear about new uses that are found for BHL, now that full-text searching is implemented.

Diane Rielinger:
I just used Full Text for the first time while paginating to determine if figures bound at the end of the volume were related to both pieces in the volume or only the last piece (it was both). Thank you to the Tech Team and everyone who worked on this. Although this is a trivial example, I was able to make the determination in just a couple of seconds rather than paging through looking for figure references in the text. Very nice!

Michael Cook:
I echo Marty’s praise loudly – in particular the “Search Inside This Book” feature. The faceted options are fantastic. New worlds and vistas now open up all over the place across this vast collection.

All in all this release is an immeasurable leap forward. It even has a link back to the old interface for those who want it. Superb!

Feb 5 via Gemini 60920
Wanted to pass along a note of appreciation for assisting me in research conducted for a public library program presentation on Native American use of Dentalium tusk shells as currency. While having a long-standing fossil background, was having a difficult time finding solid resources on the topic. Found a citation for R.B. Clark's University of Bristol thesis on "Economics of Dentalium" on Native American harvesting, processing and currency uses of Dentalium. Thank you for your online resources. Credited both the Clark paper and your website in the talk. At your service, Guy DiTorrice "Oregon Fossil Guy"

2017

Nov 9 via Gemini 60580
I just want to tell you how excited I was to be able to find 2 articles here: I am the librarian for Illinois EPA, and in 35 years I had never needed an article from Malacologia, and will probably never need one again. We are not allowed to pay for anything now, but my engineer working on a Superfund site was very happy to get these 2 items. Thank you, from a state government employee !
-Nancy

November 6, 2017
Received via biodiversitylibrary@gmail.com:

Hi there,

I just wanted to say thank you for the work you do! I came across an illustration on page 7 of Brehm’s Life of Animals: A complete natural history Volume 1 by Friedrich Specht and I'm planning to use it for the front cover of a comic book cover I’m designing which will be published next May. I’m really grateful for this resource being readily available and it’s so great to have access to all these amazing old books.

Thanks again!

Best,
Becca

October 26, 2017 via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Flickr/status/923681182071496704

"If you aren’t following @BioDivLibrary on Flickr, what are you doing with your life? #choices #FlickrFam #MustFollow"

Oct 6, 2017 via Gemini 60419
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for making old scientific publications available--I have used this service several times and it is wonderful. Many thanks.
dmuhs@usgs.gov Daniel Muhs

August 30, 2017
Anonymous praise via Gemini

I just wanted to say thank you for your easy to use, free site! Keep up the good work.

August 24, 2017
From Miguel A. Alonso-Zarazaga, zarazaga@mncn.csic.es (via Gemini)

Dear Alison,
Thank you very much for your kindness and spectacular effectiveness in finding rare books. Just one more question: could you try to complete the French journal "L'Échange : organe des Naturalistes de la région lyonnaise", which is a nightmare for all entomologist (mostly coleopterists). You have just two blocks separated by a gap, and then 1922-23 missing too (I wonder why this kind of journals having no owner right now cannot be scanned to the end, in this case 1953). Please note that the fascicle covers are important because new captures were sometimes announced there too. In Spain we have 5 copies or so of this journal, none complete. I have my own copy made of scattered numbers, terribly incomplete.
Best wishes, and thanks again,
Miguel

August 10, 2017
From Sheena (via Gemini)
That you for how easy your site is to use. I'm reference checking for an ophthalmology article and came across a German article from 1906 that was killer to find and it took about 30 seconds to find the entire article on here. Thank you!

August 2, 2017
Mabberley's Plant-Book, 4th edition
Mabberley, David J.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-107-11502-6

Introduction, pg. viii
"Secondly, so much authoritative information is now available on the internet, that a key, leading to definitive taxonomic revisions and reviews online, is needed, such that all users of this book rather than merely the cognoscenti, can readily reach those primary research sources. When a revision of a genus has bee published in recent years, or an older one is still widely quoted, I have indicated the place of publication in a very abbreviated form. It has always seemed to me that this would give the reader with a need to follow up the literature a valuable start, and now, with much of that literature on the internet (especially useful is the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org)), readers can much more readily reach such primary sources."

July 26, 2017
From: Eric Gouda (e.j.gouda@uu.nl)
via Gemini

I'm very happy with BHL when searching for protologs etc. Most of the time I'm searching trough Mobot, because with a direct search I do not find the protolog I'm searching for. For example searching for Caraguata lingulata var. cardinalis I do not find the protolog, but using Mobot I do: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15949098#page/43/mode/1up So probably the information is not indexed at BHL. At first I thought that the literature was not included at BHL, but later I found out that it is, only more difficult to trace. Thanks for all the good work to make life easier!
July 18, 2017
From: Lesley Miles (lesley@wmarchitects.com)
Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Thank you! We live in Morgan Hill on the original leonard coates nursery site. The historic information and Eucalyptus lists are really interesting as we have many remaining trees including Eucalyptus and palms.

May 30, 2017
From: Sierwald Petra <psierwald@fieldmuseum.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at 14:35
To: Biodiversity Feedback <feedback@biodiversitylibrary.org>
Cc: "Crowley, Bianca" <crowleyb@si.edu>

Subject: Re: [BHLFEED-59700] - psierwald@fieldmuseum.org
thanks so much, I will in the future check more carefully. I am totally in love with BHL, I am hotlinking all my millipede species to first descriptions available through BHL, see at MilliBase.org. MilliBase gains so much from BHL.

I am totally willing to help to get missing volumes if I can I have access to Field Museum Library.
I will continue to donate some modest funds to BHL.
Thanks for all you do
Petra

May 25, 2017
Received by Ely Wallis via email:

Hi Ely

Unfortunately I am based at Moreland today but would absolutely be there if I was onsite.

I am delighted to see there is a digitisation of rare books happening. It keeps them alive as physical objects so much longer and distributes the contents so easily

I just had a glancing look at preface to the Collins book as I recall Bill Gammage referencing it in The Biggest Estate on Earth. What an astonishingly sinister preface from his wife Mary Collins!. Clearly, deeply embroiled in the justification of the violent dispossession that was the beginning of the colony, fascinating to read how categorical the language of the day was. I reckon people forget how raw and direct ‘musty old’ rare books can be. Awful, sanctimonious, ‘gloves off’ racism in black and white. Australia needs to see this preface and the books of it’s ilk and come to terms with this nation’s cold-hearted origin.

Congratulations that there is such a vital technology at our disposal thanks to the tireless endeavour of you and your team. You are creating such meaningful access to these critical volumes.

Cheers Rod

May 20, via Gemini 59709
Name: Emily Levine
URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/73966
Is there anything you DON'T have??!! I was looking through an old bibliography, itself in an extremely obscure little publication, and came across "Beavers, their ways : and other sketches / by Joseph Henry Taylor." Interested in it, I entered it into Google just to see what might result. Should I have not have been surprised that the first entry was BHL's? You have the book scanned much to my delight. I cannot tell you the number of sources---mostly botanical/horticultural---that I have utilized through the BHL . . . the list is long. I thank you for all of your work. Best, Emily Emily Levine Independent Scholar 724 South 18th Street Lincoln NE 68508 (402) 475-4387 emily.levine@earthlink.net

May 6, via Gemini 59631
Name: Mabira Piccaro
I really wish to thank you for having allowed the download of such a wonderful book! Have a nice day and all my best compliments Kind regards Mabira

Apr 30, via email in response to Gemini 59563
Hi Bianca,
Thanks for the informative reply. I really appreciate it. I'll get in touch with the GNA team to see if they can come up with a solution.
You are doing a fantastic job, thanks again.
Cheers,
Mohammad

Apr 15, via Gemini 59532
Name: Deborah Dunnett
URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/185371 = On animal and vegetable parasites of the human body a manual of their natural history, diagnosis
Thank you for this amazing read.

Apr 6, via Gemini 59480
Name: David Pugh
Thank you for the prompt download of requested pages of Proc. Malac. Soc. 1911 journal. The article will help me immensely in my dating of J.C. Chenu's Illus. Conch. parts and pages that I have in my library. Thanks again!

Apr 4, via Gemini 59440
"Thanks! I appreciate you making the articles available and the process so easy to follow!" -Jeannie Colson

March 21, 2017 via Gemini
Jennifer Coggan (jennifer.coggon@mail.utoronto.ca)
I love BHL, using it a ton! I'm in history and philosophy of science.

March 14, 2017, via Taxacom
Tim Dickinson (tim.dickinson@utoronto.ca)
"We are fortunate to live in a time when, if "traipsing to a library" is not possible, then online access may be, thanks to initiatives like the Biodiversity Heritage Library."


Feb 7 via Gemini FEED 57696
You guys are great!!!!!! Thank you and everyone at BHL for the awesome work you guys do!

---

Brad Barnd
MS, Entomology

Feb 4 via Gemini FEED 59055
Name: Heike Dixon
URL:

Hello there, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for the service of generating pdf downloads of specific contents out of your library archives. Sincerely Heike Dixon

Jan 30
via email to Anne Griffin
Name: John McCarthy

Dear Anne Griffin,

What a pleasant surprise to witness a copy of the digitized Flora Sinensis (1656) written by the Polish Jesuit priest Michal Boym, S.J. on the BHL website.

I am a Canadian Jesuit priest working on the lichen biodiversity of Newfoundland and Labrador. Nice to confirm that the Society of Jesus continues its long-standing tradition in the study of the earth's biodiversity. I am an avid and grateful user of the BHL website. It's truly a wonderful resource to people like myself who depend on access to the earlier lichen biodiversity literature.

Thank-you for taking the initiative in digitizing this early flora of China. I will notify a fellow Canadian Jesuit priest currently working in Taiwan.

Sincerely,

Fr. John

John McCarthy SJ
Jesuits in English Canada
43 Queen’s Park Crescent East
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C3
E-mail: jmccarthy@jesuits.org
Tel. 416-962-4500
Fax 416-962-4501
Cell 647-226-1886

Jan 12
via Gemini 58905
Name: Cris Kuhlemeier
URL:
I just received a copy of an 1893 article in a rather obscure journal. That is great, thank you very much!

2016

Nov 30
via Gemini 58646
Name: Robert E Marks
URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46193347
I have fully indexed and linked the repository's scans of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales (1865-2015). See www.agsm.edu.au/bobm/JProcRSNSW/rdi.html which links to the index at the RSNSW web site. Thank you for the design of the repository which has enabled the index. Robert Marks, Editor

Nov 20
via Gemini 58592
This is not an issue, but a Thank You Thank You Thank You for scanning the issues of The Nautilus. I have been searching for the Honor Issue of Leo Hertlein - and you had it!! Thank you for the work you are doing.
-Linda Gilbert

Nov 18
via Gemini 49968
Thank you, Christine. This is good news for all entomologists, to have a scarce publication like that at hand.
Best wishes,
Miguel A. Alonso-Zarazaga (Dr)
Depto. de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales

Oct 5
via Gemini BHLFeed 58408
Dear Bianca,
Thanks so much for your email: this really sheds light on the issue.

I'm going to contact the publisher, since they should have plenty of experience with this. I'm not well versed in US copyright law.
The archive is truly amazing - not only is its content a source of inspiration, the human effort behind these sorts of projects is quite astounding.
Very best,
Lisa

Sep 24
via Gemini BHLFeed 58386
I'm writing to thank you for having your library available to the public. I needed an 1837 article and you had it. Wow!! Most sincerely, John R. "Jack" Finney PhD

Sep 8
via Gemini BHLFeed 58297
M. J. PoirierName: Jennifer
URL: https://t.co/vr5DGnNFoS

M.J. Poirier or J. Poirier ? I see the SUDOC supplied the VIAF record, but this list in a ref book on same group of snails cites only "J.": https://books.google.fr/books?id=8C2sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA275&lpg=PA275&dq=Revision+des+Murex+du+Mus%C3%A9um&source=bl&ots=qAnyP1Ni_l&sig=pPVWAqqZiFF87qq6sWYIsYszZus&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ1Pig_PfOAhWD0hoKHSRgAjkQ6AEIRjAG#v=onepage&q=Revision%20des%20Murex%20du%20Mus%C3%A9um&f=false I also looked in other catalogs here to find other works by same author or mentions in MNHN employee lists but had no luck. I think this one is remaining M[?] for now in my own biblio - But thanks for info and it's great to know how to report things. BTW The BHL has become indispensable to my projects in marine ecology. A million thanks for all the hard work that goes into making these resources available to those of us whose libraries have disappeared.

Aug 29
via Gemini BHLFEED 58263 -- [in response to thank you note post user's donation]
Thank you for your note--I'll definitely check into the Biodiversity Library Exhibitions. I'm a historian doing work on the Enlightenment in the Caribbean during the eighteenth-century, and the BHL has been absolutely indispensable in my work. Yours, April Shelford

Aug 6
via Gemini BHLFEED 58186 -- [in response to thank you note post user's donation]
You're welcome.
I have worked in a Library myself and love classic books about Nature.
It is nice that there are so many fine books on Nature in this Project.

Best Regards,
R. de Ma
Soest
The Netherlands

Aug 5
via Gemini BHLFEED 58182
Name: Chris Cobb

URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/92538
I wish to give you my hearty and heart-felt thanks. I wanted to research Debeny's paper to the 1860 BAAS meeting in Oxford. Starting from scratch, I found it in an half-an-hour on your site. The down-side is that I don't have to go to the Natural History Museum to see the real pages. I could have used the walk.

Aug 2
via Gemini BHLFEED 58163
Name: Janice Jean Geist
URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/108851

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your hard work to preserve our heritage. I am the descendant of Germans from Russia and am doing a very intensive genealogy of all of my extended family. I can find the usual data for any/all genealogies, but I have a really hard time finding items of social history. The Carruth article in the 1892 Kansas University Quarterly, vol. 1, pages 71-84 "Foreign Settlements in Kansas) is PRICELESS. I have spent days and days trying to find this article but never gave up because I was on a "mission". Finally I hit paydirt! Don't ever think your work is meaningless or that no one cares. You are performing an extremely valuable public service. Could you please send me info on how to donate to your organization. Thanks so much, Janice Jean Geist

July 26
Dear Christine
I have mailed the copy to you this morning. It is a pleasure to be able to donate it to the Field Museum Library and to contribute to the BHL. I am a frequent user of the latter and am very grateful for the effort put in by people such as yourself to grow this fabulous online resource. It has added huge value to our collective ability to carry out research.

With grateful thanks
Wilma

Wilma Blom Ph.D. | Curator Marine Invertebrates | Auckland War Memorial Museum | Tamaki Paenga Hira | The Domain, Private Bag 92018, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, New Zealand | www.aucklandmuseum.com | M | P +64 9 306 7921 | F +64 9 379 9956 | E wblom@aucklandmuseum.com

July 20
via email to MBLWHOI Library web contact form

Subject: thank you
Message:
Hi, I'd like to thank you for the incredible online facility you have for downloading and printing old periodicals without issues or costs. I came across a reference to an 1895 article today which I then tried to track down leading me to your site. The article was "Anthropological Notes" by Helms R. in the Linnean Society (NSW-Australia) Journal and I'm very grateful.
Cheers and thanks once again,
Vaso Elefsiniotis
Research and Policy Officer, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (Melbourne, Australia)



July 16
via Gemini 58085
Name: Edwin Quintero

the best web page

June 27
via Gemini 57893
Name: Gaurang Gowande
My colleagues and I recently published a paper in Zootaxa, titled 'Neotype Designation for Calotes versicolor, with notes on its systematics'. Thanks to BHL, we had access to numerous historic records and books, that otherwise would have been inaccessible. We wish to send the paper to BHL, as we have acknowledged this mammoth effort by BHL in the paper. I request BHL to provide me with an e-mail ID to which I can send the paper.


From article: "A new cavernicolous assassin bug of the genus Bagauda Bergroth (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from the Western Ghats, India" http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4127.2.8
Authors name species after the evolutionary biologist, Ernst Mayr and provide acknowledgement to BHL:

"Biodiversity Heritage Library people also need to be acknowledged here for providing much needed literature." (pg. 374)

From book published 2012, brought to our attention via email from Marty Schlabach in June 2016:
Heirloom Fruits & Vegetables, by Toby Musgrave and Clay Perry, 2012 (pg. 211)

"Primary sources are essential when researching a book like this, but they also pose a problem of access. Thankfully, today's horticultural and garden historian has a wonderful resource in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (www.biodiversitylibrary.org), which holds a catalogue of literally thousands of early and rare monographs and periodicals, all of which may be downloaded at no cost."

June 27
via email in response to BHLFEED-57746:
Dear Bianka,
I would to thank you for your message, and apologize for the late reply. BHL is a incredible resource for any taxonomist, a tool I would have liked to have when I started working as a taxonomist, and which I'm very happy to have now. As one of the editors of WoRMS, I use it to support and validate the data provided by WoRMS, and as far as I now, the other editors do the same. In fact, I can't imagine WoRMS without the massive support given by BHL and its huge database.
A big thank you!
All the best,
Joao

June 22, 2016
BHLFEED-57917
Name: Barry Lomax

Not really a suggestion. I just want to pass on my thanks for an excellent service and high quality scan.

June 2, 2016
via email:

The Biodiversity Heritage Library was absolutely essential for my exposure of an erroneous claim of novelty of a recent "discovery" that comb jellies can poop and have a through-gut (see Letter to Science in June 3, 2016 issue). The actual scientific papers by Agassiz and Chun in the BHL showed that these facts were already known since 1850. Currently the biology of comb jellies is important for genomic studies on the evolution of the first metazoans (animals). The BHL is therefore a valuable source for finding out the history of biological discovery.

Sincerely and thankfully,

Sidney L. Tamm
Bell Center
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA

May 25, 2016
BHLFEED-57773

Name: Jean-Louis Berthoud
URL:
To whom it may concern, Thank you very much for your amazing website, very intuitive and easy to use.

BHLFEED-57772
Name: Florent Prunier

Dear BHL's friends, First of all, I would like to thank you for your brilliant project. I am the representative of a small Spanish NGO, based in Andalusia. We are interested in PDF tagging the 3-4 foundational XIX's Century books on Andalusian biodiversity that every researcher in the area is using. Thankfully with digital libraries, it is easy to access them nowadays (some are incredibly rare in their original format), but we would like to go a further step. Manually adding the species names(tags) in the pages'pdf/image and prepare index for the book. It is important since the Automatic Recognition Machine ("Scientific Names on this Page") doesn't recognize every names (it does a great deal indeed; but we'd like to be exhaustive). Also put the current accepted name for the taxon. Obviously we can take a pdf copy of the book and do the job in the desktop in our corner of the world. But we'd like to do it the best way possible. Is this possible within BHL? Cheers, florent

May 6, 2016
BHLFEED-57704 aroavaron@vims.edu
Name: Adela Roa-Varon

You are AWESOME!!! Thanks for making available all this information. Adela

May 3, 2016
From Gerhard Prenner, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (via email from Susan Lynch). Mailto: G.Prenner@kew.org

Thank you very much for this nice info and great service. I just want to take this opportunity to emphasize how great and wonderful BHL is for me and my work. It brings all those great works which were kind of "lost" in libraries to life again!

Thanks again and best wishes from Kew,Gerhard
April 29
From Patrik Good (patrik.good@gmail.com)

BHL was essential for my recent Verconia article (Postscript tohttps://amateurbranching.com/2016/04/26/verconia-taxonomic-nudibranch-detectives-required/). BHL helped me to provide the necessary evidence, hard BHL document facts, that the name 'Noumea' (used by top branch scientists all over the world for almost a century) actually belongs to a beetle and is therefore wrong to use for nudibranchs. I don't think anyone was aware of that, checked and documented this important fact before. Nudibranch taxonomists are a stubborn bunch of people (for good reason), but they are susceptible for good/foolproof arguments that they can verify. So, yes, indeed, BHL might have changed and corrected the course of nudibranch history and set an example for more to come. The result is not even that important. But I find it essential to show everyone (including paid professionals) how they can use BHL and other documentation on the internet to get it right and to help others getting it right. Don't teach people content but the process how to get to results by providing easy accessible resources and by showing them what can be achieved. Everyone who can read can be a brancher and an explorer. That's why it is important to get BHL even easier to find, search and browse.

April 14 via Gemini
BHLFEED-57615 catherineglea@yahoo.com

Name: Catherine
URL: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/112155
THANK YOU for this amazing resource!!!! I'm a plant fiend, an artist, and a designer. I can't tell you what a goldmine this is. Best Regards, Catherine

March 31
Via email from James Remsen najames@LSU.edu
"Bianca — thanks for your response,... Thanks for everything you and the BHL staff do — you are making a major impact on scholarly research."

March 8
Dear Bianca and Darcy,

Many thanks for this information and I'm delighted to hear the EANHS Bulletins are to be digitized. I'm currently researching some aspects of the birds of Nairobi and the older and historic records contained in those volumes will be extremely useful. Living in Canada and with only sporadic and very limited access to hard materials in Nairobi, the digitizing of much of Kenya nature material has permitted me to stay involved and active from afar, and is much appreciated.

Regards,
James

2015

December 22, 2015
Good morning Bianca,
Thanks for your response and checking into the issue. The issue I’m experiencing with that particular content is still persisting. However, I was able to select the known pages I needed and download them; that worked just fine – just can’t view them in a web browser. No worries at the moment. Keep up the great work. I think archive.org and biodiversitylibrary.org are absolutely fantastic resources.
Sincerely,
Brian Acord
CNDDB Zoology Lead
(916) 322-7307
www.dfg.ca.gov/biogeodata/cnddb/

December 21, 2015
from email sent to Jacqueline Chapman at SIL.

"We've been adding some original bird names in ITIS, and linking to BHL when we can. So far at least 99% of the time we find what we are looking for in BHL when the literature isn’t copyright restricted. We're so happy with BHL that when we come across scientific names with dates greater than the early 1920's we get bummed out."

David Mitchell
mitchelld@si.edu
USGS/CSASL Eco-Science Synthesis
ITIS Data Specialist
National Museum of Natural History


December 5, 2015
[re: Gemini 48275]
Dear Bianca and Dan
I have added the link to BHL http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/links/all/added/desc/1.php
Unfortunately the RRC website does not support logos in links, so it will have to be just text.
Actually I thought that I had put the link up earlier because BHL is one of those resources which are so extremely useful to all zoologists. In my professional life (working on 19th century natural history) I use BHL very regularly almost always with great results. It is often hard to acknowledge a website like this even though we are extremely indebted. But our gratitude is real.

All the best
Kees

[RRC put this on their website:
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library improves research methodology by collaboratively making biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community. Inspiring discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge. This is a great resource, the first portal for all older zoological literature, as stated all with free and open access to all users. The RRC is of course much indebted to all people involved in this great project which will of course be ongoing for many more years. No research in natural history these days could ever be complete without the help of BHL which combines resources of many great libraries around the world, all accessible from our own homes and offices. Thank you BHL."]

November 25, 2015
via feedback gmail, from Esther Jackson, Public Services Librarian, NYBG (ejackson@nybg.org)
"Thank you for your reply! I’m glad to see that there is another version of this item. BHL is a wonderful resource, and I very much enjoy using it."

November 20, 2015
via Gemini, from Paulina Rojas, (paulina.rojas.paredes@gmail.com)
"Just want to say thanks for the amazing service! I received the article i needed in just minutes, really thanks."

October 17, 2015
via Gemini, from Varad Giri, (varadgiri@gmail.com)
"Dear All, I am a taxonomist working with National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India. I am always looking for historical literature on original descriptions of many species of amphibians and reptiles from India. In the beginning it was a impossible task for me to access these papers but with your efforts things become very easy. I wish to thank you for this amazing effort. I also wish to acknowledge this in my upcoming publications so please let me know if there is any format for doing so. Best Varad"

October 16, 2015
via email, sent from Sally Schramm. Original (and quote) from:
Nasreen Peer (peer.nasreen@gmail.com)
PhD CandidateDST/NRF Research Chair in Shallow Water EcosystemsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University
I hope this e-mail finds you well. It was great to meet you the other night at Prof. Appleton's talk. I was especially delighted to hear about your work with the Biodiversity Heritage Library! I said to you that if you can't find something on BHL then there's little hope of you finding it at all. Please keep up the good work. It is highly appreciated by many of us.

October 7, 2015
via Gemini, from Alistair Godfrey (alistair.godfrey@btinternet.com)
"No problems, I just want to thank you for the tremendous service you provide in enabling botanical recorders like me to locate useful records in the archive, such as in the Scottish Naturalist."

October 2, 2015
via email, sent by Marty Cornell.
Bob Guthrie, bobguthrie@comcast.net

Absolutely, the Biodiversity Heritage Library with its multiple search capabilities provides access to historical material and information that logistically and time-wise would otherwise prove very difficult if not impossible to find and access. For me it has already proven itself as an incredibly valuable resource that has and will continue to help fill in many gaps in the North American Actinidia re-introduction-provenance-dissemination chronology. Please feel free to use my name as well as written excerpts below so that others too will hopefully utilize BHL as an investigative resource for their historical research.

“Just when I thought it could not get any better....
Thank you ever so much for the additional information and hyperlinks. Upon reading your message I did a cursory (2+ hour) perusal of some of the Actinidia entries and came across considerable information that I had never seen before.
Collectively this information will greatly assist and enhance our understanding of the historical introduction and dissemination chronology of Actinidia in North America.

September 22, 2015
Thank you very much, Bianca! I'm a neophyte researcher and i'm pretty new to all these databases and online libraries. I find BHL really amazing; especially the service it provides despite being free. Praises to you and BHL!
Arman Pili

September 10, 2015
via Gemini, from Philip Maasz (philmaasz@gmail.com)
"Thank you so much for your PDF file which had information from a letter from J.C. Maass 1894 in the Permanent Pastures archive. He was my great grandfather. Thank you so much for giving me this information. I suggest you pat yourself on the back!"

September 5, 2015
Hi Bianca, I am happy I could help, and even more that help is accepted by you and the BHL team. Keep on with the good work!
Regards, Stefan

September 1, 2015
via feedback gmail, Edward Dickinson, edward@asiaorn.org
"BHL is a huge resource and I am always doing all I can to boost it, I have a article coming out in ZooKeys sometime soon which explains my reasons for supporting it."

August 31, 2015
Thanks for the follow-up. I guess I was spoiled by previous experience, and assumed the file was ready as soon as I received the link. The next day, the PDF appeared just fine. Thanks for the wonderful service you offer to scholars. -Doug

August 27, 2015
Dear Bianca: Thank you for your reply. I had not thought to look at the copyright issue for Forest Leaves.
By the way, I love the BHL. It has lots of resources that our students use.
Best, Alica White

August 18, 2015
from Jere Kahanpää (jere.kahanpaa@gmail.com), via Gemini
"Thanks for a Truly Great Resource. My research work would be 10x harder without the BHL!"

August 3, 2015
from Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@outlook.com), via feedback gmail
"I am engaged in enriching our 3,688 Australian Lepidoptera webpages linked from http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/larvae.html by adding links to their original descriptions,eg Cochylis atricapitana http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/tort/atricap.html Not our best webpage, but now very informative all the same.
This is is all made possible thanks to the heritage work that you organisation and its partners do. Many thanks, Don"

August 3, 2015
from Ed Dewalt (dewalt@illinois.edu), via feedback gmail
"I have used BHL a lot in the past month, gathering length data for three orders of aquatic insects to do some comparisons of size distribution between Isle Royale NP and the mainland along the Lake Superior coast. I could not afford time to make these measurements myself, so being able to get them from published descriptions has made this comparison possible. Thanks for all your hard work."


July 23, 2015
Email from Chris Freeland to Retta le Ritz about BHL images:


Chris,

It was so lovely seeing you yesterday!

Thank you for sending me this link. Wow! I had absolutely no idea this existed - or that it would come from our own Mobot!

I cannot wait to pour through the imagery. It will certainly add inspiration to the fabric prints I am in the midst of creating. Truly, thank you for thinking to send me this email.

Hope you enjoy the next several weeks of summer. Maybe the weather will just as nice next time we all meet!

Best,
Retta


On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 10:01 AM, Freeland, Chris <chris.freeland@wustl.edu> wrote:
Retta,

Good seeing you again this morning! I’m passing on the link to the Martha Stewart Weddings post I mentioned that features images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL):
http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/387842/nature-inspired-diy-wedding-ideas-check-out-biodiversity-library

I was the founding technical director of BHL, online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org, while I was at Mobot. BHL is a consortium of the world’s leading natural history libraries that are working together to digitize their print materials, and Mobot has scanned & contributed a significant portion of its rare book collection to the site, including one of my favorites, Redoute’s Les liliacees:http://www.biodiversitylibrary.com/item/10265. Because natural history scholarship exploded in the pre-Victorian age and after, a large majority of the works are firmly in the public domain and available for reuse, including commercial use.

Hope the new vehicle treats you well! Talk soon,

Chris
Chris Freeland
Associate University Librarian
Washington University Libraries
Campus Box 1061
St. Louis, MO 63130
p: (314) 935-3939

July 16, 2015
Recognition of BHL's digitization of volumes from Serket, which we received permission to include in BHL:
http://serket1987.blogspot.com/

July 13, 2015
to Jackie, via feedback gmail, from Thomas Carefoot
"Thanks for your fast, effective, and I hope, efficient, service. With your help I picked up another few articles that I have had on my list for ages. Our university (British Columbia) does subscribe to Veliger, but all the old stuff has been archived. To get it I would need to drive for over 2h round trip, walk to the archive building, fill out a form for each paper on my list, wait for the robot (literally) to zip around the subterranean stacks, then photocopy each article. It’s like regressing back in time to an older, more primitive age. I’ve said it before…you folks do a great job. [...] Keep up the good work…you’ve got lots of admirers out there…"

July 10, 2015
via gmail, from Toby Musgrave
"Many thanks indeed - you guys just do the most fantastic job. An invaluable resource that I use on an almost daily basis."

July 9, 2015
via Gemini, from Sara Lourie, sara.lourie@mail.mcgill.ca
"Very cool!! I'm in the process of creating a checklist of the seahorse species of the world, and writing a book about them and I just stumbled upon the logbooks from the Albatross Expedition and found some previously unknown information about what must be the type specimen of the seahorse Hippocampus sindonis! Just wanted to share my excitement with you and thank you for making these old field notes available :)"

July 9, 2015
via gmail, from Pat LaFollett
"I've lately been revisiting titles that I had not found in BHL the last time I looked, and finding a lot of them. It turns out some of them have actually been in BHL for years. Improvements in BHL's title search algorithm is making items more easily findable (and maybe I'm getting a little better at it as well.) In any case, I really appreciate all the good work you guys are doing."

July 6, 2015
via Gemini, from Guilherme Búrigo Zanette, guizanette@hotmail.com
"Dear responsible for site I met the Biodiversity Heritage Library site a short time and would like to thank the service provided for researchers who need to perform literature reviews and have difficulties to find free papers"

July 2, 2015
to Christine Giannoni, from Alan Kabut, alankabat@aol.com
"Thanks for the update -- it is a very nice scan! Great to have this online" in response to the FM Library digitizing:
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/103821#/summary

June 18, 2015
via Gemini, from Brian L. Bayne, baynebrian@hotmail.com
"I want to thank you for making some of the 'older' but invaluable scientific material available. It is a much appreciated service"

June 2, 2015
via gmail, from Palma Christian. palma_ecm@hotmail.com
"I entered BHL and our users and spent the late afternoon reading all the wonderful entries. [...] It is a wonderful blog."

June 1, 2015
via gmail, from Palma Christian. palma_ecm@hotmail.com
"Thank you for the wonderful service you offer."
"[...] you have been a great source. I live in the Canary Islands, my University is in Lisbon and who knows where each one of these sources are... (well, It is easy to know, but not that easy to reach.)"

May 31, 2015
The resources of SL are and have been essential and necessary for my research on the biology and evolution of amphibians and reptiles. Most recently, I would have been unable to complete my Univ. Calif. Press book on Pacific reptiles and amphibians without the broad access to published and online journals in the SL system. Similarly than access remains critical for my ongoing production of a monographic survey of the amphibians and reptiles of Myanmar. Owing to the necessity of reading 17th, 18th, and 19th century literature, the Biodiversity Heritage Library has been a godsend for accurately citing nomenclatural history.

gz/31may15
George Zug, Emeritus Research Zoologist - Divis Amphibians & Reptiles

April 30, 2015
Thanks for looking into it. Having those publications available online is a really great resource, and it's just a blast to read fish and game articles from 130 years ago. -Paul

Dear Paul Cadrett, Thank you for contacting the Biodiversity Heritage Library to let us know about the errors in the dates for 'California fish and game.’ I have made the corrections and have asked our metadata technician to continue working on the title to put the volumes in the correct order. I do not have a time table as to when the re-sequencing will be completed but please know that this issue is on our radar and will be addressed as soon as we are able. Thanks for taking the time to get in touch and let us know. Regards, Bianca

April 24, 2015
via BHL feedback gmail, from Sharon N. Shiba, Senior Biologist Specialist, Department of Dish and Whildlife, Marine Invasive Species Program, Sacramento, CA (Sharon.Shiba@wildlife.ca.gov)

"The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an absolute treasure for government agencies with limited funding. I’m very impressed with the breadth of its content. It’s a wonderful idea; please keep up the good work!"

April 3, 2015
via Gemini, from Nick Brand (no email address given)
"Really, just a thanks for maintaining the library. I'd been looking for a particular illustration of pond turtles by L. Prang Co. and there it was in J.G. Wood's "Animate Creation". (Gotta thank Uncle Google too for helping find you....)."

March 24, 2015
from Josip Skejo (skejo.josip@gmail.com)
"I am Orthoptera taxonomist and Biodiversity Heritage Library is one of the main sources of old and valuable literature on this insect group. Thank you for making the Library so helpful!"

March 10, 2015
vial email exchange with licensor, the Entomological Society of British Columbia, Dezene Huber (dezene.huber@unbc.ca)
"Thank you very much Bianca. We are looking forward to seeing issues arrive online. Thanks for helping to create such a great service."

March 3, 2015
via Gemini, from Ian Gleadall (enoctopus@yahoo.co.uk)
"This is a great service. It's been a very big help in tracking down books and papers that normally are available only in certain specialist libraries. Many thanks for doing this. The site is very easy and intuitive to use. Fantastic."

February 21, 2015
via feedback email, from Muktha Menon (muktham@gmail.com)
"Thanks a lot for your efforts, it is helping me immensely in my research work"

February 9, 2015
via Gemini, from Jim Endersby (j.j.endersby@sussex.ac.uk)
"I love the BHL and find it an invaluable resource"

January 27, 2015
email to Jackie, via BHL feedback gmail, from Patrick Vereecke (codi.sgsm@hotmail.be)

"BHL is an invaluable instrument for all those who are studying or interested in plants"

"I checking all the original publications for a species (?? J) to see of the spelling and the allocation is correct in some published list. Trough BHL I saw some “treasures” of old publications and book in English, German, French, Spanish, … It (and BHL) gives a trip all over the world in different periods in the history. And some knowledge of the history of the old world is sometimes useful. So keep on"

January 15, 2015
Email to Daria Wingreen-Mason from Igor Krupnik (krupniki@si.edu)

Hi Daria,

Sorry for my belated message. Many thanks for forwarding the link to Wrangel's book; it is indeed a very useful tool, since I used the 'search' option to look for the things that I needed (instead of flipping through the pages).

I salute the people and technology that make it so convenient to work with the old bulky volumes. On the minus side, you won't see me in the Library, unless the next book that I need is not available online.

Thanks again,
Igor
Igor Krupnik
Arctic Studies Center
Smithsonian Institution
krupniki@si.edu

January 12, 2015
via Gemini, from Catherine Levy (bluequit@gmail.com)
"THANK YOU FOR MAKING SO MANY WORKS AVAILABLE!"

January 1, 2015
via Gemini, from Graham Rowe (g.rowe@derby.ac.uk)
"BHL is one of the 'Wonders of the World' and has been a life-changing resource."

2014

December 10, 2014
email to Jackie Chapman, from Storrs Olson, Curator Emeritus, Division of Birds (olsons@si.edu)
"I work mainly from home now, in Fredericksburg, and the commute in to DC gets more and more daunting (especially now that most of the Mall is fenced off). So BHL is simply a boon and bonanza without parallel. [...] Anyhow, I am the greatest possible fan of BHL and am going to start recognizing it in the Acknowledgments of all the papers I publish that depend largely on archival resources. Thank you for your help."

December 3, 2014
via feedback gmail from Toby Musgrave (toby@tobymusgrave.dk)
After notifying him that 3 books that he requested in 2011 were now available on BHL - "they will be most useful additions to the wonderful resource that is the BHL and for my work especially."

November 26, 2014
via feedback gmail, from Moyna Muller (moyna.muller@otago.ac.nz)

"I am a PhD student and your library is one of the most important fountains of knowledge for me - the literature available at BHL is often not available anywhere else - since I have to rely heavily on historic works. Thanks so much again, keep up the good work"

November 24, 2014
via Facebook. User requested articles within copyright, so we cannot add to BHL. However, I found one of them in SIL and scanned and sent PDF to user. Asked Alison at NHM, London, if she has and can scan second requested article. Upon receiving first PDF, user wrote:

"
Dear Grace,

Thank you so much for answering me and sending the requested paper.

>>This PDF is provided to you for research purposes only and is not for distribution and may not be reused for commercial or non-research purposes.<<

I understand, and not intended to use it but for my research.

>>I will let you know if they are able to secure a PDF of the article and will provide it to you via Facebook if possible. <<

Thank you so much.

I want to take the occasion to express my deepest gratitude for the service you provide; since we don't have Interlibrary loan (ILL) service in our faculty and I (and other researchers) cannot afford to purchase articles from the publishers. I downloaded several articles for free from your site http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

Thank you...

Wish you all the best,

Areej Nour

November 18, 2014
via feedback gmail, from Dartanhã J. Soares (dartjs@yahoo.com.br)
"I'm a plant pathologist and fungal taxonomist at Embrapa (Brazilian Corporation for Agricultural Research), moreover I'm a "fungi enthusiast" and BHL is allowing me to have access to classical works, like Buller's "Researches on Fungi", Clements' "The genera of Fungi", Berkeley's "Outlines of British fungology", or de Bary's seminal work that proved the pathogenic nature of fungi, that I will never be able to get access by other way. Read such classical works is a wonderful experience that is allowing me to improve myself. Additionally, several other publication available at BHL have a more direct effect on my work because sometimes we need to check some original fungal description and BHL is helping providing the way. So, once more, congratulations for the amazing job you are doing."

October 21, 2014
via feedback gmail, from Rieke Dumke (rieke-meiners@t-online.de)
"Thanks to BHL I was able to find some of the published works of my great-great-great- and great-great-grandfather, which have been lost to the family for a long time. I am very thankful for the chance to regain some of their work for the family!"

via feedback gmail, from Patricia Neyman (pf41n@yahoo.com; website: http://www.pats-eduent.net/saguinus_oedipus.htm)
"Your service is invaluable and I'm sure many people's efforts were required to get this material into my hands. I hope I can show myself worthy."

October 7, 2014
via feedback email, from Patrick Vereecke (codi.sgsm@hotmail.be)
"I use BHL very often. It’s a invaluable source."

September 24, 2014
via feedback email, from Sara Alexander (alexandersar@si.edu)
"BHL is an invaluable resource for my work, so I’m excited to hear of the gaming projects to make it even easier to navigate and find information."

September 1, 2014
Praise of BHL via GBIF announcement:
GBIF's Executive Secretary Donald Hobern added: "BHL is one of the jewels in the crown of biodiversity informatics. It has delivered a resource that is already of high value to taxonomists, collection managers and naturalists around the world. This new partnership between GBIF and BHL will enable us to explore closer linkages between literature, collections and species concepts - helping to add further value to the data mobilized by our respective networks."

http://www.gbif.org/page/7790


August 29, 2014
via feedback email, to Jackie, from Marcelo Roberto Souto de Melo, Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo (melomar@usp.br)
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an amazing project for science!"

via feedback email, to Jackie, from Fred Hrusa, Ph. D, Senior Plant Taxonomist, CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture (fred.hrusa@cdfa.ca.gov)
"Thanks for checking in. I've been working on a large synonymy project, and could not have done it without the BHL. In fact, I've been working on this since 1993, and made more progress in the past 3 years than in all the time before. No longer do I have to borrow, or travel just to see lit. Once in a while there are things not electronic (old things, newer ones I get through JSTOR if available), and some more obscure European pubs., again old ones, I can only find through Google books. But it is fantastic that this stuff is now available. I use it constantly even in my regular work."

August 27, 2014
via Gemini, from Karl-Otto Nagel (Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt/Main, Germany) (karl-otto.nagel@senckenberg.de)
"Greetings and thanks for your great work that helps me a lot every day in my research work!"

August 21, 2014
BHL mentioned in September 2014 issue of This Old House bhl in toh sep 2014.pdf

August 14, 2014
via Twitter. Conversation thread:
Katherine Roy @KRoyStudio
I'm so excited to dive into the @BioDivLibrary's gorgeous website for future research that I want to hug the internet. #biodiversity #books
ViewConversation
15m

KRoyStudio's avatar

Katherine Roy @KRoyStudio
@BioDivLibrary GASP. My mind is stunned and spinning at how valuable your website is as a resource for an author/illustrator like me.
ViewConversation
27m

KRoyStudio's avatar

Katherine Roy @KRoyStudio
How cool is this early #shark drawing done from dried specimens?ow.ly/AbOlo #SharkWeek @BioDivLibrary pic.twitter.com/9ODKOVqVHH

August 1, 2014
via Gemini, from Martin Wigginton (m.j.wigginton@btinternet.com)
"BHL is, of course, a magnificent resource, and now indispensable in my research."

July 30, 2014
via Gemini, from Paul Lawrence Farber (paul.farber8@gmail.com)
"This is an appreciation. I have been using the BHL for a month now. I have a complicated project that involves checking bibliographic references of hundreds of citations. Many of the quite obscure, and most certainly not available to me in any local sources. This website has been a God-send, and I can't thank you enough for making it publicly available. It is an extraordinary resource, and I am sure I am just one of many, many scholars who have come to rely on it."

Response on July 31 to invitation to BHL and Our Users [emphasis mine]: "Well, I could write a short piece, but I suspect it will not be of great use--this was a project where I was formatting and correcting an 800 page manuscript of a dear friend who is having health problems and can't finish it (it is accepted for publication, but can't be published unless the footnotes are completed, etc.). I had to complete many, many notes that were just bare bones: Spruler, 1884. Good grief. Most of it was 19th century German embryology and cytology, but also some natural history, and theoretical arguments over genetics, etc. Although I have access to some decent libraries, much of this stuff was too specialized to be found anywhere (MBL would have a lot, as would Weidner, BM(NH), etc., but most university libraries are inadequate for the task.) Bit of a challenge, and without the BHL it would have been a total nightmare. Probably , this is an unusual situation. So, I will quite understand if you don't want to venture into such esoteric stuff!!! (My life blood, but, I'm an historian of science, not scientist.) I wish this had been available to me when I was a few decades younger!!!!!!! Probably would have increased my "productivity" by several fold.....Cheers."

via Twitter:

**Jodi Torpey** @WesternGardener
Like gardening and history? then you'll love the Biodiversity Heritage Library bit.ly/18DnZMT

gilborrego's avatar

Gilbert Borrego @gilborrego
Another beautiful Quart.Rep. from BHL! Biodiversity Heritage Library: The Latest News from BHL! blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2014/07/the-la… via @BioDivLibrary

July 29, 2014
via Gemini, from Alida Beekhuis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (aabeekhuis@hetnet.nl)
"I am very impressed with your website with all the valuable content."

July 29, 2014
via Gemini, from Hans Christian Petersen (hcpetersen@stat.sdu.dk)
"[...] please let me express my gratitude for the effort you are doing to provide the scientific community with such a wealth of older publications, essential to biological research, it's history included!"

July 29, 2014
Conversation on Twitter:

**Melissa Techman** @mtechman
I hv work to do, I will NOT get distracted by @erik_kwakkel and @BioDivLibrary
Details Open

mccrory_clare's avatar

**Clare McCrory** @mccrory_clare
@mtechman @erik_kwakkel @BioDivLibrary Yes you will! Like the rest of us.. ;-)

**StarryNightPrograms** @StarryRetreat
@BioDivLibrary So cool!

Another conversation

**BHL** @BioDivLibrary
BHL has all kinds of fun stuff! Case in point: #Knight fighting a #Dragon ow.ly/zvqbl #mythical pic.twitter.com/XhLYWDdj50

Details Open

Oreotrephes's avatar

**Robbie Hart** @Oreotrephes
@BioDivLibrary Plus, you know that Athanasius Kircher would have totally loved BHL

Another Conversation:

**Gordon Ober** @oberrated
@BioDivLibrary has an incredible collection of classic biological illustrations, check it out: flickr.com/photos/biodivl…

Another conversation:

**Cdn Field-Naturalist** @CanFieldNat
@LM_Campbell Glad you found it! @BioDivLibrary does a great job providing our old content (at least 5 yrs old) online free for all.

Another conversation:
**Allison C. Meier** @AllisonCMeier
Beautiful images of extinct birds, care of @BioDivLibrary, on exhibit @NMNH

**Allison C. Meier** @AllisonCMeier
@BioDivLibrary beautiful! Thanks for all the gorgeous digitizing.

Another:

**Erene Stergiopoulos** @fullerenes
Ahhhh gorgeous hi-res #openaccess botanical & anatomical images from the @BioDivLibrary [face with hearts as eyes] flickr.com/photos/biodivl…


**Kayla** @OhKay28
Awesome! @BioDivLibrary has ~100 000 #free #biodiversity images available: ow.ly/zgBi6 @Flickr #openaccess via @CAS_Ichthyology


**mary williams** @PlantTeaching
@ARealFungi @Phytophthoras Old books are such treasures. I found those here archive.org/details/advanc… but @BioDivLibrary is another top source


**B. Ricardo Brown** @UntilDarwin
@BioDivLibrary You have saved me many hours of travel and research time, but of course I've also spent as many just browsing the site, too!


Example of learning in response to BHL tweet:
**BHL** @BioDivLibrary

This 1778 image 1st published illustration of #PolarBear ow.ly/zuscD More in @eol ow.ly/zutCo pic.twitter.com/czOB2XsBQf

stampedinblind's avatar

**Sarah Burke Cahalan** @stampedinblind
@BioDivLibrary @eol I didn't know their scientific name was Ursus maritimus. Or that they were described/illustrated so late!

July 28, 2014
via Gemini, Tracie Kae Petras (tkaepetras@gmail.com) [Jackie responded]
I think there used to be a donatation button on your home page but I don't see it now. I would like to make a $ contribution to BHL in gratitude for the tremendous resource you provide - can you please provide instructions? Thank you for your time.

July 24, 2014
BHL mentioned in Hyperallergic article about animal coloration influencing military camouflage:
http://hyperallergic.com/139091/how-a-19th-century-painter-influenced-military-camouflage/

July 24, 2014
via BHL feedback gmail, from John Tann (John.Tann@austmus.gov.au)
to Jackie, in response to a scan request fulfillment notification
I was very impressed that you have followed up on a request from July 2011 – ie after 3 years you are still beavering away at the backlog. I have told this story to many people. Thank you so much for a great service

July 18, 2014
HMS Beagle Library Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/BeagleLibrary/Beagle_Library_Introduction.htm. Recognition to BHL for making project possible.

July 18, 2014
Tweets responding to our tweet about our Flickr collection:

Erene Stergiopoulos @fullerenes
Ahhhh gorgeous hi-res #openaccess botanical & anatomical images from the @BioDivLibrary [face with hearts as eyes] flickr.com/photos/biodivl…

SI Transcription Ctr @TranscribeSI
.@BioDivLibrary @Flickr GORGEOUS! #openaccessisawesomesauce


Margaret Henderson @mehlibrarian
Gorgeous old images! RT @BioDivLibrary: 100,000 #free #biodiversity images ow.ly/zgBi6 #openaccess @Flickr pic.twitter.com/1darUibuJu




Buzz Hoot Roar @BuzzHootRoar
What fun these are to peruse! Beautiful! @CAS_Ichthyology @LSU_FISH @BioDivLibrary @Flickr

July 11, 2014
BHL/SIL exhibit Once There Were Billions featured in Smithsonian Magazine:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/with-crush-fisherman-boot-the-last-great-auks-died-180951982/

BHL exhibit featured in Hyperallergic post:
http://hyperallergic.com/136364/extinct-feathers-flock-together-at-smithsonian/

Thanks for scanning Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales:

Dear Bianca



I believe I can speak on behalf of Professor Burton (who is away on sabbatical at the moment) in sincerely thanking you for your very generous offer to proceed with this work. I’d also like to thank the Smithsonian Libraries on behalf of UNSW library.



Please pass on our thanks to Martin and those involved in the scanning work. We are very grateful.



Kind regards,
Robyn

Robyn Drummond
Manager, Academic Services
Science, Engineering and Medicine
UNSW Library

July 8, 2014
Mention of BHL as argument to start weeding serials for space in libraries:

I’m not sure that anyone has asked this question before. I’d love to hear some comments and/or advice. We have a small library – and shelf space is at a premium. I’ve been trying to weed, and am finding that we have long runs of periodicals, some of which are available online for free. I would love to discard those volumes, but I worry that someone is going to have a fit, or that the online source is going to disappear. Right now, I’m eyeing our complete bound set of the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum (apologies to the Arnold Arboretum) which is online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. My questions:What do you do in these cases? How much should I trust those free online sources? (we do not have the money to get access to JSTOR or other fee-based services)If I do discard the volumes, is there a market out there for them? Or do I just have to sneak them out to the recycle bin?Have any of you had negative feedback after discarding something? How did you justify it?I’d love some discussion (and moral support I suppose)Thanks,NancyNancy Korber, Librarian/ArchivistFairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
July 2, 2014
Mention of BHL in SI Digitization Initiatives Review: SmithsonianDigitalActionAgenda.pdf

June 30, 2014
BHL and Martha make NPR:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/06/27/325892534/lone-passenger-pigeon-escapes-pie-pan-lands-in-smithsonian

June 27, 2014
BHL in The Scout Report: https://scout.wisc.edu/archives/r43696/biodiversity_heritage_library

June 2014: Publicity for Once There Were Billions exhibit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2014/06/26/extinct-birds-land-at-once-there-were-billions-at-the-national-museum-of-natural-history/
http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/martha-cold-and-lonely-last-migration

June 13
via Twitter, from SandyKnapp
"“@nickynicolson: #IPNI eds upload @BioDivLibrary links: c180K names in c250 titles @rdmpage @SandyKnapp eg bit.ly/1hPodVH” great!!!"

June 10
via Twitter, from BLAsia_Africa and llewelyn_morgan
BLAsia_Africa: "Asiatic researches vols 2-20 (1799-1826) and index dowloadable from @BioDivLibrary http://t.co/uzTXx8hJiG"
2:57pm, Jun 10 from Twitter Web Client
llewelyn_morgan: "@BLAsia_Africa @BioDivLibrary Oh, that is much tidier than http://t.co/jwhAJTVOBh! Thank you!"
3:26pm, Jun 10 from Twitter for Android
BLAsia_Africa: "@llewelyn_morgan @BioDivLibrary Yes I agree totally. Really helpful. If only all those useful journals were as easily accessible!"

June 9
via Twitter, from CamDigLib
"@rmathematicus @beckyfh fortunately now all safe and sound and viewable in the @BioDivLibrary!"
Prior Convo:
beckyfh: "Edwin Hubble vandalised a 16th-C text! Seems he saw himself as the equal of Copernicus. Via @CamDigLib #histsci http://t.co/186jQ0kQd1"
4:16am, Jun 09
rmathematicus: "@beckyfh @CamDigLib Marginalia from owners in historical books is not vandalism but valuable historical source material ;))"
4:42am, Jun 09
beckyfh: "@rmathematicus Agree it tells us about Copernicus's reputation & Hubble's personality. But who cd write in a centuries old book?! @CamDigLib"
4:48am, Jun 09
rmathematicus: "@beckyfh @CamDigLib Thank the gods of history that people did ;))"

Monday, June 2
via feedback email, from Anton Hofer (hoferant@bluewin.ch)
"Just to let you know: your service is marvelus [sic[! I found so many books I never would be able to consult in libraries. And when I shut down my computer the books are ranged oll [sic] in the correct shelve. Kind regards from Switzerland"

Tuesday, May 27
via personal e-mail to Diane Rielinger (MBLWHOI) from Barry Campbell (barry.campbell@indexbase.co.uk)
"I think that what has been achieved with the Encyclopedia of Life, BHL and associated applications and servers is truly remarkable."

May 26
via Twitter, from dawnbazely
"ICYMI this amazing resource: @BioDivLibrary' #Biodiversity Heritage Library biodiversitylibrary.org cc all @GenomesBiomes folk. #G2B2014"

Tuesday, May 20
via Gemini, from Wayne (waynelongmore@hotmail.com)
"I would like to thank your team for bringing this world of literature to my desk. Currently I am using much of your 18-20th century works to complete a rather difficult task for an Australian Government project. With this access the work could never be accomplished Many, many thanks"

Monday, May 19
via Gemini, from SUDIP HALDAR (SUDIPHALDER08@gmail.com)
"LOTS OF THANKS FOR THIS KIND OF PROJECT"

Wednesday, May 14
via Gemini, from Angela Chilton (a.chilton@student.unsw.edu.au)
"Just wanted to say thank you so much for this wonderful service you provide. It has made finding literature from pre-online publishing journals an unexpected breeze, and I greatly appreciate it"

Monday, May 5
via personal email to Jackie Chapman, from Torsten Dikow, Research Entomologist, SI, (DikowT@si.edu)
"Thanks for letting me know that this work is available on the Hathi Trust portal. It seems odd to me that it is cataloged as a single monograph though. Unfortunately, I can’t download it as our library isn’t a partner in this consortium. It seems also odd that Hathi Trust can claim that there is no copyright, but then not allow people to download the PDF. What I like about the BHL is that I can “itemize” a volume and make a particular article from a volume known to my colleagues, which unfortunately isn’t available on the Hathi Trust portal."

via Twitter, from @cmwbb
"Just uploaded a @BioDivLibrary lookup for a species name, using their great #API. Script written in 100% #gawk :-) xmalesia.info/doc/bhl_pages.…"

Thursday, May 1
via Gemini, from Tamara (tamaramartin500@yahoo.com)
"THANK YOU FOR THE PDF FILES !!!! I just stumbled across this website and now it is one of my favorite sites !!!"

April 30
via Twitter, from @PlantTeaching
"Thnks @BioDivLibrary for making available classics like Lawes and Gilbert 1895 Rothamsted Exps biodiversitylibrary.org/item/73274#pag… pic.twitter.com/2nGq9TzxwK"

via Twitter, from @5AcreGeographic
"@PlantTeaching @BioDivLibrary Agreed. Biodiversity Heritage Library is insufficiently recognized for its contribution and value."

Tuesday, April 29
via Gemini, from Ruth Richardson (anatomyruth@gmail.com)
"Just to say THANK-YOU for having stuff online for people like me to download free. So mcuh material is locked away, it is like a breath of fresh air to find material freely available. Thank-you kindly."

April 15
via Twitter, from @Theironlobster
"My Jaw literally dropped when I saw this collection of beautiful images on @BioDivLibrary 's flickr flickr.com/search?user_id… #palaeontology"

via Twitter, from @jgrunert
"More acknowledgements: To all folks who maintain @BioDivLibrary. Without you I’d have to go to archives."

Monday, April 14
jgrunert: More acknowledgements: To all the folks who maintain @BioDivLibrary. Without you, I’d have to go to archives.
Original Message:
http://twitter.com/jgrunert/status/455676832961269762

via BHL feedback email, from Steve Jankalski (cereoid@prodigy.net)
"Thanks for the heads up. Its been so long since I made the request that I had forgotten. Your help is much appreciated. I do frequently check your RSS feed for new additions. From time to time gems do turn up that I can finally remove from my wish list. You provide a valuable service since travel to distant libraries becomes increasingly more difficult and costly. I do have a few more citations from my wish list for your consideration."

April 4
via Twitter, from @boneclones
"@BioDivLibrary thanks for making natural science accessible to all!! Keep up the good work!!"

Wednesday, April 2
via BHL feedback email, from K. Hayashi (k.hayashi@bmp.net.id)
"I acknowledge with many thanks receipt of your e-mail, which is kindly notifying me that your have completed the uploading of the said Publication on your BHL Database. I have tried to search for the localities of 2 Orchid species covered by this Publication, and successfully found the relevant descriptions there-in.
I am very thankful to you for your kindness. Arigatow Gozai Mashita !"

via Gemini, from Albert Culbreath (spotwilt@uga.edu)
"Absolutely wonderful service. THANK YOU!"

March 24
via Twitter, from @NHM_Library
"Just used @BioDivLibrary to locate article staff needed to check use of term 'loganellus' #DayInTheLife #museumweek goo.gl/ISNXNB"

Thursday, March 20
via BHL feedback email, from Francis Mudge (fm044@uwclub.net)
"I was last in touch with you on 28 March 2013 16:15:22 GMT, but I have continued to use BHL resources since then. And I would like to say how really good BHL is - I use lots of collections of early journals, and BHL is quite the best: there are so many good things about it that I'm sure to miss some when I try to enumerate them all!
1. the page numbering matches the paging of the original (fantastic for moving around the document); and it's easy to move around the document too, with several ways of going backwards and forwards/single page or double page/matrix of thumbnails, etc.
2. the download page is really clear and intuitive - one can download as much or as little as one wants, in separate bits or as consecutive pages, selection is really easy (and I like the zoom so much), the file arrives as an e-mail attachment, the cover page is clear and useful (it lists the journal name, the access url at BHL, and a complete list of all the downloaded pages)
3. the on-line document is shown exactly as it appears in the original, with all the annotations, etc, and (usually) with the diagrams/images/plates folded out and copied too
4. and there are lots of journals there, obviously mainly with a biological bias, but the early ones were much more generalist that those of today, so I can usually find what I want
The other places to which I go for early documents all seem to have big disadvantages - either one has to copy part of the screen view page-by-page (not too difficult on a Mac, but tedious for many pages) or download the whole document (wasteful when one only wants a limited number of pages out of a huge book - mostly Google and Archive.com, but sometimes JSTOR too) - moving from page to page can be slow and clunky (Gallica particularly) - often there are (country-based?) restrictions on what one can view (Hathi and Google) - downloading a series of short separate bits as one document is impossible on most other sites (e.g. Gallica) - etc, etc.
Yes, BHL is almost perfect! You do make mistakes sometimes, but that makes you human."

March 19
via Twitter, from @WhittingtonKate
"I could get lost in these illustrations for hours! Particularly love this Secretary Bird via @BioDivLibrary's Flickr flic.kr/p/a7e6dn"

March 18
via Twitter, from @JohnTobiason
"Beautiful illustrations of flora and fauna @BioDivLibrary biodiversitylibrary.org"

March 17
via Twitter, from @carlislekent
"Hard not to get lost in @BioDivLibrary 's huge archive of images & lit. What a wonderful, beautiful world we live in! #sciart #exploration"

March 14, 2014
via Gemin, from Jamie Donley (jdonley@fs.fed.us)
thank you for this service that you are providing. It has been a huge help in my duties as a public servant.

March 1
via Gemini, from Jamie Donley (jdonley@fs.fed.us)
"thank you for this service that you are providing. It has been a huge help in my duties as a public servant"

Thursday, March 13
via BHL feedback email, from Giselle Walker (gw265ster@gmail.com)
"i love the BHL!"
"[...] the BHL makes my life as a taxonomist amazingly easier. When i began the current project, the revision of an order, in 1998 I was working in a country that had almost no local copies of the literature, so everyhting had to be found in the zoological record (on paper) and ordered at some expense from the British Library. It would then get photocopied badly, usually without the plates, and take 6 months to arrive. Since then I have been carrying ever-growing boxes of photocopies and dictionaries around the world, until the advent of the BHL, and Google Translate. I would love to do anything I can to help the BHL."

vai BHL feedback email, from Emily Levine (emily.levine@earthlink.net)
"I use BHL all the time in my research. It is invaluable, extensive, and easy to use. I can't thank you all enough for the work that you do."

via BHL feedback email, from Pamela Henson (hensonp@si.edu)
"Thank you for sending this! I could not figure out what I was doing wrong – tried all sorts of ways. Ultimately I saved the whole book and by hook and crook, copied out the pages I needed myself. But it’s nice to know I hadn’t lost [my] BHL touch. It’s a fantastic service."

via BHL feedback email, from Jose Carrillo (jorozko@yahoo.com)
"[...] many thanks for making available so many historic scientific works"

via Gemini, from Joe Shaw (shawjoe@gmail.com)
"Wow. I asked for a lot of PDFs (5 or more) that didn't show up. But, not to worry, you guys give me 99% of what I need. I love y'all."

Wednesday, March 12
via BHL feedback email, from Lesley Kennes, (lkennes@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca)
Collection Manger, Birds and Mammals, Archives, Collections & Knowledge, Royal BC Museum (Canada)
"We at the Royal BC Museum have a large collection of old photocopied material that accompanies two publications A bibliography of British Columbia Ornithology Vol 1 & 2. We are trying to replace the paper copies with digital versions to save space and paper. these are used for internal research. We are looking at digitizing copies of our own journal Syesis and our annual reports. Your library is such an invaluable resource. We are leaving the pdfs intact with your cover page and will indicate to any users of our volumes that the papers are available from your service."

Tuesday, March 11
via BHL feedback email, from Toby Musgrave (toby@tobymusgrave.dk)
"Many thanks for your reply and thanks again for such the wonderful resource that is BHL."

Monday, March 10
via email to Robin Everly, SIL Botany Librarian, in response to a fulfilled scan request in BHL from Ask-A-Librarian
from: Sean Ng Wai (sngwai@yahoo.com)
"Thank you so much for allowing access to this book. Words cannot express my gratitude. I have been trying for more than two years to get a copy of this work, which is now extremely rare. [...] Thanks again for the wonderful work you are doing in preserving the history of Trinidad. Heritage preservation is extremely poor in Trinidad owing to resource constraints and political will so archives like the Biodiversity Heritage Library may become the sole repository for these rare books. I hope you might consider putting up more works on Trinidad and the Caribbean. Wishing you continued success, Sean"

March 4
via Twitter, from @echinoblog
"I am again travelling, in Japan and THANK YOU to the @BioDivLibrary online taxonomic resources! THEY ROCK!"

February 24
via Twitter, from @BioInFocus
"This is your semi-regular reminder that @BioDivLibrary is awesome & should be explored by everyone. Could not work/live without them!"

via Twitter, from @BioInFocus
"Don't feel like reading old taxonomic literature? Fine, ogle all the amazing #SciArt archived in @BioDivLibrary flickr.com/photos/biodivl…"
Convo:
from @Nemoralis: "@BioInFocus @BioDivLibrary This is amazing!"
from @GYZhang2: "@BioInFocus @BioDivLibrary Breathtaking!!!"

February 10
via Twitter, from @image_quest
"tops my list of treasures today... flickr.com/photos/biodivl… thanks to @BioDivLibrary"

Tuesday, February 4
via feedback form, from John Bowman (john.bowman@monash.edu)
"BHL is a wonderful resource"
"I have been using the the Bibliography generated by using the taxon name as a search, and have browsed the majority of the instances in which Marchantia is mentioned. However, as time proceeds, more references are added (many thanks again) including more references to Marchantia."

via Twitter, from @dunbarrover
"@iggyquiggy2 Thanks Paul. Feeling endeared by BBKA after reading how socially engaged it is at inception. @BioDivLibrary an amazing resource"
Convo: @iggyquiggy2: "RT @dunbarrover: British Bee Journal, 2.1 (1873) http://t.co/4MFq5ZR38g … Currently, UK imports 90% of #honey it consumes #beekeeping"

February 2
via Twitter, from @nelas
"Checking literature at @BioDivLibrary and @biostor_org is rewarding! Some old brachiopod larvae biostor.org/reference/90792"

January 31
via Twitter, from @SamiNorling
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary is one of my favorite cooperative digital libraries biodiversitylibrary.org #SustainDigColls"

Tuesday, January 21
(also 22nd and 23rd)
via feedback email, from Thomas Carefoot (carefoot@zoology.ubc.ca)
"Finally, I say once again, thanks to BHL for providing this valuable service. It is greatly appreciated."
"[...] you and your colleagues are doing a great job,"

January 16
via Twitter, from Ingrid Longauer
"Thank you @BioDivLibrary for these beautiful #vintage botanicals prints :)
theepochtimes.com/n3/453514-20/?…"

Wednesday, January 15
via feedback form, from Alex Jessop (jessopphotography@live.co.uk)
"Not a suggestion. Just a thank you. Quick and efficient service. Perfect for students such as myself. Many thanks, recommended to others on my course."

From Secretary Wayne Clough's talk at Smithsonian when discussing BHL:
"an exemplar collaborative project"
http://www.udc793.org/2014/01/shout-out-to-biodivlibrary-by.html

January 13
via Twitter, from HASTACscholars
"Awesome digital experience: @BioDivLibrary - consortium of nat.history and botanical libraries creating an #openaccess archive of materials."

via Twitter, from JSTORPlants
"Enjoying Anne-Lise Fourie's talk on @BioDivLibrary Africa! A model for international collaboration! Congrats to our BHL friends."

January 8
via Twitter, from BotanistBriggs
"@BioDivLibrary rocks! Needed Victorian Naturalist (issue 1, pub. 1884) & there it was in all its old school splendour pic.twitter.com/W0HaWQsaMr"

January 6
via Twitter, from THE_inteins:
".@BioDivLibrary so pretty!"
in response to @BioDivLibrary tweet:
"Yesterday was National Bird Day & we're celebrating with a look @ the colorful history of the Harlequin Hummingbird: http://t.co/CY1WMqL6TU"

January 3
via Twitter, from @WhittingtonKate
"Cannot believe I only recently stumbled across @BioDivLibrary's Flickr account. So much beauty & inspiration: flickr.com/photos/biodivl…"



2013
December 18
via Twitter from @Mipez__
"@BioDivLibrary excelente para encontrar artículos en los cuales están las descripciones originales de las especies."
Translates to: "@BioDivLibrary excellent for finding articles which are original descriptions of the species."

December 12
via Twitter, from @Schenck
"Nice, found Walls, 1942 "The vertebrate eye and its adaptive radiation" via @BioDivLibrary! Great resource!"

Tuesday, November 19
via feedback email, from Eduard Jendek (jendeke@gmail.com)
"you and your colleagues can be proud on what you are doing. You provide by far the best service I have ever encountered. Thank you for this"

via feedback email, from Jim McCafferty (jtm@netdoor.com)
"Thanks for explaining and for all you do at the digital library. A great service!"

via feedback email, from Maria Mercedes Arbo (arbo@agr.unne.edu.ar)
"I am 68, an old botanist, so I started when photocopies were a novelty. I know very well how hard it was to write by ordinary mail asking some paper, to wait the answer for weeks, or sometimes to ask someone who went to Europe or United States to get copies of a needed paper. So I can fully understand what a huge work you people have done, and I feel grateful and amazed when I find what I need for free in the web. My specialty is the family Turneraceae, but now I am working on other families in order to identify our herbarium material, so BHL is most helpful for me. I use it quite a lot."

November 18
via Twitter, from pablo_dulce
"@BioDivLibrary couldn'tve written #extraordinarybirds without your amazing site. Wallace's Standardwing pic.twitter.com/UQu9k2WdoI"

Saturday, November 16
via feedback email, from Pat LaFollet (see also, Gemini 5140)
Hi Jackie and everyone involved in the BHL enterprise,
I wanted to thank you all for the great job you are doing. I periodically sift through my past scanning requests to see what has made it through the process to become part of the BHL digital archive. The surprise this morning it was Memorie della Reale Accademia della Scienze di Torino Series 2 Tome 42 (1892), scanned only twelve days ago, November 4, 2013. I was tickled. It supplies the last missing part of a long and bibliographically complex monograph, I molluschi dei terreni terziarii del Piemonte e della Liguria, by the 19th Century Italian paleontologist, Frederico Sacco, most of which was scanned back in 2009. The complete work is now available on BHL.

November 13
via Twitter, from Drew_Lab
"@Namnezia No, I can't afford this original book, but it's available as a pdf from the @BioDivLibrary biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/2…"

November 7
via Twitter, from MarysRevenge
"I know it's a bit early... but @BioDivLibrary will you be my valentine? #somuchlove #yousavemesomuchheartache"

And
"YAY! Now to figure out how to deliver flowers to a webpage... @BioDivLibrary No we didn't, but it's awesome! That is a SWEET pterosaur"

November 6
via Twitter, from MalaLeishDigest
"And who ever said science isn't art?! Check out @BioDivLibrary for plenty more of these beautiful old drawings! pic.twitter.com/LUyD8df9k5"

Tuesday, Nov 5
I am very happy to see this title [Entomologist's Monthly Magazine] available on BHL! (In fact, I love BHL!)
Aloha,
Eileen, Science & Technology Reference, University of Hawaii at Manoa Library

via Twitter, from HoneyandFitz
"@BioDivLibrary so excited to have found you!!!"

Monday, November 4
via BHL Donations, from Brian Ogilvie, Associate Professor of History, U Mass Amherst

As a historian of natural history, I find the BHL to be an invaluable resource. You have high-quality digitized versions of books that I would otherwise have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to use, and unlike Google, your digitizers actually bothered to unfold engraved plates and photograph them carefully! If you'd like a guest blog post about how a historian uses the BHL, let me know.

October 29
via Twitter, from Newark_Library
"@BioDivLibrary We could look at these lovely images all day! Oops! Back to work - but thanks!"

via Twitter, from niketnon
"I'm always amazed by what you can get for free online. Take a moment to enjoy the @internetarchive and the @BioDivLibrary to see what I mean"

via Twitter , from BotanistBriggs
"@BioDivLibrary one of my favourite sites - V.useful for old and obscure references & it is handy to be able to request an e copy-thanks BHL!"

via Twitter, from JSTORPlants
"Enjoyed learning more about Art of Life from Trish Rose-Sandler from @mobotnews. So many beautiful illustrations in @BioDivLibrary!"

October 25
via Twitter, from christeena_C
"@BioDivLibrary's Flickr: super place to see organisms you didn't know existed & to imagine those yet to be discovered biodiversitylibrary.org"

October 23
via Twitter, from @Echinoblog
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, @BioDivLibrary is an AWESOME resource for digging up old taxonomy biodiversitylibrary.org"

from @kpsgale
"I use it all the time MT @echinoblog: @BioDivLibrary is an AWESOME resource for digging up old taxonomy biodiversitylibrary.org"

from @Clarkeocrinus
"@echinoblog @BioDivLibrary Thank you for sharing that link! An amazing resource."

October 21
via Twitter, from @tammy_horton
"@DeepSeaEcol I adore the @BioDivLibrary""
via Twitter, from @DeepSeaEcol
"@tammy_horton @BioDivLibrary only just discovered it. How great these fab and important books are being made accessible"
from @tammy_horton
@DeepSeaEcol @BioDivLibrary so late to the party?! Did you not see my review in @PorcupineMNHS newsletter? #BHListaxonomistheaven"

Wednesday, October 16
via Gemini, scan request, from Dr Michael Cunningham, University of Pretoria, Spookpadda@up.ac.za

"This is one of few copies outside France. I think this is exactly the sort of document for which BHL exists - it documents travels on which Delalande made important collections, including types affecting current taxon names. I am surprised that this important historical report on Delalande's collections from Southern Africa is so obscure. Without BHL it would be very difficult for me to access this document

October 8, 2013
via Twitter, from SxBRC
"If today's Google Doodle floats your boat, have a look at @BioDivLibrary's photosets on Flickr: j.mp/TbELe9 - marvellous!"

And
"@BioDivLibrary: more of Swainson's birds ow.ly/pBHWN" Truly beautiful."

October 7, 2013
via Twitter, from @NHM_Learn
@NHM_Library really excited to hear about @BioDivLibrary and all the great work they are doing, digitise natural history literature!


Tuesday, September 24
via feedback email, from Pat LaFollet [emphasis added]

"I've attached an article I wrote back in January, 2009, for a bit of historical perspective before BHL had reached "critical mass." By critical mass, I mean the point at which BHL became the first and best place to look for any title within its purview. That tipping point was reached in Fall, 2009. It is now essentially the only place to look. One forgets even to check Gallica.bnf.fr or Internet Archive."
*Article here:LaFollette_2009_Internet..pdf

"I do admire the whole BHL enterprise, wish I had been born later, or BHL earlier, so that I might have had a more active role in it. I've been thinking about the underlying objectives for a very long time. In Summer of 1963, while immersed in a taxonomic bibliography project for the Museum of Paleontology, UC-Berkeley, I had a bright idea about how my job could be done more efficiently. I carefully estimated the size of the zoological literature, then described how cutting edge automated techniques could be used to reproduce, store, organize, and retrieve the literature systematically or by subject. It might have become the first BHL. The cutting edge technology of the time was microfische images mounted on Hollorith aperture cards, programmable card sorters, and automated card storage and reproduction equipment. The entire library could be automatically replicated and set up in distributed locations. Selected parts could be replicated for individual researchers. I was nineteen at the time and needless to say, no one took me, my proposal, or even the underlying ideas seriously. A few charitable souls thought it interesting science fiction. I put the proposal aside and went on to other things, waiting for technology to catch up until now when BHL is actually carrying it off."

"Some aspects of BHL's implementation are still rough, the collection has a ways to grow, especially Cyrillic and Oriental languages and separates, some of the technology is a little short of the mark, but it is actually happening. It works. That's amazing. All the rest is cleanup and refinement that will come with time and use. Hopefully I am able, from time to time, to nudge the process along."

Wednesday, September 18, 2013
via Facebook, from Joanna Mary Durant
I could quite literally browse your flickr page for hours. It's amazing!

Thursday, September 5, 2013
Follow up to Mark Blaxter's comment earlier on this day:
"Im happy to expand - I have been chasing down some publications on "parasitic" nematodes - trying to find out whether they really parasites or just commensals (a distinction often lost in subsequent publications). Some of these are in old, hard-to-find journals that otherwise would have required me to travel to Cambridge or London to access them. Your site not only has the scanned journals, but also the OCR (and thus the searchable texts), and good quality versions of the images. The www site's functionality is great and intuitive - for example being allowed to construct my own pdf for download is so so useful!

Ill be sure to recommend documents for scanning in!"

via Gemini, from Mark Blaxter, mark.blaxter@ed.ac.uk
"I just want to say what an amazing resource, lovely, intuitive website and ... well the only suggestion is really to ask you to keep doing this essential work"


Tuesday, September 3, 2013
via Twitter, from Rick Wright @birdernewjersey
Women, birds, names, Pretty pictures.
http://birdaz.com/blog/2013/09/01/heres-to-you-mrs-robinson/
Diane Shaw @museocat:
With hat-tip to @NMNH collections! RT: @birdernewjersey: Women, birds, names. Pretty pictures.
birdaz.com/blog/2013/09/0…
@birdernewjersey:
@Museocat @NMNH BHL is the greatest, thanks to its participating institutions.

via BHL Feedback Gmail, from Pat Lafollette
A new permissions title is exciting current users as well as driving new users to BHL! [emphasis mine]
"The appearance on BHL of the journal "Veliger" and supplements has generated considerable interest in among west coast malacologists and shell collectors. I have been asked about the four volumes that have yet to show up, vols. 18, 29, 31 and 32. Do you know their status? It might create a better impression among newcomers to BHL if the volumes were listed in order. I don't know how much trouble that would be to implement."

Monday, August 26, 2013
Check out the great shout out to BHL and the Mertz Library in Rudi Schmid’s article in Taxon. A Guide to getting books and journal information cost free.
Taxon, Volume 62, Number 4, 21 August 2013 , pp. 862-864.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013
via BHL Feedback email
From Dr. Philip R. Pugh (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, U.K. -- prp@noc.ac.uk) [bold added for emphasis]
"Thank you so much for your rapid and extremely informative reply to my request. I am also glad to hear that the Atlases for the Zoophytes will soon be available, but I was able to download, with a bit of trial and error, the plates that I wanted from the site you pointed me to. Previously, I only had a black and white copy but, in a review that I am currently preparing, there was a critical question of coloration and so it was great to be able to see the true originals. Although I am officially retired, I have and still do work on the taxonomy of siphonophores (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) and over the years have built up a library of over 1250 scans of relevant papers. This has been a great boon as it has enabled me to search for key species names, without having to thumb through every paper. Before the BHL came along, I was able to scan only photocopies and their variable quality greatly affected the results using OCR in making the papers searchable. However, this has improved greatly with the BHL scans where, it seems, a great deal of care has been taken to make them searchable. Thus I have been replacing as many of my earlier photocopy scans with the ones that you provide. My only complaint would be that some of the plates are rather vague and not as good as ones that I have been able to make from original texts. But, of course, it is extremely time-consuming to do the amount of scanning that the BHL is involved with, while I do have time to tweak the few scans that I am interested in. [...] Nevertheless, I have found the [B]HL extremely helpful, and I am extremely grateful for its existence. I am also glad to see that it is now possible to make donations from "alien" countries, which did not seem to be possible a while ago, enabling me to make a small contribution to your funds"

Monday, August 19, 2013
via email, exchange with Alvin Hutchinson
From Monette Bebow-Reinhard (www.monettebebow-reinhard.com)
"Thank you so much! You save me money on something I would have ordered that wasn't relevant. This is great! Very appreciated."

via Gemini
From Dr. Philip R. Pugh (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, U.K. -- prp@noc.ac.uk)
"I have made extensive use of your Library, which I think is excellent both in its extent and the quality of the pdfs, particularly with regard to their searchability."


Wednesday, August 7, 2013
via Feedback Gmail
From Alice Koller [bold added for emphasis]
"The article I tried to download was cited by D. M. Maurice, in his "Structure and Transparency of the Cornea," (J. Physiol., vol. 136, No. 2 (1957), pages 263-87). Although I followed the steps that BHL outlines, a combination of bad coincidences delivered to me a different article. Maurice was partly at fault by citing my author, Lord Rayleigh, less fully than he is now cited by BHL. Yet he too may not then (in 1957) have known how far back this journal had been kept track of: the journal is now catalogued by series first, then followed volume and so on. I sorted out all that, and went back to BHL, found exactly what I needed, and now have it in all its tan-colored paper beauty. [...] Although I'm not qualified to contribute expertise to BHL (my field is philosophy, but my current project requires a good deal of reading in optics), I'd like to access the stunning database that BHL is."

Tuesday, August 6, 2013
via Gemini
From Martin Bemmann
"Dear BHL, your service is unbeatable and my #1 in search of taxonomical literature."

via Feedback Gmail
From Martin Bemmann
"My criticism was just from an enthusiastic user of your wonderful site. As an amateur mycologist BHL is a main source for me to retrieve taxononmic literature. Especially the search function on "scientific names" gains terrific results. One of my last searches was on Peziza ochracea (Cumino), a species not even listed in the Index Fungorum or MycoBank, it delivered all the data I needed. And furthermore the quality of the digitalisation is outstanding compared to those of Google or others."

Thursday, July 11, 2013
via Twitter
Nina Sandlin ‏@nsandlin




For an exemplary use of Pinterest - for science! - check out the Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary (& they tweet in Latin! :)

:) I'm very taken with it, and have been meaning for weeks to show it around.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013
via Twitter
wonderpauseJul 08, 10:17pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary Absolutely love your library! Thanks for the great work.

via BHL feedback gmail
From Steve Trewick, Evolutionist, Phoenix Lab, http://evolves.massey.ac.nz/ - in response to PDF generation request
"[...] I think you provide a tremendous and really valuable resource. Great work!"

via Gemini
From Tyler Smith
"Thank you for making the BHL available. This is a tremendous resource for research. [...]"

Monday, July 8, 2013
via BHL feedback gmail
From Gavin Malcom, as a post script to a pdf / technical feedback issue:
"PS I like the new look to the library system and the new functions."

From SIL's own Jennifer Cohlman of CHM via email to Jackie during a conversation about New Services @SIL in response to BHL's UI (vs IA):
"Wow – go BHL! Thanks for those examples – you’re making me a convert. Too bad only a small fraction of our scanned collection is part of BHL, but I will look for the BHL link in IA from now on and promote!"

via Gemini
From Marianne le Roux, as note after reporting a technical issue
"Thank you for the hard work in making information so easily available otherwise! It is truly a valuable resource. Kind regards"

Friday, July 5, 2013
via Twitter

mtechmanJul 04, 11:59am via Web
A wonderful resource and image bank, but also an excellent example of use of social media: @BioDivLibrary

KewDC5:02am via Web
#ff @BioDivLibrary We are jealous of their v. beautiful websitebit.ly/KgcNv So helpful when delving into hist of natural history

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Discussion on Twitter about HS students analyzing BHL Pinterest images for copyright discussion:
mtechman

7:49am via Web
Instruc use of Pinterest. HS students analyze boards fr @BioDivLibrary, decide which are copyright-friendly pinterest.com/biodivlibrary/

Great shout-out to BHL images on the blog Wonder: http://www.pausetowonder.org/2013/07/02/botanical-beauties-from-the-past/

Advertised via this Tweet:
wonderpauseJul 01, 6:47pm via WordPress.com
Botanical beauties from the past in a new #sciart feature wp.me/p367Jc-9F (from the incredible @BioDivLibrary)

Another tweet from that day:
fishwickdesign: Gorgeous, hi-res printables! C/O the Biodiversity Heritage Library http://t.co/5cTa4aNvtJ

Monday, July 1, 2013
via BHL feedback gmail:
From Sue Rosenthal
"I don't have a suggestion or question or a problem to report--just a heartfelt thank you for the wonderful service you provide!"

Thursday, June 27, 2013
via Twitter

BotanistBriggs9:26am via Web
A useful (& free) site for accessing older literature-I find it very useful for botanical references:biodiversitylibrary.org @BioDivLibrary

via Yammer:
Beatrice Camp posted a new message to the Smithsonian network on Yammer:
"As the former US Consul General in Chiang Mai I was delighted to see this blog. I shared it with friends at the consulate who were equally charmed and happy to learn about the BHL."
In reply to Gilbert Borrego (09:17 AM - Jun 25):

• http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/06/botanical-research-in-asian-tropics.html

To view the full conversation on Yammer, go to: https://www.yammer.com/si.edu/threads/305264870?m=1631287169&message_id=305877869&nid=5819


Wednesday, June 26, 2013
via gmail in response to a gemini request (excerpt)

"Thanks for the help with the citation. [...] I now have the correct information to cite. And thanks for your great archive, I had looked for this document years ago and was not able to find it. Its great to have the digital source!!"

Sincerely,
Rodney Rountree, Ph.D. 23 Joshua Lane
Waquoit, MA 02536
Skype: Rodney.Rountree
Email: rrountree@fishecology.org
Web Page: http://www.fishecology.org/

Tuesday, June 25, 2013
via Twitter

TheHorticult1:23am via TweetDeck
.@miss_moss features @BioDivLibrary illustrations we wanna wallpaper our whole house in, + fungus fashion. #imintoit: bit.ly/120gFC4

Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Cape and Islands NPR Station suggests getting involved in biodiversity research by curating BHL digital images!
http://capeandislands.org/post/five-ways-get-involved-biodiversity-research-0

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Mention on BHL in scholarly article:

OftedalDhouailly2013Evo-DevoMammaryGland.pdf

From Andrea Medas, via gmail in response to thank you letter for donation [mailto: andrea_medas@tiscali.it]

Thank You so much for Your Kind letter. Let me only tell You how such a fantastic job You are doing !
Browsing Your site is like exploring the shelves of an ancient library ( something like a short tale by Borges, "" The Library " !!!)
I only regret I could not donate more, but I'll surely do again.
Thanks again.


Sincerely.

Andrea Medas
Sardinia , Italy

Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Mention of BHL on Balfour & Newton University of Cambridge blog:
http://balfourlibrary.blogspot.com/2013/06/bhl-biodiversity-heritage-library.html

Tuesday, May 28, 2013
From Joel MacKeen, via gmail [mailto: j
oel.Mackeen@csiro.au]

Dear Grace

Thank you very much for your prompt response and for the information on these extra plates. I look forward to seeing additional plates. The BHL Library is the most wonderful resource, especially for those working in taxonomy.

Regards
Joel


Ms Joel MacKeen


Information Specialist


CSIRO Library Services


via Twitter

rdmpage4:56am via Tweetbot for iOS
@elyw You're very welcome, @BioDivLibrary is awesome. I hope to have some new stuff to show later in the year… #bhlib

Saturday, May 25, 2013
via Facebook

Ken George






Always enjoy everything you provide and the wealth of information you provide. Making this available is like having Shaw's garden in by backyard and it use to be:-D

Thursday, May 23, 2013
Mention of BHL and use of images for cool things on blog:

http://www.babble.com/home/25-beautiful-botanical-images-for-your-walls/

Thursday, May 16, 2013
Via Twitter

jessicahester11:26am via Web
@BioDivLibrary Thanks! This site has a mind-bogglingly-huge amount of cool info!


Show Conversation

BioDivLibrary11:21am via HootSuite


RT @jessicahester: On #Nest I discovered the amazing @BioDivLibrary & a newfound fascination w/ sea moss.nestathomeblog.com/2013/05/amazin… >Right on!

jessicahesterMay 15, 5:28pm via Web


Today on #Nest: I discovered the amazing @BioDivLibrary, and a newfound fascination with sea moss. Really!nestathomeblog.com/2013/05/amazin…


libralanteMay 15, 2:07pm via Web


@Duckols check out @BioDivLibrary for your sloth fix of the day. Cool plates with bone renderings at the end! ow.ly/l41mU



"BHL came to the rescue when a planned trip to work in the Mertz Library at The New York Botanical Garden had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. Thanks to the online resources available through BHL I was able to source most of the key works I needed, with their supporting bibliographic information. Further use of BHL occurred when building work at the Linnean Society of London limited access to some of the book I had been able to use from that collection."

Gina Douglas, Hon. Archivist, Linnean Society of London

Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Example of giving BHL swag out. Example from Marty Schlabach, Cornell.

Following the Steering Committee meeting this afternoon, I immediately met my wife at the Aquarium for the 4pm feeding of the seals. Next to us was a 3 ½ year old with her grandmother. The child was talking constantly, asking questions of the her grandmother before and during the feeding and of the docent after the feeding. Before she said her good byes to the docent, the child asked if she had any stickers. Unfortunately for the child, the docent had no stickers. Hearing that, I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a BHL sticker and handed it to her. A smile returned to her face and life was again good.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Via Twitter

mrvaidya 4:03am via Web
Bless the @BioDivLibrary, whoever figures out all the acronymic forms of journal names, and whoever paginates their articles.

Monday, April 22, 2013
From Scott Miller, via Gemini [mailto: scotty@scottydm.com]

What... no praise? Thank you so much for this service. Let's see, a journal written in 1773/1774, published in 1908, and long out of print. I love that I get to read it. Okay, so here's my suggestion: Keep up the excellent work.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013
From Tönu Talvi, via Gemini [mailto: t.talvi@tt.ee]

Dear Biodiversitylibrary, I would like thank you all very much for invaluable work and support you do. I am just downloaded/got pdf-file from more than century old (1893) journal paper (regional naturalistst society paper, published in Finland), to get copy I should take 500 mile drive to our university library. Now I am got it fastly in high-quality pdf-copy. Cordial thanks and all success in continuing your highly valuable mission. Truly, Tönu Talvi, conservation biologist from Estonia

Wednesday, April 10, 2013
From Sue Gibb [mailto: GibbS@LandcareResearch.co.nz]

Name: Sue Gibb
URL: http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Contact+and+Feedback

Congratulations! Although I use BHL a lot in the course of my work, I had come to dread using it as searching had became cumbersome and time-consuming. This new search system is brilliant. I love it. Thanks Sue

Tuesday, April 9, 2013
via Twitter

infodocket

10:30am via HootSuite
The Superb Biodiversity Heritage #Library Will Be a DPLA Content Hub ow.ly/jToJ3 #dpla #bhl @BioDivLibrary

Monday, April 8, 2013
via Twitter

sedgeboy Apr 05, 10:10pm via Twitter for Android
@BioDivLibrary - just used your new website to select & download an article to my tablet. Definitely a nice improvement, congrats!

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Via Twitter:

SxBRC

8:38am via TweetDeck
More beautiful works or natural history art and illustration from @BioDivLibrary here: j.mp/12kWdxc. Simply glorious.

-----------------------------------------------------

Patternbank suggests using BHL images for pattern and graphic inspiration:
http://patternbank.com/album-de-aves-amazonicas-biodiversity-heritage-library/


Thursday, March 28, 2013
From, Lucinda Crecca, via gmail [mailto:nanorex@yahoo.com]

I am in heaven when I had found the Biodiversity Heritage Library web site. Access to the old books is wonderful. This is what I expected the Internet to be when it started, access to books and museums information access. Not all the dumb games and shopping. And I really do not want everyone in the world to know what I am doing every hour of the day like in face book and twitter, sorry I am old school.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library web site is great because there a allot of us who do not live in a big city where you can go to the museums and libraries, at least I did live in NYC for my first 22 years and was able to visit them then.

Once again thank you for all your help.

Lucinda Crecca

---

Via Facebook:

Joan Young
I do Biodiversity Research and Education and have just discovered you page. Love what you have on it.

Monday, March 25, 2013
From: Laurie Hannah <hannah@ccber.ucsb.edu> Subject: Re: adding content to BHL Date: March 25, 2013 1:09:29 PM EDT To: Bianca Crowley <CrowleyB@si.edu>

Hi Bianca, We are really excited to see our publications online! Thanks so much. And yes, I did see your new interface last week, as I needed to download an article. It's great and really works well. I love BHL!!!

Laurie

Via Twitter:

Nick_Mas0nMar 23, 10:41am via Web
@BioDivLibrary New site looks great! #bhlib

Friday, March 22, 2013
User expressing interest in donating to us from India [mailto:paul_sub2000@yahoo.com]

Hello,
I use Biodiversity Heritage Library frequently. I do not have a credit card. In India, it is difficult to pay online overseas with a debit card for some banking restrictions. I think many people like me would gladly donate a little amount if you make such arrangement so that paying in Indian currency with a debit card become possible just like Wikipedia have done from previous year.
Regards
Subhajit Paul

Note from Tina Muracco:

In addition to receiving support from all over the US, in the past few months we’ve received BHL donations from:

• •Switzerland
• •Spain
• •Luxembourg
• •UK
• •Italy
• •Japan
• •Mongolia
• •South Africa
• •A gift offer from Iran (which we had to turn down)

March 21, 2013
Via Flickr: Subject: Just wanted to say Thank You.

Hi BioDivLibrary, I just wanted to say thank you for posting such wonderful botanical prints. Whenever I open my Flickr home page I always see something new from you and I usually wander over to your photostream to take a better look. Invariably I spend quite a while marveling at the prints that you post and I wanted to pass along a huge thank you for taking the time to scan and post continuously. I, for one, enjoy your posts immensely.

Sincerely, Simon (aka Fatfairy)

Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Praise on our blog post: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/03/announcing-new-biodiversity-heritage.html

BHL-Europe WP5 said...
Congratulations for a new great User Interface and functionalities!
March 18, 2013 at 10:52 AM

Delete

Anonymous

Divyaraj Shah said...
loved the new BHL !! Keep it up guys :) :) Its a great project !!!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Article on new website by Rod Page:
http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2013/03/new-look-biodiversity-heritage-library.html

Some praise on new user interface, via Twitter:

kristenlans

10:15am via Web
@BioDivLibrary Looking good!


Show Conversation

NHM_Library





9:46am via HootSuite




New Biodiversity Heritage Library interface launched ow.ly/j9wYc@BioDivLibrary





2 retweetsPodgeosaurus





8:25am via Web




@BioDivLibrary Brilliant interface, really user friendly and a joy to use. Well done BHL.


Show Conversationamhistorymuseum





8:11am via HootSuite




@BioDivLibrary Great new site!


Show ConversationFieldBookProj





8:08am via HootSuite




Exciting start to a Monday morning! RT @BioDivLibrary: Introducing the new #bhlib!! (...) ow.ly/iVeqz & ow.ly/iVeC2




nbates86





8:04am via TweetDeck




Very nice! @BioDivLibrary launch new Biodiversity Heritage Libraryblog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/03/announ…

---

Article using BHL images:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2013/03/15/deextinction/

---

via Twitter:

tammy_horton

6:57am via Web
@echinoblog h/t to the ever wonderful @BioDivLibrary where I got it...
Hide conversation

echinoblog: h/t to @tammy_horton for that BHL link!6:45am, Mar 18 from Web

echinoblog

echinoblog: h/t to @tammy_horton for that BHL link!6:45am, Mar 18 from Web

tammy_horton

tammy_horton: @echinoblog h/t to the ever wonderful@BioDivLibrary where I got it...

----------------------------------

Comment left on blog post: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2013/03/a-consortium-that-scans-together-bands.html

Shyamal L.said...
The Asiatic Society journal is a truly amazing work and its founder James Prinsep was equally so. As a private researcher, a species loathed in India especially by government officials, the BHL has been the only source that allow access to these materials readily. Unfortunately a couple of issues are still unavailable, unfortunately my attempt to find the missing issue failed but will post it when I do. I do wish some of the Indian libraries and archives would have the vision to join hands with you. There are apparently some amazing book collections at the Zoological Survey of India, the Bombay Natural History Society and so on unfortunately they do not consider it worth having archivists or subject matter specialists among their library staff (ie. with a science background that allows them to appreciate literature).
March 18, 2013 at 2:13 AM

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Feedback from Twitter:

Flic_AndersonMar 13, 11:10pm via Web
Discovered you can search species names in entire @BioDivLibrary! Guessing I'll be responsible for spike in 3am GMT "Teucrium" searches! :D


---------------

Feedback from Francisco Welter-Schultes

Dear Grace,

that's all really really great. So all the links will be working in
the future, this sounds really good.
Our institute computers are relatively old. Germany is a rich
country, but our institute does not have funds to buy new computers.
I am using BHL almost every day and once the new website is on, I
will test if everything can be seen with our old systems.

Best wishes
Francisco

---

From Jennifer Scheibling, via Gemini [mailto:fossa777@gmail.com]

Dear BHL, First off, kuddos! Your site is amazing and I love to spend time browsing around through all of the wonderful, old natural history texts. What I enjoy the most though are the wildlife prints that can be found in the different texts. I have been unable to figure out a way to search for a particular species and have a list brought up that pinpoints what pages of what texts have images of these species on them. Is there some sort of image search that I'm missing that would allow me to do this without having to view every single page that has a particular species mentioned on it? If not, that would definitely be a feature worth adding - that would make an amazing site all the more stellar. Thanks so much, Jennifer Scheibling

Friday, March 8, 2013
FromHélène Dumas, via gmail: [mailto: helene.dumas1@orange.fr]

Dear Grace,

I thank you for your efforts. It's really great for amateurs as I am to have open access to publications via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Your last link offered me the PDF I requested, so many thanks!

Kind regards,
Hélène

Thursday, March 7, 2013
Feedback on Blog Post "The Perfect Holiday Gift." Shows there is interest in buying BHL products...

Brenda Gioia said...
I would be more than willing to purchase these intricately designed postcards especially after knowing that it part of the money will go to environmental programs. I'm always a fan of this kind of craftsmanship.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Added to Facebook Page, in regards to new interface:

Pj Johnson
aaaaiiiiieeeee. . . BHL withdrawals!! Can't wait `til the 18th! need, need, need. . ., writhing in agony. . .


---------------


Feedback sent to Tom Baione:


>Dear Tom,

>

>I met you a few weeks ago (early in February) while on a fabulous tour

>of the library as part of my interview day with the Richard Gilder

>Graduate School. I had told you how helpful I found the Biodiversity

>Heritage Library when writing my undergraduate senior thesis, and you

>asked that I send you a bit about my experience with the database. Here goes:

>

>For my thesis project, I wanted to compare scientific literature on

>classification of tarsiers (a primate group) from before and after the

>cladistics revolution. I was looking for a very specific and somewhat

>obscure symposium from 1919 to use as my pre-cladistics platform, and

>miraculously, I was able to find it online! Through the BHL, I was able

>to download pdf files and text of the pages I wanted from the symposium

>("Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1919") and search

>through the pages with ease. Often, I would be looking for just a key

>word to link me to an idea or person and I could easily find it with

>just a quick search of the documents downloaded from the database.

>

>I must say, I am greatly indebted to BHL. I honestly do not know if my

>thesis project would have been possible without it. At the very least,

>it made my research significantly easier. I'm happy to know that there

>are resources and people out there that are committed to digitizing and

>making available scientific literature, old and new.

>

>

>Best,

>

>Frieda Benun Sutton

>732-977-4869

>[[%22mailto:|SuttonFrieda@gmail.com]]



Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Posted to our blog. First part deals with quality issues, but the second part is praise :-)

Anonymous said...
The only book I've looked at so far has some black pages--well parts of a few pages are black--not the entire page. Seemed odd. Anyway, the book is called Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.

Thank you for your wonderful assistance. Your library is terrific!!

Monday, March 4, 2013
Praise for BHL on Tumblr:

http://carlzimmer.tumblr.com/post/21324371176/a-hornbill-from-an-1882-monograph-i-could-look-at
A hornbill from an 1882 monograph. I could look at this Flickr stream of old nature prints all day. (by BioDivLibrary)

February 28, 2013

From Facebook Page:

Antonio Lavelli
What of awesome page ... I'll follow you with interest; congratulations!

Prominent mention of BHL in Taxon Article:

"The Future of Botanical Monography: Report from an international workshop, 12-15 March 2012, Smolenice, Slovak Republic." Taxon. 62 (1), February 2013: 4-20. Taxon 62(1) 2013_4-20.pdf



From Christopher Geissler, via gmail [mailto: christopher_geissler@brown.edu]


Dear Ms. Costantino,

Thank you so much for your thorough reply. I was speaking to a colleague at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute who mentioned that some of their recently digitized holdings had made it into the BHL. We were both excited to see it.

Thank you again.

Best regards,

Christopher

February 27, 2013
BHL to be credited in upcoming publication:

I will include a thank you to BHL, and the web site address, in the acknowledgments of our invited review paper (O. Oftedal and D. Dhouailly, "Evo-devo of the mammary gland", Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia):

" We greatly appreciate the assistance of staff at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and at the History of Medicine Division of the US National Library of Medicine, in locating physical copies of old embryological publications, and thank the Biodiversity Heritage Library for online access (www.biodiversitylibrary.org/) to scans of such works."

If you would prefer this to be reworded please let me know asap as the manuscript must be submitted this week. I suspect many of my colleagues are unaware of what your online files include.

Sincerely, Olav
Olav T. Oftedal PhD
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
P.O. Box 28, 647 Contee's Wharf Road
Edgewater, MD 21037

February 26, 2013
From Dr. Chris Thompson, via email:

Grace:

You are wonderful!

I love the BHL. I may have the finest private library on flies (Diptera), but now while I have a copy, I find it faster, easier, etc., to go to the BHL and get the page I want, rather than stepping into the next room and pulling my own copy off the shelf and then going back to make copy of that page.

The only issue I have and I knew you have is that Mickey Mouse copyright barrier of 1923, etc.!

Sincerely,

Chris


From Olav Oftedal, via gmail [mailto: oftedalo@si.edu]

Dear Grace Constantino,

Thank you very much.

This was my first download, but I am thrilled with what I have been able to find re: archaic mammary embryology some of which I had been hoping to find at the National Library of Medicine, and to get it through your program was a huge advantage. Last night I believe I requested and received 11 PDFs, all of which are essential to a review paper I am completing, and I had no problems.

I had even decided that my problem with this file may have been that it was so big, so I requested it as two parts (A and B) and received those individually without problem. Of course the entire publication in one file was better, so thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Olav Oftedal

Olav T. Oftedal PhD
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
P.O. Box 28, 647 Contee's Wharf Road
Edgewater, MD 21037

Subject: Re: Fashion Photography Date: 24th February, 2013
via Flickr

Hi Bianca,
The images have been created and uploaded. Check them out on my photo-stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/67312941@N03/8504225098/in/photostream/!
Thanks for uploading such a valuable resource and for all your hard work as a collective initiative.
Regards, Henry

Thursday, February 21, 2013
Mention of BHL in The Public Domain Review

http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/12/27/engravings-from-history-of-the-earth-and-animated-nature-1825/

Brought to our attention via Twitter:

OpenGLAM7:09am via Web
Great mention of @BioDivLibrary by @mauramarx at #disc13. The @PublicDomainRev is a fanpublicdomainreview.org/2012/12/27/eng… !

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
PLOS Article using BHL

I wanted to let you know about this recent PLOS publication that uses the BHL to support their research of Hymenoptera terminology -- http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0055674#abstract0. I have not had time to read the article in depth but at a quick glance they document using our APIs to get to our OCR (success!) but then had to manually cut and paste the OCR into article-sized portions (ugh). Perhaps our new user interface might address this? It would be wonderful to encourage this kind of text analysis for additional BHL materials.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Mention of BHL in webcast on Food Fight Show.org (mention by Anthony Goddard of EOL about 15 minutes in)

http://foodfightshow.org/2013/02/saving-the-world-with-devops-big-data-and-hpc.html

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
From Prof. Dr. Hartmut H. Hilger, via gmail [mailto:hartmut.hilger@fu-berlin.de]

!
BHL is great!
Thanks and regards
HHH

Saturday, February 16, 2013
via Twitter

echinoblogFeb 16, 3:34pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary Today I used OCR to find some terminology usage in the old literature! MUCH easier than trying to find it by hand! thank you!

Thursday, February 14, 2013
From Toby Musgrave, via gmail. [mailto: toby@tobymusgrave.dk]

Hey Grace

Nice to be in touch again and I hope you are doing well.Thanks for the update, I can't say enough how useful BHL is! I am spreading the word all opportunities I get!Would you like to guest post on my blog about BHL??All the bestToby

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

IArtLibrariesFeb 13, 3:31pm via HootSuite
What are your favorite @Pinterest boards to follow? I think @BioDivLibrary and @ALALibrary are my fave. :-)

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

adammarreFeb 12, 2:16pm via Twitter for iPhone
@BioDivLibrary the BEST.

AMlibraryFeb 12, 7:38pm via Web
Looking for genus or species name refs? Use @BioDivLibraryAdvanced Search, Scientific Names bit.ly/Z8PvMW Good stuff!


Nice blog post that mentions BHL:

http://www.geekosystem.com/darwin-day-2013/

Then again, there’s a strong argument for celebrating Darwin Day like an academic, poring over old tomes, decoding margin notes and taking a scholarly approach to the celebration. While it doesn’t necessarily sound like our idea of a great time, we think Darwin would approve. He’d probably be especially flattered if you went to the Biodiversity Heritage Library to look through digitized versions of the books that made up Darwin’s extensive library, complete with a guide to notes in each one made by the godfather of evolution himself.


Tuesday, February 12, 2013
From Charles McNett, via Gemini [mailto: cmcnett@aol.com]

Thanks so much for the download of Bradshaw Hall. So simple!!! Charlie

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
From Sarah Sulick, on the BHL Flickr

I second those quotes from the crowd (i.e., I'd like to wallpaper my house with these. Biodiversity Heritage Library's Flickr stream; I've been spending this gray, uninspiring weekend playing w/Pinterest & machine-tagging Flickr images from @BioDivLibrary). I used BDL’s images as table markers and place cards for my wedding a few years ago. And plan to use some to decorate my soon to arrive baby’s room!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Name: Hermann Falkenhahn, via Gemini

Hello colleagues I am an entomologist and taxonomist and I've been downloading quite a bulk from your fantastic website for noncommercial (scientific) purposes. Being quite abroad from the nearest library your website helps enormous to get all the (many) sources needed for thorough in-depth literature study. Without your service I would be forced to almost live in a library for weeks (my home is quite abroad). I am working on a bibliography on holarctic Lepidoptera, actually.


Social media Praise, from Twitter

Kimberly_Gerson11:42am via Sprout Social
Why did I not know of this?! MT @BioDivLibrary: Love our 60,000#free #biodiversity images? ow.ly/hxBWL #treasure

jgaldrichJan 27, 6:30pm via YoruFukurou
Spent half the day exploring this amazing collection of historical gardening and agriculture books. bit.ly/VqLO3T@BioDivLibrary

ArtPlantaeJan 24, 10:11pm via Safari on iOS
Have an interest in ants? @google Scholar and @BioDivLibrary added to Antkey website. antkey.organtkey.org

rdmpageJan 25, 3:17am via Twitter for Mac
If you think @BioDivLibrary only has "old" literature check out this paper on the Ecuadorian horned anole from 2012biostor.org/reference/1148…

ammodramus88Jan 26, 4:24pm via Web
thx to @BioDivLibrary & MCZ at Harvard from a copyeditor who needed to check a quote & was able to do it easily online

dingchiroptera1Jan 26, 5:29pm via Twitter for Android
I'm sure I've mentioned this @BioDivLibrary flickr pool before, here it is again. full of #fungi flickr.com/photos/biodivl…MycoFun (@MycoFun)

From: Storrs L. Olson
January 17, 2013 5:40 PM
Subject:v. 2 of Albin’s A natural history of birds.

Jacqueline,

You need to know that it really makes a difference. I am looking at a printout of a page from that book that I used to incorporate into a footnote to an article I am writing (almost done) for Archives of Natural History. I have not wanted to commute into the museum this week to get to the rare book library because of the bad weather and a dental appointment. But so much of what I need is now online. It really is amazing. I hope this does not put the "real" libraries out of business. Storrs


Storrs L. Olson
Curator Emeritus
Smithsonian Institution
P. O. Box 37012
Division of Birds, NHB MRC 116
Washington, D. C. 20013-7012

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
On Twitter
IArtLibraries 8:01am via HootSuite
If you're not following @BioDivLibrary on Pinterest, you should be! owl.li/gQNhz So much prettiness in my image feed!


From: Whelden Merritt [mailto:merrittus@gmail.com]
January 15, 2013 2:00 PM
Subject: Survey of the ecologically significant natural areas of the Chesapeake Bay Region

Thank you a million times for this document ... it is BEAUTIFUL.

I always scan old photographs in COLOR because it provides so much ATMOSPHERE, even if the photos are supposedly in black and white.

There is a small group of aficionados associated with the Music Department or the Manuscript Library at the Bavarian State Library in Munich that insists upon retaining our old paper ID cards because they must be renewed by hand and are full of traces of colleagues at the information desk.

The world has moved on and when we want a copy of some manuscript, a technician accompanies us, original in hand, to the photo laboratory where a copy is made in the size and hue of our desire for the cost of reproduction, as the law stipulates. One might expect to be presented with a bill for hundreds of Euros, but it usually only amounts to five or ten ... and that for truly miraculous information.

Please excuse my delay in responding ... I simply had to read every word first. Now I must tell others and see to APPLYING this information.

Thank you so much,

Whelden Merritt


Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Example of user integrating BHL images into their article:
http://www.naturapop.com/home/the-maya-and-their-three-calendars

Praise from Dai in BHL and Our Users blog post 1/15/2013:

BHL is a tremendous and extremely valuable resource. As I mentioned previously, I frequently need to refer to the older literature, but before the advent of the internet and the BHL, this was usually a very frustrating task because much of the relevant material was not available in South Africa. This represented a considerable stumbling block and hindrance.The BHL has greatly alleviated this problem. Far more often than not, I am able to find what I need on the BHL. This resource has done an enormous amount to enhance the capacity of developing countries to undertake taxonomic research on their biota. I am extremely grateful those who set up and manage this resource. Keep up the good work!

Social Media Praise:

robinrendle 1:48pm via Twitter for Mac
These illustrations and images from the archives of @BioDivLibrary are truly stunning — flickr.com/photos/biodivl…

senseshaper Jan 11, 3:49pm via Twitter for iPad
@BioDivLibrary Thanks for the high quality scans! Glad To have found your site!

cheesivore Jan 13, 10:18pm via Twitter for iPhone
@captain_primate Check @BioDivLibrary .
Show Conversation
materialcult Jan 13, 3:36pm via Twitter for Android @captain_primate I'd try the Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary
Show Conversation
birdernewjersey Jan 13, 3:35pm via Web
@captain_primate Here are about 1700 images from the BHL flickr account. Searching the actual books at @BioDivLibrary will turn up more.
Hide conversation

captain_primate

captain_primate: anyone out there in Twitter land know of any sources for victorian era fossil illustrations

From share of BHL Facebook image (https://www.facebook.com/judith.schaechter/posts/132322360262600?comment_id=215798¬if_t=share_reply), induced following comments:

• Patrice Steigerwald Tom would have loved these.

January 9 at 11:08am · Like · 1

• 

Judith Schaechter I bet!
January 9 at 11:09am · Like · 1

• 

Gretchen Diehl LOVE THIS!
January 9 at 11:14am · Like · 1

• 

Jeff Dann Oh my !
January 9 at 11:20am · Like · 1

• 

Tara Garofano Thanks Judith, for making Facebook a little less trashy.
January 9 at 11:21am · Like · 2

• 

John Mignault Wow, two of my favorites in one post!
January 9 at 11:41am · Like · 1

• 

Veronica Azúcar Morrison Burgomeister Meisterburger?
January 9 at 11:47am · Like · 1

• 

Hector Hoornblower I've been lost in wonderful illustrations for over an hour now... thanks much!
January 9 at 3:06pm · Edited · Like · 1

• 

Billy Bolo Thanks so much for pointing out this on flicr!! I've been looking for old botanical and zoological images to play with and now I know a good place to go.
January 9 at 6:20pm · Like · 1
Comment on BHL Facebook page, Friday, January 11, 2013
Karen Lloyd D'Onofrio Love this site. I have found some great reads on there!

Friday, January 11, 2013
From Alistair Dove, mailto: adove@georgiaaquarium.org

Just wanted to say thanks for a great service. I was looking for an obscure reference about development of scorpion fishes and I was able to find the exact bit I needed on your site. Thanks so much!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013
From Dr. Gerhard Haszprunar, mailto:haszi@zsm.mwn.de]


Dear Madam/Sir, during a taxonomic search I became aware of a misspelling of a title: The "Bulletin de la Societé neuchâtelloise des sciences naturelles" is listed as "Bulletin de la Soci neuchloise des sciences naturelles" and thus difficult to find. You may like to correct this. I think BHL is a fantastic project and a great help in science! Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year! Gerhard Haszprunar

Thursday, January 3, 2013
From: Ewan Fordyce, via email [mailto: ewan.fordyce@otago.ac.nz]
Dear Grace

What a surprise! - thanks so much. The plate volume from the Osteographie is probably more important, in terms of modern use, than the accompanying text. It will certainly be a credit to the SI Libraries to provide it online.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of resources such as BHL to us here in New Zealand: a remote country far from the main research centres, but technologically modern and able to make good use of materials online. My students and I constantly use BHL. Thank you for all the effort. It really does make a big difference to research.

With regards
Ewan
R. Ewan Fordyce


BHL Listed as a biodiversity resource on the web in journal Issues in Science and Technology Libraries

http://www.istl.org/12-fall/internet.html

2012

Sunday, December 30, 2012
Shout-Out to BHL on the Library as Incubator Project Website:

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=8299


12/28/12 muddu krishna <krishna.muddu217@gmail.com>

Sir i am feel very good about this digital library information. Its very useful to every scholor.

Thursday, December 20, 2012 11:56 AM
Subject: Digitization of Natural areas of the Chesapeake Bay Region: ecological priorities (1974)

Dear Gil Taylor,

There are few words adequate to express our gratitude for digitizing the Jenkins report on Natural Areas of the Chesapeake Bay Region. As always, one needs a great deal of luck to get anything done. I am so glad to have asked and so lucky to have received the document in a searchable electronic form. I had to read every word the moment I opened it up and have read certain sections three times already.

Because very sensitive areas are at stake, the language is often secretive and it is necessary to read between the lines.

In our district, we have a ravine that is much more significant than most people realize because it is a moist ravine. There are some mistakes due to confusing Prince George County in Virginia with Prince George's County in Maryland. And there are some special maps mentioned which could prove to be of immeasurable value. Also, there is a discussion on the importance of fossils and one of our sites abounds with a whole cliff full of fossils. Then, there are some protected sites which have simply been FORGOTTEN, among them the Cheltenham Boys School site or, paradoxically because it is where the Critical Areas Commission meets, the Crownsville State Hospital site. Lastly, there are many areas or topics that are mentioned as being outside the scope of study.

In other words, the report contains a wealth of information and an entire set of clues as to where to look for more information.

I don’t think it is necessary for me to impress upon you the importance of finding that second document. The Jefferson-Patterson Library had to redouble its efforts on the final Oxon Hill archaeological report … it had been put aside because it was so big and then inadvertently overlooked, perhaps due to budgetary concerns, when it came to digitizing.

Thank you very much,

Whelden Merritt

Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Subject: Re: 40 Million Reasons to Support the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Dear Kalfatovic,
Hello,
I am very interested to donate some money to your library and actually I am so ashamed that I cannot do that, because of economic sanction (You may know it), I cannot send money oversea. In the past I received valuable articles from your library, and actually I am so sad and my mind is so busy how can I compensate that.

Thank you very much for your help,

Best regards,
Mohammad

Mohammad Reza Atighi
M.S. in Plant Pathology,
Department of Plant Protection,
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences & Engineering,
University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
University Of Tehran,
Karaj- Iran

From Colin Lineker, via gmail. mailto: coljolin@telkomsa.net

Dear Martin,

It is I that must thank you for a very useful and informative website and service. I do not subscribe to any social media so my only communication with you will be through BHL’s website.

Kind regards,
Colin Lineker


Monday, December 17, 2012
From Torben Larsen, via gmail. mailto: torbenlarsen@btinternet.com

Dear Bianca Crowley,

As you will know from the correspondence with Dr Kalfatovic I would very much like to place one of my books on BHL ... a service which has what is almost a hint of magic. This has been approved byOxford University Press.

There should be copies of my book on the butterflies of Kenya at the NHM (bmnh) in London where I do much of my entomological work. I look forward to beginning on the paperwork for this since my year is usually interrupted by travel.
LARSEN, T.B. 1991. The butterflies of Kenya and their natural history. Oxford University Press,Oxford, 490 pp, 64 colour plates.
(I shall actually try to find one of the later editions which has a modest appendix with new species to Kenya).

It has been out of print for years and will be much appreciated by a large number of scientists, naturalists, and people interested in nature generally.

All the best wishes for X-mas and the New Year.

Sincerely

Torben B Larsen

From Chris Anderson, mailto: chra@umich.edu

Hi Grace,

All sympathy - I hope the hiccups will soon cease, and you will be spared whiny messages. BHL is such a wonderful resource, and of course we all take it for granted, like all "web magic."

Best wishes for the holidays!
Chris

Mention of BHL in blog post:

http://normalbiology.blogspot.com/2012/12/old-entomological-texts-are-best.html, via Twitter:

Museocat 10:00am via Web
Blog post by @derekhennen on "Old Entomological Texts are the Best" features @BioDivLibrary normalbiology.blogspot.com/2012/12/old-en…

Friday, December 14, 2012
From Mike Tarburton, via Gemini, mailto: tarburton.m@optusnet.com.au

Dear Sir Many thanks for making these BBOC papers available. Cheers Mike Tarburton

Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Feedback received from donation letter:

Regarding the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

This is a tremendous and extremely valuable resource. I work on the taxonomy and systematics of molluscs and frequently need to refer to the older literature. Before the advent of the internet and the BHL, this was usually a very frustrating task because much of the relevant literature is not available in South Africa. This represented a considerable stumbling block and hindrance.

The BHL has greatly alleviated this problem. Far more often than not, I am able to find what I need on the BHL. This resource has done an enormous amount to enhance the capacity of developing countries to undertake taxonomic research on their biota.

I am extremely grateful those who set up and manage this resource. Keep up the good work!

Best wishes

Dai Herbert

_


I am very sorry,as a student,I do not havetheabilityto provide financialcontributionsto you.

youbrought usa very big help.

best wishes.



sincerely,

xu



I received your email about donating to the BHL. I use the BHL and consider it a great resource - Scott McConnell

_

Thank you for your message asking for donations.

Since being made redundant by my Higher Education institution, I no longer have access to academic libraries, inter-library loans or subscription journals, whether physical or digital; I therefore rely on organisations like the BHL to find my sources, and for this I am profoundly grateful.

Regards,

Francis Mudge

_


Dear Sir,

I am using BHL very frequently and it is very useful resources to us.I wish to appreciate your effort on behalf of our country.

UGAI Sirisena,
Lecturer (Entomology)
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka



Martin,

I can contribute next year a little bit every month.

Write back.

I would also be willing to print some art for your team and add your link to it so other people find you.

Not sure when or what format.

Timothy



Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Via Facebook

Baba Gali
I absolutely adore HBL.Keep on exploring life.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Via Twitter:

gardenhistory
1:22pm via Tweet Button
@CharlotteFrost1 Thanks for the mention and isn't @BioDivLibrary such a wonderful resource!!!

Monday, December 3, 2012**
Example of BHL helping user on Taxacom find a paper:

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/36241#page/277/mode/1up

Francisco

• Dear all,
• Is there anyone who can help me find a copy of the following paper?
• Thank you very much.
• luis

>
> Скориков A.C. К систематике

• Европейско-Азиатских Potamobiidae //
• «Ежегодник зоологического музея АН».
• С.-П. 1907. - Т. 12. - С. 115-118.

>
>

• Luis Popa, Ph.D.
• Research Scientist
• Head of Molecular Biology Department
• "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History Sos. Kiseleff No.
• 1 Bucharest 011341 ROMANIA
• Tel: 004 021 312 88 26, 004021 312 88 63
• Fax: 004 021 312 88 63
• Mobile: 004 0742 239 212, 004 0757 096 442

Monday, December 3, 2012
Conversation on Twitter:
OpenAccessNow: Who is the best #openaccess resources and news on that you follow on Twitter? We're compiling a list. #oanow

Iteration23: @OpenAccessNow What @Protohedgehog says. And also @BioDivLibrary because my work would be impossible without them.

publicdomainrev
: 9 beautiful illustrative plates from The History of the Caribby-Islands (1666) - http://t.co/4TV1FrSe
10:58am, Nov 30 from TweetDeck

invisiblecomma
: sea unicornes! http://t.co/uZkgmO6L /via @publicdomainrev - also http://t.co/tdl98wUv
11:15am, Nov 30 from Web

publicdomainrev
: @invisiblecomma read the book's Sea Unicorn description here at the @BioDivLIbrary http://t.co/C9tqYXoc
12:13pm, Nov 30 from TweetDeck

BioDivLibrary
: @publicdomainrev An amazing descrip.: 18ft long, red fins, blue-silver scales, yellow belly, & a 9.5ft long horn capable of piercing stone!
12:37pm, Nov 30 from HootSuite

publicdomainrev
: @BioDivLibrary a fish in primary colors, would love to see that! A great book, thanks for housing it. We are great fans of your project!
1:24pm, Nov 30 from TweetDeck

BioDivLibrary
: @publicdomainrev Aw shucks. Thanks for saying that. Likewise, we are fans of your site: http://t.co/V7PWkIyN
3:35pm, Nov 30 from HootSuite

Monday, December 3, 2012
Comments on Twitter:

ammodramus88
Dec 02, 12:43pm via Web
I've been spending this gray, uninspiring weekend playing w/Pinterest & machine-tagging Flickr images from @BioDivLibrary

ToriHerridge
Dec 02, 12:34pm via Web
I have become delightfully lost in the @BioDivLibrary archives. I wish there was still a journal called Science Gossip pic.twitter.com/qf6CxSa6

Iteration23
Dec 01, 9:38am via Web
Present location of material unknown. Ah well at least the scan is good. Thanks for saving my ass again @BioDivLibrary

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Comment to blog post on BHL. Shows educational use of BHL:

"Spreading the Word: BHL at the Smithsonian Autumn Conservation Festival"
2 Comments - Show Original PostCollapse comments



1 – 2 of 2

Anonymous

Anonymous said...
Are these (or other BHL coloring pages) available anywhere on the web? (I couldn't find them). We'd like to use things like this for an elementary school class. Thanks very much for your great work and site!

Monday, November 19, 2012
Via Gemini from batkhuyag@wwf.mn

Dear Sirs, I just wanted express my big big appreciation. person like me would never have had access to the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). The key on Pyrgomorphidea by Dirsh is providing solid proof that we found a new genera from Mongolia. Yours truly,

Sunday, November 18, 2012
From Facebook:

Jim Croft

oh no, Biodiversity Heritage Library... we really appreciate the hit you are taking for the rest of us... :)

Hands off the moldy docs (for your own good?)
networkedblogs.com
French archive employees handling moldy documents were found to be more likely to experience headaches, fatigue, eye or throat irritation, coughing, and rhinorrhea (stuffy nose) than their co-workers breathing the same air but not handling moldy documents . The culture … Continue reading →



View Post · Yesterday at 5:08am

• 
  
• 
  

4 people like this.

• 

Denis Wilson Jim Croft. Is this not an issue with old Herbarium specimens too?
Yesterday at 6:11am · Like

• 

Jim Croft I suspect it is, especially with older herbaria and those without good archival environmental control.
Yesterday at 6:17am · Like · 1

• 

Denis Wilson That BHL is a fascinating resource Jim Croft.

• Thanks

Yesterday at 6:41am · Like · 2

• 

Jim Croft The ultimate goal it to have all biodiversity literature on line. If it is free of copyright and you need it, they will have it scanned for you. The Australian node runs out of Melbourne. http://bhl.ala.org.au/
Yesterday at 6:52am · Like · 3

• 

Gail Kampmeier no mold in BHL's virtual holdings--we thank you Biodiversity Heritage Library!


Friday, November 16, 2012
via Facebook:

E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
We love the photos. Thank you for sharing!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

ClubPhil_PC
3:24pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary Thanks!!!
Hide conversation

ClubPhil_PC
: Awesome site to spend some time procrastinating on: Biodiversity Heritage Library: http://t.co/8NCg0Mne
7:30pm, Nov 13 from Buffer

BioDivLibrary
: @clubphil_pc We r glad u think so! Should u need help finding anything in our collection or have suggestions, let us know...
9:50am, Nov 14 from HootSuite

ClubPhil_PC
: @BioDivLibrary Will do! We love this resource and wanted to introduce it as something useful/interesting to our students at PC
11:44am, Nov 14 from Web

BioDivLibrary
: @clubphil_pc Don't hesitate to ask us for help! We're in the process of *cough* updating our tutorials but happy to help where we can.
12:16pm, Nov 14 from HootSuite

ClubPhil_PC
: @BioDivLibrary Thanks!!!
3:24pm, Nov 14 from Web

Tuesday, November 11, 2012

This was posted on Taxacom:

Almost two years ago I asked the Biodiversity Heritage Library for putting Kükenthal’s magnum opus (1909), his incredible monograph about Cyperaceae worldwide, on the net. Just a few weeks later and it was available, great
service: __http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98637#1__ . The information in Kükenthal’s book was invaluable for writing my book Carex Europaea, volume 1, which was published on 21 December 2011.


Jacob Koopman

Thursday, November 8, 2012

BHL received a great review in the CRL News (College and Research Library News) this month.

Here are the closing highlights (emphasis mine):

No session is complete without visiting the stunning array of images available via the site’s Flickr photostream. A number of library API tools are available along with a variety of data export types, including catalog records, page level data, and scientific name data, and the data is provided for reuse via a Creative Commons license.

BHL provides an amazing treasure of invaluable historical materials covering biological diversity from many resources formerly unavailable to most students and faculty engaged in life sciences research. As many of these items have very limited distribution, BHL will serve a central role in expanding the role of scientific exploration in the developing world, as well as in leading U.S. and European institutions.

Read more at:
http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/10/626.full

Print Citation:
November 2012
College & Research Libraries News
vol. 73 no. 10 626-627

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
From Dave Pugh, via Gemini [mailto: davepughey@aol.com]

I am working on a research project to catalog all of the species & generic names in the family Pectinidae. I need access to many original publications/papers that include new pectinid taxa. Thank you for making Conrad's American Marine Conchology (1831) available online for my review.

Monday, November 5
Dear Jacqueline,
Thank you for your quick response and the link. I had already looked up the rights pages and it was only my intention to point out the pagination error but as always the efforts of the BHL and their user support are great and much appreciated!
With kind regards, Godard D.M.Tweehuysen, Librarian

Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Acknowledgements in paper by Field Museum Curator Rüdiger Bieler, "The work was greatly facilitated by Field Museum’s outstanding library resources and various on-line providers, first and foremost among them the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) project."
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2012/f/zt03511p080.pdf - Page 67

Tuesday, October 30, 2012
From Fernando Martin, via Gemini [mailto: fernando@deltanallorca.com]

Fantastic job. I thank you very much the opportunity of getting acces to all this materials. Don give up!!! Best regards, F.Martín

Thursday, October 25, 2012
Blog post featuring BHL:

http://birdaz.com/blog/2012/10/25/another-other-peoples-bird-book/

Thursday, October 25, 2012
From Amelia Hutchins, via gmail [mailto: meemshutchins@gmail.com]

Grace,

Just looked at your site again and thought I was able to parse the conditions but I had to read it over several times. I wanted to thank you for providing a wonderful service. by Allowing access to public domain images that are supposed to be "public" is crucial to promoting future creativity. As an artist, I am so grateful to have so much inspiration at my fingertips. What you all are doing is invaluable!

Monday, October 22, 2012
stampedinblind: @BioDivLibrary makes my job so much easier. Original Message: http://twitter.com/stampedinblind/status/260456827626614784

Friday, October 19, 2012
From Chris Thompson, posted to the Taxacom listserv, October 18, 2012

All:

As a loyal subscriber and reader who has a current subscription until 04 Feb
2016 , I am very upset that I will no longer be able to sit in my chair and read a real magazine. AND who are hurt the most is the older people who no longer can understand / use computer / online interfaces, etc.

BUT as for PRESERVATION, I do not worry.

In biology / taxonomy, we now, for example, have the Biodiversity Heritage Library program. So, today regardless of who and where you are, if you have access to the internet you can get copies of old biodiversity literature (the pre-1923 copyright barrier).

So, while I have a large personal library of old books and reprints, TODAY I can find an article faster by doing a query online at my computer than looking among my library.

As for long-term preservation, already the library community has worked together to develop a network of servers who promise to maintain these original digital files.

Sincerely,

Chris Thompson


Tuesday, October 16, 2012
From Dan Johnson, sent via email to Tina Muracco [mailto: dan.johnson@uleth.ca]

Thank you for posting old books and images in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. I have made a small personal donation to the fund.

I read this material, as an entomologist, and plan to show it in my biogeography class. I am interested in teaching resources for instructors. There is so much information that it is hard to find my way around it.

Congratulations on this excellent resource. I hope it continues to grow.

Dan

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Shout-out to BHL in article by Denis Jacob Machado

This work would not be possible without the Biodiversity Heritage Library (www.biodiversitylibrary.org), from where we obtained most of the 19th and early 20th century publications cited herein.

Full Article: MachadoMarques_2012(Acanthobothrium).pdf

Thursday, September 27, 2012
From Chris Sharpe, via Gemini [mailto: sharpebirder@gmail.com]

Fantastic service: easy, accurate & very prompt! Thank you!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012
From Steve Sifers, via Gemini [mailto: smsifers@earthlink.net]

got the link for the download i requested. i don't know how you do it, but i am very impressed. thank you

Friday, September 21, 2012
From @PlantTeaching, via Twitter

PlantTeaching 10:58am via Scoop.it
Biodiversity Heritage Library has quickly become a favorite - awesome pictures and stories #FF @BioDivLibrary sco.lt/8RPMDh

isandervanbeek has sent you a message on Flickr. | Subject: My compliments | Date: 17th September, 2012
You have a very beautiful collection, i just wanted to give you my compliments. Your images are beautiful.
I came across by looking for flyfishing photo's to use for a mockup for a website design. (To use for a presentation for a flyfishing store in Holland)
Now i write this anyway, do you mind me asking if your images are also for commercial use? I'm not sure if i can use them but i'm keeping a library with stock images. Just in case!
Anyway, thanks for sharing it with the world!
Cheers,
Sander

Monday, September 10, 2012
From Timothy Casey, via gmail [mailto:timothy.casey@fieldcraft.eu]

Dear Grace Costantino,
.
I've just downloaded Ser. 1 Vol. 68, thank you very much.
.
I also noticed Ser. 4 Vol. 40 missing and also Ser 1 Vol. 32. However, I don't know if Vol. 32 is missing as an aberration due to the changeover from the previous triannual publication to the subsequent biannual publication...?
.
Anyway, thank you for putting together this magnificent collection. I have questions, I'll be researching, concerning the period in which John Leslie was active and I am certainly looking forward to exploring the 19th to 20th century transition in the sciences, thanks to all the new volumes you've added. It was also an immense help that your electronic editions are so well catalogued. It is for this reason that BHL is usually my first port of call when seeking reading material in English.
.
--
Timothy Casey
PO Box 1011, Clayton South, Victoria, Australia 3169.
Telephone: 613 8521 3367, Mobile: 614 1290 1844
.

Friday, September 7, 2012
From Lourdes Chamorro, via Facebook

Lourdes Chamorro
BHL makes my research so much easier! I absolutely love it. A million times thank you!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012
From Jude Wrup, via Facebook


Jude Wrup

This is fabulous, thank you


Thursday, August 30, 2012
From Roland Houart, via gmail [mailto: roland.houart@gmail.com]

Dear Grace Costantino

Many, many thanks for your answer!
And thanks for such a treasure of references.
Best wishes

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
From @lubar, via Twitter

lubar Aug 28, 8:43pm via Twitter for Mac
@Museocat @pilsks @BioDivLibrary Good suggestion! Thank you! @BioDivLibrary is a wonderful project!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
From Hélio Rosa, via Gemini [mailto: rosademiranda@usp.br]

Many thanks of your pdf's service

Friday, August 24, 2012
From Timothy Colman, via Facebook

What a treasure chest you have put together.

Cool art. I make interp posters @ Good Nature Publishinghttp://www.goodnaturepublishing.com/ and love the inspiring art you have posted.

Plus who doesn't like saying simultaneous hermaphrodite?

Best fishes,

Timothy

Wednesday, August 22, 2012
From Sabine Brauckmann, via gmail [mailto: sabine.brauckmann@gmail.com]

Withouth Biodiversity Library I couldn't do my research.

best regards,

Sabine Brauckmann

Wednesday, August 22, 2012
From Joe Shaw, via Gemini [mailto: shawjoej@gmail.com]

Hi, I thought you might like to know how I use your library. I have a Website devoted to opuntiads (mostly the genus Opuntia). I try to find the original citation and link it to each species description. For example, see: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntia-species/opuntia-d-f/opuntia-engelmannii/ The second paragraph refers the reader to the original descrition. It has helped to provide a scholarly feel to my Website. Cordially, Joe Shaw, PhD

Monday, August 13, 2012
From Pat LaFollette, via gmail

Hi Bianca,

How can one rate BHL when there is nothing to compare it to? It is unique. BHL's holdings of pre-1923 molluscan and biological journals may well be the most complete in the world with the possible exception of NHM London. Your holdings of paleontological journals is less complete, as are monographs. Many of the journal runs are broken, which can be annoying if the paper one is looking for happens to be in a missing volume. Many molluscan papers are published in the general scientific journals, which have a similar problem with missing volumes. That said, BHL is by far the single most valuable resource in the world for the kind of nuts-and-bolts taxonomic work that I do. As long as scanning continues, BHL can only get better. Hopefully, one day BHL will take on scanning the thousands of small works, published as leaflets or pamphlets and filed in with the departmental separates collections, rarely if ever library cataloged. Cyrillic and oriental literature is lacking so far. A lot of my scan requests have been for missing journal volumes. I check periodically to see whether Transactions of the American Philosophical Society ser. 2 vol. 15, 1873 has turned up yet. I just queried my bibliographic database and find 105 outstanding BHL scan requests, some going back to 2010. Two examples: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh requested September 15, 2010, and Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie, und Paläeontologie. requested February 9, 2010. But compare that to the 2,821 books and journal papers that I've so far downloaded from BHL and it pales to insignificance.

An incalculably important feature of BHL is the taxonomic index, which allows discovery of "forgotten" papers which would otherwise continue to be lost to science. I use it heavily, and have an ongoing correspondence with the folk at Woods Hole on ways to improve the quality of taxonomic indexing, providing test data and evaluating results.

Cheers,
Pat

Wednesday, August 8
From Julio Cesar Cenci de Aguiar, via Gemini [mailto: julio_aguiar@msn.com]

This data base is fantastic!

Wednesday, August 8
From ms. neaux neaux, via Flickr

Thank you for having images available for public use.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msneauxneauxs-alter/7701000964/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msneauxneauxs-alter/7701000710/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msneauxneauxs-alter/7522986256/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/msneauxneauxs-alter/7522986134/in/photostream/
I love your site!

Friday, August 3
via Twitter

Pachelbelia
Aug 03, 3:07pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary I wish one day my country will have such facilities too to boost up our biodiversity research ;)

Monday, July 30
via Twitter

birdernewjersey
Jul 30, 10:16am via Web
@BioDivLibrary BHL helps every day--thank you!

Sunday, July 29
via Twitter

Museocat
Jul 29, 9:03pm via Web
Glad to see the @BioDivLibrary love in @birdernewjersey blog post "eThoughts on eGrosbeaks" blog.aba.org/2012/07/ethoug…

Monday, July 30
via Twitter
biodivlibrary: RT @museocat: Glad 2 C @BioDivLibrary luv in @birdernewjersey blog post "eThoughts on eGrosbeaks" http://t.co/KaGTJMcE >Psyched we cld help!
8:53am, Jul 30 from HootSuite
birdernewjersey
: @BioDivLibrary BHL helps every day--thank you!
10:16am, Jul 30 from Web

Tuesday, July 24
via Twitter

droenn 8:55am via TweetDeck
@BioInFocus @tomhouslay @BioDivLibrary amazing, cheers! found some good stuff already (: love the old drawings!
Show Conversation BioInFocus 8:46am via TweetDeck
@tomhouslay @droenn Take a look through the @BioDivLibrary, there's a ton of good stuff all in high res scans

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
via gmail, based on conversation where user was looking for v. 2 of http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/118995 in BHL:

Dear Ms. Costantino,

Thanks for your note.

That is definitely Volume 2 in your link. For some reason, I saw only Volume 1.

These are wonderful, quality scans of a very interesting work.

This publication will be produced in an annotated English edition in September 2012.

We have made reference to your scanned version of the original in this publication’s Introductory Remarks.

Sincerely yours,

Phillip Robinson

Monday, July 9, 2012
via Twitter

DrHanneke
Jul 09, 10:57am via Web
big shout out to @BioDivLibrary for making ancient works on natural history accessible! Makes tracking down literature so much easier #OA

Spring 2012 - ConnieR Jul 9, 2012:

• EOL Fellows navigate through a curriculum to learn how to work with EOL. This year we added a brief BHL module so that fellows could practice how to download pdfs and high quality images, since this is part of what they need for their EOL work. Nathan Muchhala made this note: This site is amazing- thanks for pointing me to it! http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/pdf3/009896000019709.pdf

Friday, June 29, 2012
via Twitter

Exhaust_Fumes
9:14am via Web
I never do this #ff thing, but anyone who likes (usually 19thc.) books & natural history (you, @aeshannon!) will enjoy @BioDivLibra

Friday, June 29, 2012
From William Linton, via gmail [mailto:wrl21337@aol.com]

Dear Ms. Costantino,

Thank you for replying. I am still having the problem. I have a Dell computer with Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3, using Internet Explorer. I tried my wife's Acer laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium and it does not have the problem, so I suppose the problem is within my computer?? Thank you for any help you can give me. My brother and my sons are all very computer literate, but it wil be a while before I can coerce them into coming here to troublshoot.

I think BHL is a fabulous entity!! I will die happy having been able to view so many of the great natural history volumes, especially the birds, of such as Gould and Elliot.

Again thank you,

William Linton


Friday, June 29, 2012
via Twitter - Great example of our users promoting BHL for us!


gardenhistory
: #Smithsonian Archives of #American #Gardens wins award. Why don't we have the same in the UK???? http://t.co/e6zRFS8g
3:44am, Jun 29 from Tweet Button


PatientGarden
: @gardenhistory in my ignorance I assumed that the Lindley Library or such places would have such an archive
3:45am, Jun 29 from Web


gardenhistory
: @PatientGarden Collections do exist - Lindley, BM, V&A and the new Garden Museum idea, etc. - but not one central, collective resource
3:56am, Jun 29 from Web


PatientGarden
: @gardenhistory the Garden Museum would seem the logical place but I suppose that would require agreement between various parties
4:00am, Jun 29 from Web


gardenhistory
: @PatientGarden Absolutely - and collective digital collections are being made - could use the biodiversity heritage library model as an eg
4:04am, Jun 29 from Web


PatientGarden
: @gardenhistory not heard of the biodiversity heritage library
4:06am, Jun 29 from Web


gardenhistory
: @PatientGarden Check Out @BioDivLibrary - free pdfs of old garden books & mags eg Gardeners' Chronicles 1875-1955 http://t.co/h7QgbX6c -
4:15am, Jun 29 from Web


PatientGarden
: @gardenhistory @BioDivLibrary thanks I will have a look
4:19am, Jun 29 from We

Thursday, June 28, 2012
via Twitter

ToriHerridge
8:38am via Web
you can read the 19th Century version of the Language of the Genes for *free* here: biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/4… > I love @BioDivLibrary #openaccess


ToriHerridge
7:53am via Web
loving the @BioDivLibrary today. Their pdf of Falconer's memoirs is MUCH nicer than google's…AND OSBORN'S PROBOSCIDEA biodiversitylibrary.org/item/44931#

Tuesday, June 12, 2012
From Nareerat Boonchai, via Gemini [mailto: n_finix@yahoo.com]

Just want to say "thank you very much" for making many old journals available online in different way of downloading. They are really very useful and helpful for my research and dissertation. I very much appreciate that. Best wishes,

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
From Felipe, via Gemini [mailto:felipebrgomes@hotmail.com]

Amazing tool for students of the world. Thanks so much and congratulations for the idea! Best wishs. Felipe

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
from Deb, via Gemini [mailto:debpandey@gmail.com]

It is excellent service!

Monday, May 21, 2012
Blog post from BibliOdyssey

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2012/05/sun-birds.html

• The illustrations seen here from 'A Monograph of the Nectariniidae, or, Family of Sun-birds' by GE Shelley and JG Keulemans (1876-1880) come courtesy of this Flickr set, uploaded by the most fabulous and collaborative, multi-institutional Biodiversity Heritage Library. Click on any of the images above to access much larger image files on Flickr.
• The Sun-birds book at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. {bibliographic record}.

Monday, May 21, 2012
FromRoger Hawkins, via Gemini [mailto:rhcu@btinternet.com]

Thankyou for this website. I'm not a biologist, but I've found it most useful.

Thursday, May 17, 2012
From Lee Kantar, via Gemini [mailto: lee.kantar@maine.gov]

Thank you for this excellent service, this is a huge asset to professional wildlife biologists. Quick and easy, much appreciated. Lee Kantar Maine Dept of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

Thursday, May 10, 2012
via Twitter

david_normal.jpg

anatotitan
May 09, 11:32pm via Web
addicted to @BioDivLibrary

Monday, May 7th, 2012
From Polly Lasker, via Smithsonian Institution Libraries internal blog

Feed: Staff Highlights: Posts

Posted on: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 10:00 AM

Author: Lasker, Polly

Subject: BHL use ticks up for reference work

Body: Within the last couple of weeks I've used to the BHL more than usual to help researchers find material. I've been helping an emeritus curator in paleontology find images and articles for a book he's working on. Also the head of NZP's Reptile Discovery Center needed an article and plates from the 1890 volume the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. AskaLibrarian also received a request from a research assistant at Royal Holloway, Univ. of London, for a high resolution scan of an illustration from Hornaday's Taxidermy and zoological collecting (1891). I sent her the links to the book, BHL's instructions for high resolution downloading and the licensing & copyright information.

Thursday, April 19, 2012
From Bill Di Michelle, via email to Richard Huffine [mailto: dimichel@si.edu]

"Lately, I have been doing some systematic work, which has taken me into a lot of really old paleobotanical literature (most of which, fortunately, is in our library - but not all). I have been able to find on line much of what we do not have, which is amazing - obscure old French and German paleobotanical monographs from the 1820s through 1870s. These, of course, have beautiful plates in them. So, I have really come to appreciate the kind of effort you are undertaking - it is opening up the old literature to scholars, many of whom have had little access in the past. If I can help in any way, do not hesitate to let me know."

Thursday, April 19, 2012
via Twitter

Joffelphick Apr 18, 12:08pm via Mobile Web
@BioDivLibrary @dragonandonion Brilliant resource!

fishconserve Apr 18, 7:30pm via Buffer
We ♡ Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary > improving access to the natural history images. SO FABULOUS! bit.ly/HQuAWk

Tuesday, April 10, 2012
via Twitter

profile-image_normal.jpg

dragonandonion
Apr 09, 12:41pm via twtkr for iPad
@BioDivLibrary #bhlib Love the BHL. Thanks for all your hard work. Keep tweeting the latest gems, they're much appreciated.

Monday, April 9, 2012
FromRoi Dor, via Gemini [mailto: roi.dor@colorado.edu]

Thank you very much for the PDF. This was very helpful, fast and efficient! Roi

Monday, April 9, 2012
FromDr Zoltán Péter Erőss, via Gemini [mailto: erosspeter1@yahoo.co.uk]

THANKS a lot!!!!! Zoltán

Monday, April 9, 2012
from Glynn Maynard, via Gemini [mailto: glynn007@bigpond.com]

This service is just brilliant, it has meant that I can continue working whilst validating old names from the original source rather than secondary sources - seriously facilitates getting taxonomy done thank you Glynn Maynard

Monday, April 2, 2012
via Twitter

NatGeoBirder Apr 01, 4:25pm via Web
Get lost browsing the BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE LIBRARY, which holds 1000s of titles (inc. the book with those bird nests) biodiversitylibrary.org

Monday, April 2, 2012
Email praise forwaded by Alison Harding, NHM

---

From: Robert Prys - Jones

Sent: 02 April 2012 10:33

To: Alison Harding

Subject: FW: Microperdix blewitti and BHL

Alison, More praise for BHL, from someone I recommended it to! Robert

---

From: etymornis [mailto:etymornis@seagales.plus.com]

Sent: 01 April 2012 14:50

To: Robert Prys - Jones

Subject: Microperdix blewitti and BHL

Dear Robert,
Again, many thanks. I have only recently “found” the BHL website, but hadn’t realised it contained so many useful volumes (like the Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus.) in a readable format. I shall now be spending even more time in front of my computer! However, books are still precious to me, so I shall still want to visit Tring later this year, and will contact Alison in due course.
Regards and best wishes
James

Monday, April 2, 2012
Via Facebook

Tim McGonagle
This incredible, beautiful website is a must for all nature lovers!
Like
·

· Saturday at 8:49am

Tim Green
Wonderful resource, well worth checking out.
Like
·

· Yesterday at 5:59am

Tuesday, March 27
From david moyer [daudi.simoya@gmail.com]

Just discovered this website. Excellent resource but very difficult to use on connections with low bandwith here in East Africa. Thanks all the same.

Monday, March 26, 2012
via Twitter

rbg_science Mar 20, 8:47am via web
#Biodiversity Heritage Library is growing all the time: A great on-line resourse on the world's species biodiversitylibrary.org @BioDivLibrary

tjvision Mar 22, 6:55pm via TweetCaster for iOS
Excellent project @BioDivLibrary receives funding from @NEHgov to reveal the Art of Life: http://t.co/rZwkb

Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Example of BHL answering a reference question posted on taxacom listserv:

From: taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Rainer Massmann
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 11:27 AM
To: Geoff Read
Cc: taxacom@mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Looking for ICZN Opinion 417 on Oken

At BHL:
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/107810#page/61/mode/1up

Rainer



Am 21.03.2012 03:17, schrieb Geoff Read:

• Hello,
• 
  
• I'm looking for a pdf of the ICZN Opinion 417 rejecting Oken's 1815 'Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte' as a work for nomenclature.
• The reference for the application would be handy too.
• 
  
• WoRMS gives "1956. OPINION 417. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 14: 1-42." But this is evidently an incorrect citation.
• 
  
• Pointers please?
• 
  
• Thanks,
• 
  
• Geoff Read
• 
  

Tuesday, March 20, 2012
via Twitter

rbg_sm_normal.jpg

rbg_science
8:47am via Web
#Biodiversity Heritage Library is growing all the time: A great on-line resourse on the world's species biodiversitylibrary.org @BioDivLibrary

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
via Twitter

little_photo_normal.jpg

bassoonist
Mar 10, 9:51am via Timely by Demandforce
Biodiversity Heritage Library awe.sm/5hKsw free & #openaccess to legacy #biodiversity literature online. Thankyou @BioDivLibrary

Monday, March 12, 2012
via Twitter

TheArtofLDesign Mar 10, 7:01am via Facebook
Garden History Blog -- with a great link to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a free online library. LOVE!... fb.me/AejB6Zw3

Monday, March 12, 2012
Blog post by Toby Musgrave, with mention of BHL:
http://www.gardenhistorymatters.com/2012/03/f-is-for-ferme-ornee.html

Friday, March 9, 2012
From A. Leviton, via Gemini [mailto: aleviton@calacademy.org]

Just a quick thank you for an outstanding service. It's a godsend. Coverage is wonderful. Wish there were an equal in the Earth Sciences. A. Leviton California Academy of Sciences San Francisco, CA

Friday, March 9th
via Facebook

Eileen Cook
I Love this site, thank you for all you do!

Thursday, March 8th
via on ammodramus88 Flickr in response to a request for images to be posted:

Wow, that was fast! Thanks very much for posting these images on your Flickr account. Beautiful artwork like this should be appreciated by the world, not forgotten.
Best regards,
Jennifer

Tuesday, March 6th
Mention of BHL in DC Birding Blog:
http://dendroica.blogspot.com/2012/03/mabel-osgood-wrights-birdcraft.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Monday, March 5th
RichardComont Mar 03, 7:36pm via Web Just discovered the taxon finder at the biodiversity heritage library site - amazingly useful! biodiversitylibrary.org/Default.aspx

Tuesday Feb 29 2012
Hola Becky:
Very grateful to the California Academy of Science for its generosity in
posting this interesting publication in the Web.
I also thank you Becky. I AM ELATED!!!!
Un saludo,
Carlos Fernandez

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
From Dr Nathalie Yonow, via Gemini [mailto: n.yonow@swansea.ac.uk]

Thank you what a wonderful website and pdf service - I am in heaven with copies of ancient volumes on your system! A little fiddly to find what I required but got there in the end. thank yo thank you!!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

From: Robert Prys - Jones

Sent: 27 February 2012 11:48

To: Orn Lib (NHM London Ornithology Library - Alison Harding)

Subject: Appreciation of BHL

Alison

I often now tell enquirers re BHL. I recently recommended it for Sharpe’s “History” and for Cat. Birds BM to Andrew Black, who responded: “Thanks also for putting me onto the biodiversity library for Sharpe’s opera magna; excellent web-site.”

Thought you’d like to know!

Robert

Monday, February 27
via Facebook

Páll-Gergely Barna
I'm very grateful to the BHL. I use it nearly every day.

Darren_one_001_normal.gif

Loessperson
Feb 25, 4:47am via web
@JerutoJ Its the Biodiversity Heritage Library; best accessed via facebook; it delivered Braun 1842- I was amazed.

twitlogo__96x87__normal.jpg

MG_Ontario
Feb 27, 8:22am via web
The Biodiversity Heritage Library offers free scientific literature on iTunes! blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2012/02/biodiv…

cornpic_normal.htm.jpg

FunkACESLibrary
Feb 24, 10:01am via web
We love BHL: nmnh.typepad.com/100years/2012/…

silvana_avila-junio_2011_normal.jpg

miss_tutsi
Feb 24, 10:54am via web
Muchas cosas bonitas para ver en el blog de Biodiversity Heritage Library: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Email message from retired biologist Alburt Rosenberg:

H i M a t t ,
Greta appreciated being able to view those two early Frenzel references. Thank you.
The Royal Microscopical one was indeed less than a page, being only a paragraph and a couple of sentences written as a nice brief review by the journal.
I was interested to see how the drawings in the 1892 publication were all inserted into the very end of that volume. Wonderful that it was all digitized and so well.

Sincerely,
Al

Thursday, February 23rd, via Twitter:
kimberlykowal: I'd like to wallpaper my house with these. Biodiversity Heritage Library's Flickr stream:http://t.co/mROZ7JyY (parlez-vous français?)

Thursday, February 23, 2012
From post on Facebook, needed translation. See email strings for translation below:

Hi Grace,

According to my sources ;-) this is a nice post, it says something like:

“Here goes a tip from the website/blog of Denis Jacob Machado: Do you know the (data)base of Biodiversity Heritage Library?"

So apparently, Maria Da Conceição Gomes da Silva, a professor of the Sao Paulo State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho got referred to BHL by Denis Jacob Machado, an undergraduate in Molecular Biology from São Paulo, Brazil and interested in Zoology, parasitology, biogeography and molecular systematics.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

William.
William Ulate R. | Sr.Project Coordinator | Center for Biodiversity Informatics (CBI) | Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis MO | (314) 577-9473 ext.6398 |

__william.ulate@mobot.org__ | skype: william_ulate_r

From: Costantino, Grace [__mailto:DukeG@si.edu__]

Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 6:43 AM

To: William Ulate

Cc: Borrego, Gilbert

Subject: Translation Help?

Hi William,

We got the following message on the BHL Facebook:

Dica de site do Denis Jacob Machado. Já conhecem a base Biodiversity Heritage Library?

I’m pretty sure this is Portuguese, so I’m not sure if you can help me, but the free translators I’ve been using online make no sense in the translations they’re suggesting. Can you offer any help to what this individual is saying?

Thanks!

Grace

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
From Bernard Picton, via gmail [mailto: bernard.picton@nmni.com]

Thankyou Grace, I couldn't see them when I searched for Hincks and found the volume 1 entries. You are doing a brilliant job there!

Bernard

Bernard Picton
Curator of Marine Invertebrates
Department of Natural Sciences

National Museums Northern Ireland
Cultra, Holywood, Co. Down, BT18 0EU

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
From Wendy Wasman, via gmail [mailto: wwasman@cmnh.org]

Thank you - these links work fine. I also re-requested the three articles using my alternate address (library@cmnh.org), but I never received confirmation emails. Was there a glitch in your system? This method has always worked fine in the past. Thank you again for your assistance - the BHL has been invaluable in helping me meet the research needs of my curators.

Wendy

Wendy Wasman, Librarian
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle
Cleveland, OH 44106-1767
(216) 231-4600, x3222

Thursday, February 16th, 2012
FromCarole Showell, via Gemini [mailto: carole.showell@bto.org]

Just to thank you for a brilliant service! Such a help.

Twitter, from @rdmpage
Mon 13 Feb 09:47
Thanks! Seems like you're always one step ahead of me ;)

Twitter, from @aasa
Feb 14, 2:24am via web
Still amazed by Biodiversity Heritage Library! So good! biodiversitylibrary.org

Twitter, from @tjvision
Jan 04, 3:46pm via TweetDeck
Nice! >22,000 biodiversity illustrations spanning the centuries on Flickr __ow.ly/8hHEd__ thanks to @BioDivLibrary

Twitter, from @lemonbalm13
Jan 04, 4:14pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary This is SOOOOO cool. Gorgeous drawings of plants and fungi. Thanks for making my day!

Twitter, from @cheesivore
Jan 04, 11:15pm via Web
@ruthbleakley If *someone* had a favorites folder entitled "Illustrations Pr0n", it'd surely be filled with @BioDivLibrary 's lovely images.

Twitter, form @ianophelan
Jan 07, 2:44pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary Thankful for your Flickr presence, I used the Nectariniidae set to make my twitter background

Twitter, from @labroides
Jan 07, 5:54pm via Twitter for iPhone
@BioInFocus don't you just love @BioDivLibrary?

Twitter, from @BioInFocus
Jan 07, 5:55pm via TweetDeck
@labroides @BioDivLibrary Better than sliced bread! I'd still be doing my MSc waiting for taxonomic lit if not for them!

Twitter, from @SLW_L
Jan 12, 4:59pm via Web
@thisbrokenwheel So much great stuff to look at on there! I think I originally found @BioDivLibrary via @anatotitan

Twitter, from @samuelcrane
Jan 25, 7:47pm via Twitter for iPhone
@BioDivLibrary is a repatriation project for biodiversity knowledge #SoNYC

Twitter, from @musepods
Jan 30, 12:14am via Plume for Android
Just discovered @BioDivLibrary on #Flickr __bit.ly/yuYXmd__ - I think I'm in love.

Twitter, from @labroides
Feb 07, 9:47am via Twitter for iPhone
Did you know the @BioDivLibrary is now on iTunes? __itunes.apple.com/us/institution…__ So cool #science #outreach

Monday, February 13th, 2012
From Dr. Karl J. Siegert, via Gemini [mailto:kjsiegert@hotmail.com]

Many thanks for publishing on your website "Die Wanderheuschrecken und ihre Bekämpfung in unseren afrikanischen Kolonieen" by L. Sander. Unfortunately, page 1 seems to be missing, but as far as I can tell no other page or map are missing. I have also downloaded an OCR copy. As with other files of this kind, the software did not cope with the German "Umlaut" i.e. äÄ, öÖ and üÜ. Does the software used not provide the option of chosing the language of the original? This would make use of the material probably much easier. I always enjoy surfing on the BHL website, do so frequently and find all sorts of useful files. Best wishes Dr. Karl J. Siegert Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany

Friday, February 10th, 2012
Comment received via Facebook:
Ian Smalley
To Biodiversity Library with appreciation and thanks. You have just supplied me with the Alexander Braun 1842 paper on Snails in Loess; I can read it in my office- its little short of miraculous. Historical studies take on wonderful new dimensions. Charlesworth cited this paper in 1957- I wonder if he had ever SEEN it?

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Comment received via Facebook in response to one of our daily quizzes:

Stacie Sueko Lyons this is awesome! Good work, guys!


Monday, Jan 30, 2012
From Alan Kohn via Gemini [mailto: kohn@u.washington.edu]

I requested a pdf of only one page, but it came in minutes. I really appreciate your excellent service! Alan Kohn


Monday, Jan 30, 2012
From Geoff Owen via Gemini [mailto:geoffo@btinternet.com]

Just like to say what a fantastic site. I collect old Natural History books and need to scan pages for my database, not an easy task to get them flat on an A4 scanner but you've saved me an awful lot of trouble. Some of the books are beatiful and it's a good site to find out what I can buy next, just to browse the images or read about going up the Amazon. Wicked!


Thursday, Jan 26, 2012
From Bruce Holst via gmail account [mailto: bholst@selby.org]

Hi Grace: Thanks so much for your quick and helpful reply. We are still unable to acces the pages, but we tried them on another machine and browser and it is working fine. So we’ll blame it on solar flares and just keep going. Your resource is phenomenal! Bruce


Wednesday, Jan 18 2012
From Marinus Hoogmoed via BHL gmail acct

Thank you for helping me out and congratulations with a superior on-line library service, that is of great help to anybody that has no direct access to old literature (like many scientists in developing countries). I used to be located in the Natural History Museum in Leiden, Netherlands with an excellent library, but after my retirement I moved to Brazil and lost the direct contact with the Leiden library. However, I still have contact with them via Email and they frequently help out with PDF´s, and in many cases BHL provides what I am looking for.
Best regards,
Marinus Hoogmoed

Thursday, January 5 2012 via Flickr

From:	▌antantonia isaacson
Subject:	THANKS!
	thank you for existing! excellent initiative to share knowledge at no charge! Antonia Isaacson (from Chile)

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
FromKarl Kuchnow, via Gemini [mailto: spike3340@shaw.ca]

No issues or problems. Just a sincere thank you for providing such a wonderful resource and service. I am a volunteer researcher at The Royal British Columbia Museum...and will probably make good future use of the service, now that I have discovered it. Thank you!!


Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
From Rob Blair, via Gemini [mailto: robert.blair@ky.gov]

Just wanted to follow up and say thanks. This is a great service and wonderful use of technology! Thanks, Rob

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 via Flickr

From:	paloma gustafson-ikapaloma gustafson-ika
Subject:	you
	my favorite flickr in the whoooole world! thank you for existing.

2011

Twitter, from @SILibraries
Dec 01, 2011, 3:00pm via HootSuite
two vivid, colorful plates of mushrooms can now be viewed on @BioDivLibrary flickr stream. lovely! __ow.ly/7Lt1t__

Twitter, from @Endoxocrinus
Dec 02, 2011, 12:06pm via Web
#FF @BioDivLibrary @eol @anatotitan @Mhorridus @labroides the best biotwits on the whole web! and lots of fun!

Twitter from @eol
Dec 07, 2011, 8:51am via HootSuite
Loving these gorgeous illustrations in Kunstformen der Natur, part of the @BioDivLibrary Book of the Week series __ow.ly/7Rvbe__ #bhlib

Twitter, from @ruthbleakley
Dec 07, 2011, 3:40pm via Web
WOOOW Love the latest BHL illustrations! @cheesivore @eol @BioDivLibrary

Twitter, from @MagicMushShop
Dec 09, 2011, 1:08pm via Web
@BioDivLibrary Thanks for these beautiful illustrations, great source for inspiration and old cultivation methods.
Twitter, from @OceanPortal
Dec 09, 2011, 5:10pm via HootSuite
Stunning shells, beautifully illustrated. Thanks @BioDivLibrary for sharing them. __ow.ly/7U4ZG__

Twitter, from @Endoxocrinus
Dec 16, 2011, 12:28pm via Web
#FF to @eol @BioDivLibrary @holoturio @anatotitan @Mhorridus the best sources of biodiversity (now and before) ever!

Twitter, from @MycoFun
Dec 21, 2011, 9:37am via Web
A beautiful Champignon! Boletus with drawings of the basidia. __biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19539111#…__ Thanks @BioDivLibrary #Fungi #Mushroom #Mycology

Twitter, from @eol
Dec 28, 2011, 9:25am via HootSuite
You will love these images from @BioDivLibrary. We promise. __ow.ly/7ZmhF__

Twitter, from @IArtLibraries
Dec 28, 2011, 1:40pm via HootSuite
Wow - a gold mine of visual inspiration! RT @eol: You will love these images from @BioDivLibrary. We promise. ow.ly/7ZmhF

Friday, December 16, 2011
From Colin Jones, colinjones18@hotmail.com

Dear Sirs, I must thank you for dealing with my request a couple of weeks ago re. Mag.Zool. I now see vol.1-8 are online. I have only checked 1 vol. so far but it will mean that 2 citations will need changing. As I think I said in my previous e-mail what you are doing is so helpful in being able to check things out and change them where that is needed.I pass on my findings and they go around the world so hopefully the correct citation will be used in the future. Just to give you some idea of how helpful you have been some lots of incorrect bird species names have now been corrected and also lots year dates have been corrected and some citations have changed where an earlier publication has been found. As I do this for fun in my spare time after work getting to museums etc. is nearly impossible. Your contribution to zoology should not be under estimated. colin jones


Monday, December 12, 2011
From Pat Knobloch, via gmail [mailto: huarpa@cox.net]

Dear Grace,
now that vol.2 is available I sent a message to our Andeanist list (via Dan Sandweiss). Hope you get some more feedback.
Thank you and staff for all your hard work to make this series available. I, too, am a librarian (retired), so I can appreciate the technical and cataloguing services that go into this endeavor.
Good luck,
Pat

Monday, November 28th, 2011
From: Peter Gregg, via Gemini [no email given]

What an absolutely wonderful site. It is a treasure trove of information. Thank you!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
From: Elizabeth Whitcombe, via Gemini [mailto: ewhitcombe@xtra.co.nz]

May I compliment you on this splendid service? The Library's invaluable for my work on seasonal variability of climate and vector-borne disease in British India, 1875-1940.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011
From: Aaron Sims, via gmail [mailto: asims@cnps.org]

Grace,

Thank you so much for the prompt reply. I was able to get a colleague in a separate office to download the PDF fine, so it must have been an issue with the internet server at my office.

I really appreciate your work. The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an excellent resource that regularly helps my assistant and I obtain original descriptions for plants during their review and assessment for inclusion/change/deletion in the California Native Plant Society's Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants (www.rareplants.cnps.org). I feel so privileged to be working in a day in age when such resources are so readily available and easy to obtain.

Kind regards,
Aaron

Monday, November 14, 2011
From: Dennis Meritt, via Gemini [mailto: dmeritt@depaul.edu]

I am most grateful for the ability to obtain a hard copy of an obscure article from The Nautilus (Volume 37 January 1924, No.3 pages 73-77). This reference is most useful to work that I am currently undertaking in the Chaco of Paraguay with apple snails and snail kites. Thank you most sincerely for your work in making the early issues of Nautilus available to researchers. With personal best wishes and regards. Dennis Meritt

Friday, November 4, 2011
From: no name given, via Gemini [mailto: tsguan@ibcas.ac.cn]

I received the pdf article so quickly. Many Thanks to all of you !

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
From:Michael Hinton, via Gemini {mail to: mhinton@iattc.org]


I created a bibliographic link for the journal article at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/72534#page/55/mode/1up. My apologies, but I missed including the name of the second author, which is Yoshio Ishizuka. Thank you for your help in correcting this. Also, I was very happy to find BHL - you have no idea how wonderful it is to [even] find California Fish and Game on line with such excellent access interface.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011
From: Annemarie OHLER, via Gemini [mailto: ohler@mnhn.fr]

Thank you very much for this service! Very usefull


Thursday, September 22, 2011
From Christiane Anderson, via Gemini [mailto: chra@umich.edu]

Dear Grace,

Thank you for sending the explanation. I just thought something had gone off the tracks, especially with vol. 3 lurking at the bottom of the drop-down list. I have no problems with multiple copies. I love BHL site, and my crabbing is in the spirit of making it "perfect." I have done some web stuff myself and know only too well how easily the glitches creep in.

Best regards,
Chris

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
From Kelley Kissner, via Gemini [mailto: kelleykissner@gmail.com]

Hi. I wanted to comment on what a great resource this library is. I was so happy to discover an archived issue of a journal that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to access easily. Your service made it simple and stress-free. Thank you. Kelley

Thursday, September 15, 2011
From Torben Larsen, via Gemini [mailto: torbenlarsen@btinternet.com]

To Everybody involved in the BHL Project I wrote some time ago to congratulate on he concept and the near-perfect way in which it functions. I am working on a major book on the skipper butterflies (Hesperiidae) of Africa ... several problems were solved in en minutes where I would have to wait till I was was at the Natural History Museum library. Magic is the right word, Best wishes to you all, Torben Larsen

Monday, September 12, 2011
From Louis Diringer, via gmail [mailto: louis.diringer@wanadoo.fr]

Dear Grace Costantino,

Thank you so much for replying me so quickly and efficiently.

Of course, I do understand that copyrighted works cannot be freely available without explicit permission from the right holders.

I do really appreciate what you did for letting me have a private access to this paper I was looking for a long time. I'd like to take the opportunity to let you know how much the Biodiversity Heritage Library Librarian initiative is highly appreciated among people like me who try to learn from those who delivered valuable information in the past. Your website is a real treasure! Congratulations.

Please do again accept my sincere and warmest thanks

Best regards


Louis DIRINGER


Thursday, September 1, 2011
From Shelia Connor, via feedback gmail [mailto: sheila_connor@harvard.edu]

Dear Grace,
It works just fine now, perhaps I was being too impatient. I love and use BHL ALL THE TIME! SEE http://arboretum.harvard.edu/library/arboretum-publications/
Sheila

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
From Ling Li, via Gemini (mailto: lingli@mit.edu]

This is a great source!!!

Thursday, August 18, 2011
From Dan Noreen, via Gemini [no email given]

Wow! You are awesome! Thanks so very much for your incredible quickness and efficiency in downloading the article I have been seeking for ages. Best wishes, Dan Noreen

Friday, August 12, 2011
From Mike Augee, via email to Bianca [mailto: fossil@well-com.net.au]

Dear Bianca,

We have heard from a number of people who have used your site to access our back issues. It is a great contribution to world science, and I for one greatly appreciate it.

Best Regards,
Mike Augee
Editor
Proc Linn Soc NSW

Tuesday, August 9, 2011
From Liz Edwards, via Gemini [mailto: elizabeth. edwards@noaa.gov]

No questions or problems, just a Thank You comment for creating such an incredibly useful technological marvel!

Thursday, August 4, 2011
From Derek Butcher, via Gemini [mailto: tillands@bigpond.com]

Dear Grace
Pleased to hear that. I don't know if you realise that this facility of yours is the best thing since sliced bread for we Aussies. To get easy access to old journals is fantastic and I have a great time ( in my retirement) in researching Bromeliaceae. You may even have bumped into an Uncle Derek on the ether! >:-}
Derek

Wednesday, August 3, 2011
From M K Janarthanam, Ph.D via email forwarded from Martin. [mailto: mkjana@yahoo.com]

Dear Chris,
It was pleasure meeting you and listening to your talk on BHL. Moreover, BHL forms the backbone of of whatever little work we do. Thanks to you all, without your efforts getting literature would have been daunting task for us.

I discussed the matter with the Secretary of Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (publisher of Rheedea) and he was excited though he needs to get formal approval from Executive Committee. We will start the process and contact you. We did scan volumes up to vol 18, but the quality was not good. If required we can ship hard copies. From vol. 19 we have soft copies (pdf).

Regarding other resources that could be part of BHL - we need to take stock and prioritise and locate the resources. Few libraries that harbor them are yet to see the purpose.

Shall get back to you soon.

regards,
jana


Tuesday, August 2, 2011
From Les Landrum, via Gemini [mailto: les.landrum@asu.edu]

THIS IS A WONDERFUL SERVICE! Thank you! Les Landrum, ASU

Tuesday, August 2, 2011
From @ISF_NatSci via Twitter

"You got a great website...:-)"

Thursday, July 21, 2011
From Mike Guiry, via Gemini [mailto: mikeguiry@me.com]

Thanks for a wonderful service. I have added a link (which does a search for your names page) on every AlgaeBase page (e.g. http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=689) on right under Links. Mike Guiry

Monday, July 18, 2011
From Stan Wilson via gmail account [mailto: wstanleywilson@gmail.com]

Grace: I want to tell how wonderful this service is! It is my first encounter with your facility and it is fast, efficient and just great! Many thanks!!!! Stan

Note new email address
<wstanleywilson@gmail.com>
and cell phone 443 695 5983

Tuesday, July 5, 2011
From Fenton Chin, via Gemini [mail to: fenton.chin@utoronto.ca]


featured link to Biodiversity Heritage Library placed on Fenton's Library website for July 2011 - please visit http://fentonlibrary.wetpaint.com

Monday, June 27, 2011
From Aldo Loup, via Gemini [mail to: aldoloup@hotmail.com]

Hello: I am glad to inform you that I have decided to use an out-of-copyright picture published by you in order to illustrate my Website and other commercial projects. The picture was taken from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and as I understand it, it was uploaded in that server with the intent to be shared with others. Of course, due credit is given. The resulting Webpage is the following: http://sites.google.com/site/aldoloup/articulos/-los-mayas-y-sus-tres-calendarios The same page in other languages will follow. I want to thank you for the opportunity to use that picture. However, if you feel in any way that my use of this picture does not fit into your original intentions, please let me know it as soon as possible. Sincerely yours, Aldo Loup. aldoloup@hotmail.com

Friday, June 17, 2011
From Megan Raby via Facebook page:
In fact, I just wrote a couple paragraphs about the history of research on this plant [Mimosa pudica] for my dissertation-- which uses plenty of BHL sources!

Monday, June 13, 2011
From Camilo Calderonvia Gemini [mailto:cacace2000@gmail.com]

Great !! thank you for this exceptional tool !!!

Thursday, May 26, 2011
Email exchange with Pat LaFollette [mailto:pat@lafollette.com]

Hi Grace,
This is just a mental ramble for your amusement, requiring no reply.
I sometimes get impatient with the rate at which my research progresses and with the collections and tools available from BHL. Then something comes along to put matters in perspective. James Corgan, an elderly retired professor in Kentucky, recently gifted me with the proceeds of his 50 years of bibliographic research on the Pyramidellidae, my family of interest. He is packing up his files and shipping them to me at a rate of a couple boxes per week. There will eventually be about 50 boxes of paper - mostly reprints, photocopies, card files, binders of MS notes, and a few books. (A few boxes of specimens will follow). Jim's goal of cataloging the family was never realized. He ultimately realized that the project was simply too ambitious for him to complete and gave up on it. The files contain some obscure reprints and much useful information, but equally interesting, they embody a history of taxonomic research methods from 1950 to 2000. The methods of 1950 were essentially the same as those of the 19th Century. There are hand-written and typed transcriptions of species descriptions, crumbling photostats and photocopies of varying quality, hand-written file cards and notebooks, and finally, a few early Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. What this collection has made strikingly apparent is that in the past five years I have made substantially greater progress towards our common goal than Jim was able to accomplish in fifty. In large measure, it is BHL that made the difference. The tools will continue to improve, the Internet will get faster, BHL's collection will become more complete and better indexed, but compared to even a few years ago, it is already a whole new world for the bibliographic researcher.
Regards,Pat

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Email exchange starting with reference question looking for one particular book:
How beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing this with me! I am so pleased that we were able to help in a small way in your endeavor to save this beautiful butterfly! Good luck, and please let us know if we can help in any way with your endeavors!

From: javier biaggi [mailto:javierbiaggi@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:01 AMTo: Costantino, GraceSubject: RE: Recent Inquiry to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Hurray! Thanks , Thanks, Thanks! Thank you very, very, much. You make me very happy when you said that you have the volume and now more than very happy. To at last read the document. This is the birth certificate of the Atlantea tulita, Synchloe tulita as Herr Dewitz baptized her. This is an endagered Butterfly that I have been very busy to save for the last 4 years. I'm sending the first photo I took from her on January 2008. She is "drinking" in one of my favorite wild flower, the humble Bidens pilosa. You may copy it or print it, I have a 2.5 X 2.5 in my wallet to show it to the people to help save her. Again thanks to all involved and blessings to you. Javier

---

From: DukeG@si.eduTo: javierbiaggi@hotmail.comDate: Mon, 23 May 2011 08:52:34 -0400Subject: RE: Recent Inquiry to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Great news! V. 38 just went up. You can access it here: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/106807. Let me know if you have any problems!

From: javier biaggi [mailto:javierbiaggi@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 8:31 PMTo: Costantino, GraceSubject: RE: Recent Inquiry to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries

OHHH! How happy you made me! Thanks a lot for the news, I will be patiently waiting for it, no matter how much time it will take. Thanks a lot! I'll do as you suggest. God Bless, Javier

---

From: DukeG@si.eduTo: javierbiaggi@hotmail.comCC: TaylorG@si.eduDate: Fri, 20 May 2011 09:44:44 -0400Subject: Recent Inquiry to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Dear Javier Biaggi,

You recently submitted the following inquiry to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries:

“Dear Sirs: I was looking, through the Internet Archive, for the Entomologischer Verein zu Stettin jahrg. 38 1877. The article by Herr Hermman Dewitz Tagschmetterlinge von Portorico. I could not find this volume digitized. Is this volume missing from your collection? If so where I can find a copy of this article? Thanks for your efforts in digitizing these collections I hope such interesting collections keep finding us through Internet. Congratulations on the idea. Javier Biaggi”

My name is Grace Costantino and I work for the Smithsonian Institution Libraries on the Biodiversity Heritage Library project, which is the project for which the volumes of Entomologischen Vereins zu Stettin or Entomologische Zeitung have been scanned. I am pleased to inform you that v. 38 has already been sent for scanning. While I cannot provide you with a timeline for when this item might become available, if you subscribe to the rss feed of recent additions for the Biodiversity Heritage Library, you will see an entry for the volume when it is added to the online collection. I hope that this satisfies your inquiry. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Grace Costantino

Digital Collections Librarian

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

10th St. and Constitution Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20013

Tel: 202-633-1709 Email: costantinog@si.edu











Tuesday, May 24, 2011
From Harry G. Lee, via Gemini [mailto:
shells@hglee.com








]

I am a first time user ... and I am awed and aprreciative!

Monday, May 23, 2011
From John Tann, Atlas of Living Australia [mailto:
John.Tann@austmus.gov.au]



Dear person with an interest in BHL,


At various times throughout the brief life of the Biodiversity Heritage Library there has been the occasional query asking “Why bother doing all the work. Just sit back and let Google do it”.



Well, last week the big G pulled the plug on their newspaper digitisation program. This suggests to me that our community needs to continue to take ownership of what we consider to be important to us.



(Nonetheless, Google digitised a very impressive 60 million newspaper pages before giving up.)



Blog by Gary Price: http://infodocket.com/2011/05/20/so-long-google-is-ending-its-newspaper-digitization-project/










John Tann


Atlas of Living Australia



02 9320 6449


0448 000 909


www.ala.org.au









John.Tann@austmus.gov.au










Friday, May 20th
From Rowland Hartle via Gemini [mailto: rowland.hartle@virgin.net]

Hello, I have just found your website - an excellent facility and very welcome. Please keep up the good work it is much appreciated. R.Hartle UK

Saturday, April 23

• Dear dr.Bianca Crowley
• BHL Collections Coordinator,

Thank you much for your help. It is so useful as Iam rightnow working on the fishes of Ganges. Moreover it is so great that the library provides classic literature on fishes and it was a dream to me once I started my taxonomy ten years back. It is a marvellous you did for us which are badly in need of old literature.
Thanks a lot

• --
• <º}}}}><
• Dr.M.Arunachalam
• Professor
• Sri Paramakalyani Centre for Environmental Sciences
• Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Alwarkurichi-627412
• Tamilnadu, India

Tuesday, April 19
[via BHL gmail acct]
Thank you very much for your efforts!
I am working on the revision of the Chinese members of the land snail genus Plectopylis. For this, Biodiversity Heritage Library provided me huge help! I could get about 90 % of the important literature. I was thinking about writing this in the acknowledgements of our publication. I don't know wether you count how many times people are doing this, but I think your efforts deserve these kind of positive feedbacks. Could you please write me how can I correctly thank it to you? Something like: Biodeiversity Geritage Library Group?
Thank you for your answer:
Barna
- Show quoted text -
--
Barna Páll-Gergely
Home address:
Mosonmagyaróvár, Kölcsey Ferenc u. 21
H-9200, Hungary
http://www.ttk.pte.hu/ kornyezettudomany/okologia/ mavige/pall-gergely_barna_cv_ eng.pdf

Monday, April 18
From M BALAJI RAJKUMAR via Gemini jontybala@rediffmail.com

"this is excellent service to the taxonomic people especially students."

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
From Manudev K Madhavan via gmail [mail to: manudevkmadhavan@gmail.com]

Dear Grace Costantino,

Thank you very much for your reply
I am very happy that you have considered my mail seriously.
Once again thanking you for sending the required pdf files. Biodiversity heritage library website has been very helpful in tracking literature for any kind of research in plants, especially for those who are working in the area of Plant taxonomy. This site has been a "treasure" for us where almost all the back volumes of the foreign journals are available. I could download the protologues of not less than 300 species from this site within one month. We would be very much obliged if you could include some major journals published from India and Japan also.
Hoping your cooperation in the future also.
Thanks again.

Friday, April 8th, 2011
From @BiblioOdyssey via twitter

#ff @BioDivLibrary is (?) THE most important library/museum consortium http://bit.ly/fWaQTV | http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

Friday, March 25, 2011
From: Nancy Lovell [mail to: nancy.lovell@ualbert.a.ca]

Many thanks. Sever slowness was the problem; I tried again and it worked fine. It was a large document and I only wanted specific pages and I guess I just didn't wait long enough for the pages to load/download.
BTW - I love the Library - it's a terrific resource for the historical literature review I've undertaken!
Von: José H. Leal [[mailto:[mailto:jleal@shellmuseum.org]|[mailto:jleal@shellmuseum.org]]]
Gesendet: Dienstag, 22. März 2011 18:57
An: Scholz, Henning; 'Alan Kabat'; drl@Berkeley.Edu; molluscalist@Berkeley.Edu
Betreff: RE: [MOLLUSCA] Reprinting of Pelseneer 1906 available
Thanks to David, Alan, and Henning for the information on Pelseneer. And Hooray for BHL!
Just a friendly reminder that The Nautilus is also available online through BHL at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/6170
More recent volumes will be available, hopefully sooner than later.
Cheers,José

José H. Leal, Ph.D., Director and Curator
The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Editor, The Nautilus
www.shellmuseum.org

Thursday, March 17, 2011
From: Jennifer Archambault, via Gemini [mailto: jmarcham@ncsu.edu]

I just wanted to express my gratitude for the open access and PDF service. I was searching for an article from an obscure publication. NC State University Libraries and its database/journal subscriptions usually have all that I need, but failed me this time. Thanks for being there! It's great to be able to access the literature I need for my research online!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Hello helpful librarians - The web site you directed me to for the Parrot Book, (British Museum vol XX), is excellent. The quality of the scanning is excellent, also. I have yet to encounter a page that is even slightly blurry or poorly scanned, and I've gone through about 200 pages of the book so far. Still a lot of work to do with it, but the Biodiversity Library is a treasure. Thanks for recommending the site, as I probably never would have found it on my own!

Thanks again!
Robert G. Black

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Hi Grace,

Thanks for passing my comments on - I really appreciate BHL, it makes my work so much easier and is a great public resource. I think that it will provide for some very interesting and creative uses of otherwise hidden literature and data.


Best wishes,

Meredith



[This comment was in response to a complaint about our search limitations that Grace so aptly replied to: "We received your feedback regarding your frustrations/suggestions for improving our search. "Fuzzy" matching on search terms is definitely at the top of our list of priorities for improving our search, as we as employees of BHL realize just as potently as our users how frustrating it can be. Furthermore, other users have made requests for ranking of search results in a Google-like manner, and this is also on our list of desired developments, though not as urgent as the desire to improve the basic search functionality. As you mentioned in your feedback, these issues are not always easy to solve, particularly given our resource limitations. However, please know that I have forwarded your feedback to our technical development team, and rest assured that improving our search in the areas you outline is a top priority for us. Thank you for your continued faithful use of our services, and if you have any further suggestions, please do not hesitate to submit them!]




Friday, February 25, 2011
From: Bill Fenzan, via Gemini [mailto: bill@fenzan.com]

I think you do a superb job. Thank you for bringing all this content to people who are not able to access a large library.

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
From: Patte, via Gemini [mailto: theminiatreegarden@yahoo.com]

Actually, not a suggestion, just a huge thank you for making this information available via the net, and for making it so easily retrieved! Sincerely, Patte

Thursday, February 17, 2011
From: Hilary Howes, via Gemini [mail to: hilary.howes@anu.edu.au]

I just wanted to thank you for this excellent resource. I've been able to download articles that I wouldn't have been able to access otherwise and that have been of great importance to my research. Very grateful!

Wednesday, Feb 9
From: Val Lance via BHL Gmail
Dear Ms Crowley - My affiliation with SDSU is merely because I collaborated with one of the professors there (a toxicologist). I am retired, but busier than ever. My training is in physiology and comparative endocrinology, especially of crocodilians. I am writing a book on the reproductive biology of the crocodiles (includes alligators and caimans etc) and am thoroughly enjoying researching the historical literature to find out what was known from the 16th century on. What is exciting to me is that many of these old volumes that are unavailable to make copies from are available in BDL

One comment regarding Google books. Several of their digital copies in which an illustration is a fold-out are copied with the illustration folded, and therefore useless.

Keep up the good work.

Val

Monday, Jan. 31, 2011
From: Torben Larsen, via Gemini [mailto: torbenlarsen@btinternet.com]

I would just like to say how much I value the BHL. I am in the process of writing a monograph on the African Hesperiidae. Time and time again it is necessary some piece of obscure literature ... and I get it in no time flat rather than waiting till I get the Museum library - and a PDF to boot. Thanks and congratulations to a wonderful resource. Sincerely, Torben B Larsen Dr scient, cand. polit

January 28, 2011
Eye for Science Blog: BHL, What a Find!
What a resource! I just discovered the Biodiversity Heritage Library - an online, open-access library that has digitized over 32 million pages of taxonomic literature from 45,000 books! Cha-CHING! Bookmarked. And just to give you a little taste of the deliciousness that awaits, I’m including some snappies from Dumeril’s Erpétologie générale, ou, Histoire naturelle complète des reptiles from the Smithsonian Institution’s Libraries. Talk about making science accessible. It’s no exaggeration to say that this type of image is what got me interested in scientific illustration in the first place. Now I can scroll through these old tomes on my computer?! Now we do a dance of joy!!


Friday, Jan. 28, 2011
From: David Leslie, via BHL gmail [mailto: DMLchip@aol.com]

Dear Grace:

Very nice to hear from you, and by all means, feel free to use the quote below! Indeed, I am very faithful and regular user. Just yesterday, a colleague (actually the Editor of Mammalian Species, with whom I work very closely) wanted to locate a publication on Siberian martins published in 1855. The citation from a contemporary paper looked odd to me, but with my growing familiarity with titles on BHL, I was able to find the series and paper and clean up the reference in about 10 minutes! Would have taken weeks just a few short years ago! I have also been helping with a large review of the bovids (hollow-horned oxen, antelopes and such) and have had to locate all of the original papers describing many of the species. Quite literally, this project would have taken years without BHL!! Lastly, I have been so pleased with the growing "coverage" of BHL that I find on Google searches, for example!

Keep up the GREAT work; many of us are indebted to all of you working on this important project!

Cheers,

Chip (David) Leslie

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011
From:
Kristen L. Metzger
Director, Library & Information Services CSA International
8502 SW Kansas Avenue
Stuart, Florida 34997 USA

" These big government and oil company contracts are keeping me very busy. This job I’m just finishing up involved building a database of 10,000 citations/abstracts related to the eastern seaboard and acquiring the 3000 documents regarded as high priority. I can’t begin to tell you how much I used your Biodiversity Heritage Library – very cool.

See you in Alaska. Cheers, Kristen

Wednesday, January 19, 2011
From @BioInFocus (Morgan Jackson) via Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/BioInFocus/statuses/27883924831084544
Dear @BioDivLibrary, I <3 you! #makingtaxonomyeasier

Friday, January 14, 2011
From Charlotte Sleigh, via Gemini [mail to: c.l.sleigh@kent.ac.uk]

I just want to say what a fantastic resource the BHL is. I'm a historian of biology and I use it a great deal for my own research, plus recommend it to students. Thanks so much for this brilliant archive.

Monday, January 10, 2011
From Pasi Sihvonen, via Gemini [mail to: pasi.sihvonen@helsinki.fi]

Dear Sir/Madam, I just wanted thank you very much for the excellent service you provide! The service has given me access to old literature, which was earlier inaccessible to me. It has made it so much easier and faster to work with old publications, I am so excited! Keep up the good work! Best regards, Pasi ----------------------------------------------- Pasi Sihvonen, PhD Head of Services, international research funding unit Research and Innovation Services University of Helsinki P.O. Box 33 (Yliopistonkatu 4) FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland Tel. +358 50 415 0236 pasi.sihvonen@helsinki.fi http://www.helsinki.fi/university -----------------------------------------------

Wednesday, January 5, 2011
From Ed Gilland, via Gemini [mail to: egilland@howard.edu]

Hello, and first off, thanks for all the fantastic scans of classic biology literature. The BHL collections seem to be the only ones with the foldout plates done properly. Kudos!

---

2010
Commentary on desire for BHL to re-digitize content already available via Google or Hathi Trust

date Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:43 PM
subject Re: Biodiversity Heritage Library Feedback

Hi Bianca,

Re: Kirkman's "The British bird book". Sorry about that. I usually check to see if BHL has a book before entering a scanning request. Guess I got lazy. Thanks for the head's up.

Re: Hathi Trust and Bradburn's "British Birds: Their Successful Management in Captivity". I'm all too familiar with Hathi Trust (it's where I found Bradburn's book to begin with!) and I try NOT to use them if there's another source.

First off, one can't download anything in Hathi save in PDF format and that can only be done via the time-intensive method of one page at a time. Second, I've found that pages are all too often either missing or out of order. Third, one can only go through a document a single page at a time. No flip-book. No multi-page view. Fourth, their books are scanned by Google and Google tends to do an awful job of it. Not so much with text pages (those are generally okay), but when it comes to illustrations and plates, particularly color plates ... Ugh! Blurred. Or over-colored. Or under-colored. All too often de-colored. All this and/or amputated. (i.e. the front-piece plate in Bradburn's "British Birds" is missing the entire top half!).

Anyway, thanks for the notices.
Arlene Rosenthal

Monday, December 13, 2010
[via BHL gmail acct]

Dear Grace:

So kind of you to respond with such detail (and Volume 5 is also important to me ;-p) ! I wasn't expecting any response, but should have, given the beautiful job you all do with the Biodiversity Library--it is just an awesome online resource! The absolute best of its kind! I just love the feature allowing a user to download selected pages of a lengthy tome and receiving (so darn promptly) a pdf of the pages requested!

I have been doing a lot work with the nomenclature of large mammals in the 1800s over the past 4 years, and the unbridled ease of finding material online has expanded exponentially to the point that I rarely have to use our interlibrary loan services for papers pre-1923! For me, the Biodiversity Library is always my first stop in any search, and much more often than not, I find exactly what I need!

You and your colleagues are very much appreciated!

Happy Holidays coming!

David Leslie
Unit Leader/Professor
Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Oklahoma State University


Friday, December 10, 2010
[via BHL gmail acct]
Thanks very much Grace – looking forward to the 1860s being done!
Love this service, by the way. BHL is a terrific resource and getting better all the time.
Mark Hutchinson
Senior Researcher, Herpetology
South Australian Museum

Tuesday, December 7, 2010
[via BHL gmail acct]
Dear Bianca
Thank you very much for your reply.
I am a researcher in molluscan palaeontology, in which we need to consult original descriptions for taxonomy. BHL is the best research tool I could hope for. May it continue to grow.
Many thanks
Bernie Landau

Thursday, October 7, 2010

From: Joe Shaw, via Gemini [mailto:joejshaw@aol.com]

Hi BHL, I don't have a suggestion except to keep on doing what you are doing. You are a wonderful resource. I maintain a Website that describes the plant genus Opuntia (prickly pear cacti). There is no way I could maintain such a site without access to literature from 100-200 years ago. Most of the cactus species were discovered long ago; I find it invaluable to put up PDF files to document each species in the literature as I document them photographically. I am a botanist, but I work in the pharmaceutical field (not so many botanical jobs out there). Your library makes it possible for me to continue working with plants in a meaningful and scientific manner. Cordially, Joe J Shaw

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
From: Meredith Cosgrove, via BHL Gmail account
Thank you,

That does help!


I am aware that I request titles which are not in your partner institutions, but I figure you will probably gain more partners over time. Also, if I don't make a request at the time I need to source a text, I will completely forget about it later. I'm hoping I'm contributing to a broad, global-scale wish list. Please let know if all I'm doing is creating troubles for you and I'll hold off...


BHL has become pretty much indispensible for my work, I use it every day, and now that Mueller's Fragmenta is in the collection, almost every hour...


Thanks again,

Meredith




- lipscombb Aug 31, 2010 From May but just noticed this fine piece of praise!
From: Johannes Pignatti
Date: Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: Biodiversity Heritage Library Feedback
To: Biodiversity Heritage Library Feedback

Dear Grace Duke,
thanks for your prompt reply and for the splendid service BHL offers to everybody. I understand that a huge amount of effort and work is involved for simply one missing page of text (the other is a blank page) and clearly I myself wonder whether this effort is worthwhile. Anyway, as BHL is striving towards perfection, and since I really use this resource a lot, I felt it my duty to point out this very minor omission. Feedback from users is in my opinion a way to show that the work of BHL is really appreciated. Thanks a lot again and all the best,
Johannes


August 5, 2010
Subject: [CRUST-L:4959] Re: Biodiversity Heritage Library
I find the Biodiversity Heritage Library very useful and just recently I have printed very nice quality scans of publications I have been unable find anywhere else. Kudos to the staff for such a wonderful resource.
Mike Frick

June 26, 2010
From: Christina
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2010 via Gemini [mailto: chrissun@nyc.rr.com]

dear Biodiversity Heritage Library: I am in awe of your work. Thank you so much. As an illustrator who scans a lot of my work, I know how very onerous the task is. Many thanks!

June 17, 2010
From: Ben van Ee
Sent: Thursday, June 17 via BHL Gmail

Dear Grace,
Thank you very much for looking into the availability of these works. I fully understand that if possible at all it may take months for these to become available in BHL.I am a huge fan of BHL and use it every day.I recently took a faculty position in Spearfish, South Dakota (population about 8,000). The resources available through BHL played an important role in deciding to accept this position given that without BHL I would have virtually no easy access to historical taxonomic literature.Thank you and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Ben van Ee

June 5, 2010
re: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7100
From: Roger Towner [mailto:rogertowner@googlemail.com]
Sent: Sat 6/5/2010 6:49 AM
To: Chris Freeland
Subject: Thank you - Paradisi in sole

Good afternoon,

Just a quick line to thank you and your organisation for the foresight and
generosity in allowing these works to be dowloaded.

I am the chairman of a living history group running a re-enactment village
set in 1642, and access to original source material of that period is
invaluable to us both for our recreated village and in our delivery to our
visitors.

Very many thanks,

Best regards,

Roger Towner
Chairman Gospotrt Living History Society

www.littlewoodham.org.uk <http://www.li>

---

May 26, 2010
From: Dr Jonathan Houghton [mailto: j.houghton@qub.ac.uk]
Sent: May 26, 2010 via Gemini

Dear Sir / Madam Can i just congratulate you on an absolutely brilliant online resource. I am compiling a report on an invasive hydromedusae and could not believe the ease and efficiency of this web page which genuinely saved me weeks of my life. It was a real pleasure to read through the work of authors long gone from an historical as well as a research perspective. Sincere thank and best wishes Dr Jonathan Houghton Lecturer in Marine Biology Queen's University Belfast

---

May 19, 2010
From: John McCarthy [mailto: jmccarthy@jesuits.ca]
Sent: May 19, 2010 via Gemini

Dear Sir/Ms: I wish to commend you for this amazing bibliographic service. I am currently producing a Catalogue of Newfoundland and Labrador lichens. Much of the early lichenological literature on NL is published in 19th century Austrian and German literature. Through the Biodiversity Heritage Library I have been able to download some significant literature which would have been difficult to obtain otherwise. Sincerely, John McCarthy

---

April 14, 2010
From: Adam Cotton [mailto: adamcot@cscoms.com]
Sent: April 14, 2010 via BHL Feedback Email
Dear Grace,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I look forward to more literature becoming available soon, and appreciate how much time and effort must be spent to copy each book.

I recently completed the survey, after Francisco Welter of Animalbase posted a link on the ICZN Yahoo! e-mail list. I would like to point out how much easier my taxonomic and nomenclatorial research has become recently, mainl due to the availability of literature online, mostly at BHL. You can imagine that previously I had to rely on copies of individual papers sent to me by colleagues, and my own library (much of which I photocopied as a student in the UK 30 years ago) here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, as there are no local libraries with the journals I need to access. Research that previously took months now only takes a few hours!

In reality there are many more works that I need to see, but I am patient, and don't want to request too much. I expect that most of the works will appear soon anyway. I have noticed a huge increase of available literature over the past year, and am most appreciative.

Yours sincerely,
Adam Cotton.

April 11, 2010
Blog Post: Social Worlds, Libraries, the Future and Beyond
The Biodiversity Heritage Library presents the digitized collections from 10 "major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions." The collection presents the historic writings concerning biodiversity. Many of these writings have languished for generations in the special collections of these libraries, available only to scholars who knew of their existence.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library demonstrates one of the great benefits of the recent push to digitize library collections, especially the hidden collections. Materials once accessible to a small specialized few is now freely available to all who may have a concern. The freeing of knowledge may lead to new discoveries and changes in the way the natural world is perceived.


April 9, 2010
Thanks to both of you because what you are doing really REALLY makes a big difference to researchers.
best, Bob
Robert K. Robbins
Research Entomologist
1-202-633-1042
RobbinsR@si.edu

April 9, 2010
From: Dr. Hans-Peter Tschorsnig [tschorsnig.smns@naturkundemuseum-bw.de]
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 1:46 AM
To: Lipscomb, Bianca
Subject: AW: Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde
Dear Bianca,
Thank you very much!
I strongly appreciate the BHL project which is very useful for all scientists in the world.
Best regards
Peter

April 8th, 2010

From: Dr Robert McKenzie [mailto:r.mckenzie@ru.ac.za]
Sent: Thursday, April 8th, 2010
To: Feedback@biodiversitylibrary.org

Dear Grace

Thank you so much for your rapid reply to my email and for making enquiries on my behalf, I am truly very grateful. I look forward to hearing if the National History Museum in London is able to help.

I'd also like to add that the BHL website is an extremely valuable resource and has helped me greatly to locate and access old botanical literature that is so crucial to my research. It's one of the first places I look when seeking old literature and searching for references to my study group. I find the website easy to navigate and generally easy to search for publications (some old serials with titles that have changed or with somewhat vague foreign-language titles are the only problems I have encountered). I began my present research project in 2003 and being based in a small town in Africa made accessing literature especially difficult, but I no longer feel so disadvantaged with the advent of the BHL and similar websites.

Everyone involved in developing, maintaining and funding the Biodiversity Heritage Library can be extremely proud and I hope it continues to grow and develop in the future.

Best wishes and happy Easter!
Robert

March 30, 2010
From: tonyo alcover [mailto:josepantoni.alcover@uib.es]
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 8:59 AM
To: Olson, Storrs
Subject: Tonyo
Hi Storrs,
Still now we have no confirmation on the exact days of the trip to Madeira. Probably it will be from 25 of April to 5 of May.
Do you have news on the Carduelis aurelioi? Rando is asking me on this topic.
Another question. Do you know this very good initiative that is the Biodiversity Heritage Library? This is wonderful. I know that the Smithsonian Institution Libraries are involved in this Project. Do you know if it is possible to suggest tittles to the Smithsonian to introduce in this BHL? (I'm thinking in books like the Lambrecht Handbuch für Paläornitologie). What could be the way to sugest to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries to add some tittle?
Have good Easter holidays!
Best wishes,
Tonyo

March 26, 2010
From: eloisa wolf [mailto:eloisawolf@usa.net]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 7:47 PM
To: Everly, Robin
Cc: Healy, Paula
Subject: RE: FW: reprinting of "trees and shrubs of Mexico" Paul C. Standley
Hola Robin Everly:
Thank you so much for your help and for providing me with the link to this book (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/15726 ). I have been reading it, and ejoying it. This will do for me. I now have it in my computer and can look up any information I need.
I never expected it to be so quick. I know, from visiting the Smithsonian, the enormous amount of information you have and with which you deal on a daily basis.
Gracias once more. All of you have made my day.
Sincerely
ELOISA

March 25, 2010
From: taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu[mailto:taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Mary BarkworthSent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:13 AMTo: (Taxacom@mailman.nhm.ku.edu)Subject: [Taxacom] Great news for grass Taxonomists
I recently sent out an inquiry about the English translation of Avdulov's work. Don Wheeler of the NY Botanical Garden contacted the Smithsonian - which has a copy - and today he sent me the message below.Grass taxonomists rejoice- and thank you to Don, the Smithsonian, and all those involved with BHL.


March 23, 2010
From: Giuliano Cerasa [mailto: giulianocerasa@alice.it]
Sent: March 23, 2010 via Gemini
il sito è stupendo! uno sforzo che non credo l'Italia potrà permettersi in brevi tempi. Accesso veloce, ottima qualità, ricerca perfetta!
Roughly translates to:
"The site is marvellous! an effort that I do not believe Italy will be able
to allow itself in short times. Swift access, excellent quality, I
research perfect!"

March 20, 2010
From: Philippe Bearez [mailto: bearez@mnhn.fr]
Sent March 20, 2010 via Gemini
Fantastic tool!

March 2, 2010
From: Renata Ewing [mailto: ewingrr@gmail.com]
Sent: March 2, 2010 via Gemini
Hello, I wrote a review of BHL for my blog about digital libraries. Your work is very impressive! http://rdlr.org/2010/01/20/biodiversity-heritage-library/ cheers, Renata Ewing

February 28, 2010
From: Orly Calcetas [mailto: orly.calcetas@yahoo.com]
Sent: February 28, 2010 via Gemini
I'm truly very grateful to you guys behind this website, its really a great help for science students most specially for taxonomists. These old books are earths greatest treasures indeed.It helps speed up the advancement of science.

Feburary 25, 2010
From: Diana Marcela Medellin Zabala [mailto:dsensum@gmail.com]
Sent: February 25, 2010 via Gemini
Thanks for this amazing web site!!

January 28, 2010
From: dinesh rao [mailto:dinrao@gmail.com]
Sent: January 28, 2010 via Gemini
THANK YOU! I had previously reported that a certain volume of the Bulletin of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology had been incorrectly labelled, and the actual volume was missing. And today I check and see that it's been replaced! Thank you once again for fixing it, and I reiterate my gratitude for the existence of this beautiful website. cheers Dinesh


January 25, 2010
From: Peter Day
Sent: January 25, 2010 via Gemini
Many thanks for such a useful facility; so easy to use and most efficient - congratulations.

January 15, 2010
From: Barry Kinnaird [mailto:corgi2@ozema.com.au]
Sent: January 15, 2010 via Gemini
Great service sending the PDF - thanks! Barry Kinnaird




20 January, 2010
Cathy and Tom, I'm not in the least surprised at the award, for BHL deserves so much credit for all that it has done to benefit the scholarly endeavor in such a short amount of time. No doubt you've thought of this already, but the term "heritage" reenforces the fact that what you are creating is truly a heritage for the future of biological research. Please accept BioOne's sincere congratulations, we're behind you all the way.
Regards,
Susi
Susan Skomal PhD ✦ Executive Director ✦ BioOne ✦ 21 Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 800 ✦ Washington, DC 20036 ✦ Tel 202-296-2296 ✦ Cell 301-613-8736 ✦ Fax 202-872-0884 ✦ susan@arl.org

ALCTS AwardBHL Notification PDF.pdf


Here's some praise for BHL from malacologist Luc Germain:
"La plus grande #bibliotheque #botanique & #zoologique online The largest online botanical & zoological #library http://bit.ly/8ZsoKj #BHL"
http://twitter.com/luc_germain/statuses/7209738693

Here's a link to his blog post in French: http://bit.ly/8ZsoKj
Here an English translation: http://bit.ly/8M4gda
-note that Google Translate changes the lovely "La plus grande bibliothèque malacologique online" into the oddly humorous "The largest online library snail"
2009

December 25, 2009
From: Tong Yi-hua [mailto: tongyihua@gmail.com]
Sent December 25, 2010 via Gemini
The website is amazing! I appreciate your work very much!

December 22, 2009
From: .Bram Breure [mailto: breure@xs4all.nl]
Sent December 22, 2009 via Gemini
The 'Select pages to download' function now works flawlessly (I had problems a few weeks ago). Thank you for this great improvement of your service!

December 1, 2009
From: William Allison [mailto: william.allison@utoronto.ca
Sent: December 1, 2009 via Gemini
You need a new category - praise. Terrific resource, easy to use. Thanks.

November 27, 2009
From: Pete [mailto:lygodium63@hotmail.com]
Sent: November 27, 2009 via Gemini
Thanks for making "Flora of Illinois" (G.N. Jones, 1963) available On-line. This was a valuable reference (even with the older, sometimes outdated nomenclature) for identifying plants in photographs I took while traveling through Illinois this summer.


From Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation

Dear XXXX,
As a member of the board of the Fondation Albert 1er, you might want to bring to the attention of the Monaco community that the massive multi-volume Resultats des Campagnes Scientifiques of Prince Albert I of Monaco is now entirely available in high quality digitization through the Biodiversity Heritage Library:

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/2169
The species pages of the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org) in turn provide access to the relevant information from the Resultats for each species in the Resultats. (Improvements in such linkages are still needed and being worked on.)
The sites of the Institut Oceanographique and Musee might enjoy having a link to the Resultats!
Thanks to Cathy, Tom, and the BHL team!Jesse

Dear Jesse,

I will immediately inform the direction of Institut Oceanographique and the library. This will be a wonderful new and easy access to all the original descriptions of species collected on board l'Hirondelle and Princesse Alice.

Best regards,

Myriam



This Fall, the Encyclopedia of Life conducted a community outreach forum for local school teachers and public librarians in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The following blog post from the Falmouth Public Library Blog is in result of the impact the community outreach had: </
http://www.falmouthpubliclibrary.org/?/blog/entries/more-on-moby/
="font-family: Times New Roman;"> From the Blog entry by librarian Donna Burgess, Falmouth Public Library:
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> “Recently I was searching for the origin of “Nantucket sleigh ride” and was becoming frustrated with the lack of information. In desperation I looked up the word “sleigh” in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED.) Although there was no definition for the phrase I was seeking, I did find an unusual entry under “sleigh”: “3. The bone of the upper jaw in a sperm-whale.”</
The OED features quotations after the definition. Arranged in chronological order, the quote is used to illustrate the word in a given sense starting with the earliest printed example.</
1874 C.M. Scammon Marine Mammals N. Amer. iii. 75</
“Next to and above the bone of the upper jaw (which is termed the ‘coach’ or ‘sleigh’.)”</
A search of the Biodiversity Heritage Library website for Marine Mammals of North America did not result in any hits. However a search for C. M. Scammon revealed the author’s full name, “Charles Melville Scammon!” Holy Moby!! Another reference to Moby-Dick & Herman Melville! Isn’t that amazing!
The Marine Mammals of North-Western Coast of North America includes the reference to the term sleigh on page 75. So you don’t have to take the boat to Nantucket to see their copy, you can just see it online or check out one of the reproductions available in CLAMS. We are still researching the connection (if there is one) between Charles Melville Scammon & Herman Melville. We’ll keep you posted! " Posted by MBLWHOI Library, Nov. 17</

October 28, 2009
From: Grey Gundaker [mailto:gxgund@wm.edu]
Sent: October 28, 2009 via Gemini
Sheila Klos of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library directed me to your site. It is absolutely wonderful. thank you for your efforts. This is a wonderful resource!

October 28, 2009
From: Jackie Hill [mailto: jackiemhill@hotmail.com]
Sent: OCtober 28, 2009 via Gemini
No suggestion, just a big thanks for such a wonderful service!

October 24, 2009
From: Johann Herrling [mailto: JohannHerrling@gmxde]
Sent: October 24, 2009 via Gemini
I love this site its awesome and so useful. The Programming is well and the functions (Whole Download or pages are well chosen. Thank you

October 20, 2009
From: Anonymous user
Sent: October 20, 2009 via Gemini
Many thanks for a truly excellent resource, much appreciated. Keep up the good work. I have recommended you to a friend in biodiversity who works for Natural England (an independent public body linked to the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom).

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From: taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu

[mailto:taxacom-bounces@mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Geoff Read
Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 3:32 PM
To: taxacom@mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Biodiversity Heritage Library timeline

Hello Rod,
Relating to your comment below I found an immediate practical use for your BHL timeline. I need to know which spelling - Rhynchonereella
(correct) or Rhynchonerella (wrong) authors used when they described a new species of that alciopid genus. A quick looksee shows 'wrong'
prevails strongly during the period BHL covers. The ability to go directly to see each occurrence in situ (when in the BHL archive and with a usable date) is going to speed up such necessarily 'manual eyeballing' (!) verification or context-checking of obscure literature enormously. And testing two spellings in one timeline would be one use I would have for displaying multiple names.
Thanks. You've made my day.
Geoff

---

From: Evgeniy Meyke [evgeniy.meyke@helsinki.fi]

Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:43 PM
To: 'Chris Freeland'
Cc: 'Mike Lichtenberg'; 'Phil Cryer'; Garnett, Tom; Kalfatovic, Martin; 'Pat LaFollette'
Subject: RE: earthcape and bhl

Hello again, Chris and others!


(I’d like to include Pat LaFollette (LACM) in this discussion, as he has been taking active part in my venture into “BHL usage by taxonomists” and he is one such taxonomist himself who is using BHL daily)

In turn I would like to compliment the whole BHL team and especially the devs who are sweating over this service, indispensible for taxonomists (and wider biological community). I understand it is a work in progress, but major steps have been done already.

I was a bit overwhelmed by reaction to EarthCape/BHL setup (I am sure Chris was just overdoing it J) as it fitted easily and nicely to the development workflow and I would have expected to see lots of usage like that by now (although, I admit, I have not seen too many desktop implementations and would appreciate all the pointers).

New web interface looks good and Pat who was sharing with me his experience (and hopefully will do the same with you) confirms it is an improvement.

As for thumbnails, so far I am storing jpgs directly in the database while the search is running (it will be an option for the BHL Search – download jpgs right away or when they are needed). Search results are now saved in the database and can be examined/annotated later (offline). So if there is a way to control the size of retrieved images, please direct me.

Using BHL SOAP is a breeze in .Net. No complains there. Just minor things about certain data fields not exposed through the service, unless I missed them somehow. Subject, Short and Full Titles (I think it is PublicationTitle through the service that is a full one) are the ones I am missing at the moment.

What happened now with EC integration is that for testing purposes I created separate simple BHLPage object that stores all the search results and is linked to TaxonomicName object in EC database. Next step is to bring search results directly to the EC Reference module so that search results are directly usable with EC built in routines that involve references and fall under general annotation procedures (say linking pages or titles to taxonomic names or items in the taxonomic classification, or chopping BHL data into articles). It does open up whole set of different possibilities which I won’t touch in this first message but of course there is major question that is always hanging in the air – how to get the annotated (and article level) data back to BHL.

As to usability of what I am building in EC… Pat is actively testing the UI (hopefully others will join soon) and provides excellent “the-real-end-user” feedback which includes both EC and BHL functionality. I am sure he has plenty to add on features and usability. We will have to wait and see how things work out, but so far there seems to be a potential to build a useful tool for taxonomy practitioners.

One issue I could highlight right now is about the scalability of BHL infrastructure. Using a desktop application, it is really easy to direct a storm of requests and if such an application is widely used you might face some challenges. Any thoughts on this?

You are most welcome to add me to your skype contacts (Evgeniy-meyke), although I mostly use it as IM, as I am often in “no-Skype-voice-conversations” environment.

I am ready to answer any questions and ask more myself so, I am also looking forward to this discussion.

Cheers,
Evgeniy

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September 30, 2009

From: Andrew Wright [mailto: marinebrit@gmail.com]
Sent: September 30, 2009

Keep up the good work. This is an excellent resource!

September 6, 2009
From:David Leslie [mailto:dmlchip@aol.com]
Sent: September 6, 2009 via Gemini
THANK YOU! Just a few days ago, I e-mailed about having more of the volumes from Serie 8, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, posted, and happily this morning, I found vol. 13, which I really needed, posted in full. I am not sure who reads these, but my thanks to all. This is helpful to my nomenclatural search for the African waterbuck. BHL is absolutely awesome!


September 1, 2009
Finally, a big thankyou to everyone involved in the Biodiversity Heritage project.
It has made research for- isolated as I am- so much easier.
I'll make sure that this service gets credit in my next publication.
Regards,
Grahame Ware
gware48@telus.net

25 August 2009

Thank you for sending me the pdf; I very much appreciate the response. This was one of those rare times when sending "feedback" meant something instead of having it go straight into the "delete"bin. You have restored my faith in "biodiversitylibrary." I use the site a great deal and have become a loyal fan; you are providing an exceptional service.
Thanks!
Christiane Anderson
E-mail: chra@umich.edu - FAX: 734-998-0038 - Telephone: 734-647-2812
University of Michigan Herbarium, 3600 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2228 USA

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2 September 2009

From: Bernardo Urbani [mailto:burbani@illinois.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 4:38 AM
To: Overstreet, Leslie
Subject: Primatological collection...

I am writing you to thank you one more time for you kind cooperation during my research at the Cullman Library on the history of New World primate illustration.
On the other hand, I would like let you know that my colleagues from Mexico and Brazil are very glad to access the Biologia Centrali-Americana and the Spix book, including all their pages (text, blank pages and figures). Both are very useful pieces of work with extreme value for taxonomic research of Neotropical primates Best regards, Bernardo Urbani, PhD

Bernardo Urbani
Department of Anthropology,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
109 Davenport Hall,
607 South Mathews Avenue,
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

August 7, 2009
From: Vacelet Jean [mailto:jean.vacelet@univmed.fr]
Sent: August 7, 2009 via Gemini
Sorry to disturb you. My comment is only to congratulate you. I spent a lot of time during my life searching for odd papers, and I am really marvelled to find now so easily the paper obtained through BHL PDF Generation request #8584. Thank you

June 16, 2009
From: Richard Campbell [mailto:rcampbel@uci.edu]
Sent: June 16, 2009 via Gemini
Thank you, thank you. This is a wonderful service; I have been trying to get access to some of this material for a long time without success, and so to have them at my desk is fabulous.

May 20, 2009
From: Dora Mitchell [mailto:mitchell.dora@gmail.com]
Sent: May 20, 2009 via Gemini
God bless everyone involved in making this content publicly available and free!!! Scientific article content should be free to the public, hands down. Thank you!



24 April 2009
The following came from a public librarian in Falmouth, Massachusetts:

"We recently were asked the question: who discovered the zebra fish? In searching the Encyclopedia of Life I kept seeing the phrase “Hamilton, 1822” next to the “danio rerio”. Wondering who Hamilton was, I searched WorldCat and discovered that Hamilton was Francis Hamilton who had published in 1822 An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches. I looked at the EOL record and clicked on the Biodiversity Heritage Library link. One of the links was to a Hamilton book! In 1878 the book The Fishes of India was published which included a description and a image of the danio rerio. Links were provided to the exact place in the text where the fish was mentioned, as well as to the plate with the fish itself illustrated. Not only that, but I could send the patron the exact link to both pages which described her fish. How remarkable it was to find this Harvard University book available so easily through the Biodiversity Heritage Library. A great success for our patron, and we looked like magicians bringing the book to her."

April 1, 2009
From: Elizabeth A. Murphy [mailto: ralik@beithe.com]
Sent: April 1, 2009 via Gemini

http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6523808 Gentlepeople at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Many thanks for making the above-referenced book available as a downloadable PDF file. I'm working on a translation from German that references early Russian expeditions to the Marshall Islands. I really appreciate being able to consult this publication (which I only found out about today via University Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley: Center for Phycological Documentation: Index Nominum Algarum). This book looks like it will be a big help in verifying the correct spelling of old Latin designations and authors' names. A friendly suggestion: Consider adding another subject button to the website feedback form: fan mail/thanks. ;-) Sincerely, (Mrs.) Elizabeth A. Murphy Stanhope, NJ USA

March 23, 2009
From: Kevin Pfeiffer [mailto: biodiversity@tiros.net]
Sent: March 23, 2009 via Gemini
Dear BHL, Many, many, many thanks for your services! Without the publications that you are making available online it would be almost impossible or at least much more difficult and time consuming (and wasteful of paper) to make accurate determinations of many species of spiders.

20 March 2009 (posted by MBLWHOI)
The following is an excerpt from a note Gary Anderson sent to one of his colleagues, which he shared with us.
Gary is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern Mississippi.
He used to make an annual trip to our stacks to xerox hundreds of articles at a time.

Subject: Pycnogonida pdfs
Michel and others,

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a valuable resource for
acquiring crustacean literature. At present, a search there (http:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/Search.aspx?searchTerm=pycnogonid&searchCat=) will turn up 5 publications (one of
which was not contributed by the Smithsonian). Also note that the BHL
has scanned these and additional literature at the site for taxonomic
terms, and provides links to those documents. There are 1592 "hits"
for Pycnogonida. It is likely that you could turn up a lot of
additional articles within larger works that way. Alternatively, you
could perform searches for volumes of interest (if you know of
specific references), to home in on the papers you want. There will
be A LOT of additional material becoming available at that site.

Best wishes,
Gary

---

March 3, 2009

From: Sarah Zukoff [mailto: entogirl@hotmail.com]
Sent: March 3, 2009 via Gemini
I just wanted to thank you for putting the Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv. yr 74 on line. It has made my masters thesis even greater thanks!

Monday, March 02, 2009


A Fantastic Resource
Yesterday whilst reading the latest edition of The Entomologist's Record I was pleased to find that early editions of this invaluable publication, edited by the seminal entomologist James Tutt (no relation to Elvis's drummer as far as I am aware) are available digitised at:

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/8408

So I went there, and was amazed at what I found.


"Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the//Biodiversity Heritage Library//. BHL partners will digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections, providing basic, important content for immediate research and for multiple bioinformatics initiatives. For the first time in history, the core of our natural history and herbaria library collections will be available to a truly global audience.//Web-based access to these collections//will provide a substantial benefit to people living and working in the developing world. "



They even have a blog. What a fantastic project!!!

From the blog: http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/03/fantastic-resource.html

---

1 February 2009
Chris, Happy New Year. I arrived back at work from holidays today to be greeted by Michael, an colleague researching wasps.
He was excited that he had discovered in the Biodiversity Heritage Library a copy of an obscure 1860s book:
Saussure, H. de & Sichel, J. (1864). Catalogue des espèces de l'ancien genre Scolia, contenant les diagnoses, les descriptions et la synonymie des espèces, avec des remarques explicatives er critiques. Genève & Paris : Henri Georg & V. Masson et Fils pp. 1–350
This book was not in our library, probably not in Australia, and almost impossible to get hold of without travelling to the northern hemisphere.
Thanks to the BHL for their work in providing access to works of importance. Michael is now able to use detailed content of this book in his work.
John
John Tann
Australian Museum
6 College Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia
+61 2 9320 6449
0402 385 961
www.australianmuseum.net.au

February 11, 2009
Blog comment


For our virtual library of biology (vifabio), we have downloaded BHL's title data and included it in our federated search, so information on digitized taxonomic literature from BHL can be retrieved together with information on holdings of some German biology libraries and information from several bibliographic databases.

In our first approach, we had to limit our efforts to title information from Title table and TitleIdentifier table, neglecting data on specific volumes of serials or multi-volume titles. We used Library of Congress Subject Headings (extracted from Call numbers) to enrich title data with coarse descriptive terms for many titles. There have been many difficulties with heterogeneous character encoding, making any diacritical character a problem. Nevertheless, the task was no doubt worthwile, and we see the intergration of BHL's title data as a great enhancement of our virtual catalogue ( http://www.vifabio.de/servlet/Top/searchadvanced?language=en ).

In the future, we intend to update our downloads from time to time, and we would greatly welcome any improvements in the data, especially regarding completeness of author information, and character encoding. Of course, for an implementation like ours, a dynamic interface to query bibliographic data in BHL would be very useful. But we know that these things form difficult tasks, and that the digitization process itself will be your focus for a long time.

(vifabio's web pages are in German language, sorry, but some of the most important pages are available in English as well, and others will be so in the near future.)



Posted by Gerwin Kasperek to [[exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://biodiversitylibrary.blogspot.com/|Biodiversity Heritage Library]] at February 11, 2009 5:31 AM


E-mail
Sent by: Anthony Moss <mossant@auburn.edu> January 7, 2099 3:48 PM

Thank you Diane!
I don't know if you noticed but I was back in November, Thanksgiving: I
saw you but was so busy that I couldn't stop by. I hope you had a good
holiday and a nice break. Happy new year, and thanks so very much. This
is excellent news. I'm copying my students so that they can see, too.
Tony Moss


Anthony G. Moss, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Biological Sciences
331 Funchess Hall
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
T: (334)844-9257
F: (334)844-9234
mossant@auburn.edu
www.auburn.edu/~mossant

• Diane Rielinger <drielinger@mbl.edu> 1/7/2009 12:44 PM >>>

Die ctenophoren des golfes von Neapel und der angrenzenden

meeres-abschnitte by Carl Chun, part of the Fauna und flora des golfes
von Neapel series, is now available on-line.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/10162




2008

May 26, 2008
From: Neil A. Harriman [mailto:harriman@uwosh.edu]
Sent: May 26, 2009 via Gemini
I just want to say THANK YOU. Your site is of the greatest value to people like me who aren't fortunate enough to have access to major research libraries. I cannot even begin to imagine the effort and intelligence that has gone into creating these pages electronically. I am deeply grateful.

E-mail
Sent by: John Hobbie (jhobbie@mbl.edu) on May 1, 2008 10:25 AM

Diane -- thanks. It is a great improvement over the previous digital scan of "An Arctic Ecosystem". Picture quality is excellent, zoom great, etc. As soon as the "Limnology" book is available I will publicize the availability.
Regards, John Hobbie


E-mail
Sent by: Mary Malloy <mmalloy@sea.edu> on February 18, 2008 9:41 PM

Dear Diane,
That's it! Many thanks. I am so happy to finally have a copy of this
book that I can print out and use with students. I really appreciate
your help on this and look forward to getting back to the rare books
room.

All the best,
Mary

On February 13, 2008, Diane Rielinger wrote:

• Mary:

>

> I checked with our partners. The Missouri Botanical Garden has

• digitized the volumes of Hans Sloane's "A voyage to the islands Madera,
• Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica..." and placed it on their
• Botanicus website. http://www.botanicus.org/bibliography/b12082429.
• You can view or download from there.

>

> The volumes will also be transferred to the Biodiversity Heritage

• Library website tomorrow as part of a periodic upload from Botanicus.
• You will be able to find them at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org by
• the end of the week.

>

> I hope this is what you are looking for - let me know.
>

• Diane

EOL Scanning and Digitization making doctoral research easier and changing the way research is done. For example, Dr. Michael Sundue wrote concerning a paper, “The number of important taxonomic texts available online is really starting to change how we operate. When I started my thesis, I went to the library and photocopied all of the protologues for the species involved in my research. Now I can get most of these digitally online. Five years ago I spent a couple hundred dollars to get a fern flora of Peru published by Field Museum, now I can get that on the internet Archive biodiversity
heritage site [BHL].”.

Below are some other emails citing their use of the BHL materials:

In reference to: Frederick Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin, eds. Biologia Centrali-Americana. [London: Pub. for the editors by R. H. Porter], 1879-1915.
I have to my position the collection of Coleoptera of the Faculty of Superior Studies of the Independent National University of Mexico and daily I consult volumes of BCA for the identification of specimens of Coleoptera, because it is a wonderful work and until the moment does not exist another source that supports in the identification of the Mexican species of several families of this group.
Ma. Magdalena Ordóñez Reséndiz
Museo de Zoología, FES Zaragoza, UNAM

In reference to: Bulletin des Séances de la Société Entomologique de France. [Paris] : Société entomologique de France, [1873-1884]
My deepest gratitude for allowing me access to the digital version of the very rare "Bulletin des Séances de la Société Entomologique de France". It has been very important for my work on the database of the names of the butterflies of the world to be able to consult at leisure this series, which is held by extremely few libraries in the world. I cannot stress enough the importance of having access to electronic versions of the literature, especially to us researchers who cannot benefit from well-endowed institutional libraries. ………a great service to science by making openly accessible such crucial works as the "Biologia Centrali-Americana", and now the above-mentioned "Bulletin". I only wish that there were many more such electronic resources. Please keep up the excellent work!
Dr Gerardo Lamas
Museo de Historia Natural
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

You have the email from Jim Hanken with this relevant section:

> Hey Jim,
>

• In the amphibanat ontology (amphibanat.org) under the node "images" are the
• images from Gaupp. All of those have been cropped from a pdf in the BHL,
• imported into the database, and are being linked to the ontology terms (nodes)
• that are shown in the images. We plan to do the same for other key
• publications, and will also provide hyperlinks to the full pdfs in the
• "literature" node.

>

> Let me know if you can't find it or want more detailed info (e.g., how many

• images and pdfs we think we'll use). Also, we are using publications from the
• BHL to test/develop our ontology building information retrieval software (a
• text mining tool). let me know if you want more details on that, too.

>

> Anne
In the above case, zoologists are importing selected portions of the scanned works (illustrations and labels) into their local database and linking them to other data thereby creating unique, hybrid works that can advance research.

Many illustrations from the EOL Scanning and Digitization are used by those with artistic interests. For example, this posting on the artist Edward Lear pulled in several pictures from the BHL site. http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/

This artist (deviantArt) has used illustrations within her own art works on the web:

http://remittancegirl.deviantart.com/art/Botanicals-6-Himalayas-93539886
http://remittancegirl.deviantart.com/art/assorted-beetles-92916032
http://remittancegirl.deviantart.com/art/south-american-botanicals-92904
352
http://remittancegirl.deviantart.com/art/orchids-volume-2-94183598
http://remittancegirl.deviantart.com/art/painterly-butterflies-93538010

February 10, 2008
From: Maria Reidelbach [mailto:maria@hoopla.org]
Sent: February 10, 2008 via Gemini
What a wonderful site! I do the graphics for a newsletter for amateur mycologists (New York Mycological Society)and look forward to using images in our upcoming issues. Thank you, in advance, and I'll be sure to credit you. I know it's a matter of space and bandwidth, but it would be great if the images were a higher resolution. Thanks again, it's a wonderful project--and we are fortunate to have such a wonderful resource.
=EARLIER</

In reference to:
Walter Rothschild. The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighbouring islands with a complete history to date of the birds of the Hawaiian possession. London: R.H. Porter, 1893-1900

Aloha,
I live on The Big Island of Hawai'i, a $300.00 plane ride away from Honolulu and the Bishop Museum. Even when I can make it to the Museum (where I study the Hawaiian Bird Skins), they do not have every single bird ( moho apicalis, the Oahu moho is missing)….I have been looking for this text for over TWENTY YEARS. Mahalo nui loa for all your hard work. Reading these pages mean so much to me and many others. I hope they show there appreciation as well. It truly is very important. I cannot thank you enough, nor stress the importance of your website enough. Thank you for putting these items on the web, and in such a findable manner.
Aloha,
Gwendolyn O'Connor
(January 2007)

---

In reference to:

The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (website devoted to the publications of the Expedition)

“Hello Smithsonian: I am looking for the digital reports of the U.S. Ex.Ex. and the Narrative.… mentioned in the book "Sea of Glory" …. I loved the book and would like to "see" the Narrative along with all the drawings and sketches, if possible…Purely out of sheer love of history. Thank you. Marcella Schumann

---

In reference to:
Howard Jones. Illustrations of the nests and eggs of birds of Ohio. Circleville, Ohio, 1886.

Virginia Hunt, a doctoral candidate at LSU, will be using this site as part of her dissertation on ornithological illustration; commented Ms. Hunt: “My study concerns surveying a large number of ornithological narrative paintings, in particular historical examples, in order to determine how these may be used by high school and college biology teachers to teach certain key concepts in ecology while doing 'double duty' in illustrating subtle aspects of the history and nature of science.”

Bruce Shelvey, Ph.D.; Chair, Department of Geography, History, and Political and International Studies and Associate Professor of History and Political Studies, Trinity Western University (Canada) thanked SIL for making this work available.

Edward G. Voss, Curator & Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Herbarium, thanked SIL for making this work available on the web.
I work mainly from home now, in Fredericksburg, and the commute in to DC gets more and more daunting (especially now that most of the Mall is fenced off). So BHL is simply a boon and bonanza without parallel.Name: Heike Dixon
URL: /

Hello there, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for the service of generating pdf downloads of specific contents out of your library archives. Sincerely Heike Dixon