Open Access to Legacy
Taxonomic Literature
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
In any well-appointed Natural History Library
there should be found every book and every
edition of every book dealing in the remotest
way with the subjects concerned. One never
knows wherein one edition differs from or
supplements the other and unless these are
on the same table at the same time it is not
possible to collate them properly. Moreover
for accurate work it is necessary for the
student to verify every reference he may find;
it is not enough to copy from a previous
author; he must verify each reference itself
from the original.
Charles Davies Sherborn (1861-1942)
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Charles Davies Sherborn, Epilogue to Index Animalium, March
1922
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Yet another physical difficulty is the
task of assembling the library and
indexes which will enable the student
to work under proper conditions….
the beginner must now be prepared
to spend liberally, or else must
establish himself in an institution
where a large library exists; if he work
by himself with only a few books, he
will have to confine himself to a very
narrow specialty indeed.
'The Limitations of Taxonomy' by J.M. Aldrich, Science, April 22,
1927, vol. LXV, no. 1686, p.381
Insecta. Diptera. Volume I (1886-1901)
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
The cited half-life of
publications in taxonomy
is longer than in any other
scientific discipline
-Macro-economic case for open access, Tom Moritz
-Current taxonomic
literature often relies on
texts and specimens > 100
years old.
Levinus Vincent
Elenchus tabularum, pinacothecarum, 1719
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Taxonomic
Impediment
“The taxonomic
impediment is a term
that describes the gaps
of knowledge in our
taxonomic system”
- Darwin Declaration, 1998
Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon
Histoire naturelle : générale et particulière (Oiseaux), 1799-1808
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
The essential requirements for
accessing and utilising this global
information are:
•
•
that there is access to information held
in national/regional/global collections
that electronic data is efficiently
captured and provided in useable form
• that existing information held
in literature and by current
experts is made available
electronically
•
that stability of scientific names of
organisms, used to access this
information, is promoted
Thylacine from Philip Lutley Sclater,
Guide to the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, 1891
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- Darwin Declaration, 1998
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Convention on Biological
Diversity: Article 17
… exchange of information
shall include exchange of
results of technical, scientific
and socio-economic
research … It shall also,
where feasible, include
repatriation of information.
Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon
Histoire naturelle : générale et particulière (Oiseaux), 1799-1808
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
Biologia Centrali-Americana
Edited by Frederick Ducane Godman
and Osbert Salvin
London : Pub. for the editors by R.
H. Porter, 1879-1915
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
US & Canada
Europe
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Mexico & C.
America
South
America
Chart showing distribution in
public collections of the
complete 63 volume sets held
worldwide.
2 complete copies in Central
America held at the
Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Vishwas Chavan travels a lot. An
informatician based at the National
Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India, he
collects data on what types of animal live
where in India to enter into a biodiversity
database … Much of the information
Chavan seeks is in old, out-of-print
tomes … To find them, Chavan has
spent years trailing around libraries. He
dreams of the day when books such as
these are scanned and made available
as digital files on the Internet.
“Science in the Web Age: The Real Death of Print”
by Andreas von Bubnoff
Nature 438, 550-552 1 December 2005
Henry Walter Bates
The Naturalist on the River Amazons, 1863
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
Library and Laboratory: the
Marriage of Research, Data and
Taxonomic Literature
London, February 2005
Eighty participants from 22 countries gathered
to discuss the status and future of access to
the taxonomic literature and to propose an
agenda for actions that would improve the
research environment for taxonomy. The
participants were taxonomists; librarians;
publishers; representatives of learned and
professional societies, private foundations and
government agencies; and specialists in
information and communications technology.
Progne subis- Purple Martin
Illustrations of the nest and eggs of birds of Ohio, 1879-1886
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
May 2005, the libraries represented at the
London meeting gathered in Washington to lay
out the ground work for the Biodiversity Heritage
Library.
Representatives of a number of major natural
history and botanical libraries met at the
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural
History in Washington, D.C., with the support of
the Smithsonian Institution, to develop a
strategy and operational plan to digitize the
published literature of biodiversity held in their
respective collections and to make that literature
available for open access and responsible use
as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.”
Ernest Ingersoll
Hand-book to the National Museum … Smithsonian Institution, 1886
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
Mandates:
Open Access: all
content can be
reused, repurposed,
reformatted, sliced,
diced, scraped, and
???
Reptilia and Batrachia. (1885-1902) by Albert C.L.G. Günther
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
Mandates:
Opt in Copyright Model: The
BHL will actively work with
professional societies and
associations to integrate
their publications into the
BHL in a way that serves the
societies’ missions and goals
Reptilia and Batrachia. (1885-1902) by Albert C.L.G. Günther
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
Metadata Repository
Store all bibliographic
metadata for the member
libraries; create volume, part,
piece metadata; ingest page
level metadata at scanning
level for the creation of page
level Globally Unique
Identifiers (GUIDs) for linking
to other taxonomic services
Jacob Christian Schäffer
Elementa entomologica . . . 1766.
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BHL Metadata Repository
Member Catalog A
Member Catalog B
Bib. Records
Bib. Records
Item Records
Item Records
Item Records
Item Records
Item Records
Item Records
BHL MR Bib Records
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BHL Metadata Repository
International Digital Library
BHL Metadata Repository
Z39.50 Fetch: Internet Archive from BHL (Current
Practice)
Could be some other way to depending on metadata
scheme (e.g. OAI-PHM?)
BHL MR Bib Records
Internet Archive
BHL MR Item Records
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BHL Metadata Repository
First Ingest
Bib #
Internet Archive
International Digital Library
45632
45632
45632
45632
45632
Barcode
390888343
390888344
390888345
390888346
390888347
Sub-element
BHL Metadata Repository
Sub-Element Map
Bib #
Internet Archive
International Digital Library
45632
45632
45632
45632
45632
Barcode
390888343
390888343
390888343
390888343
390888343
Sub-element
1
2
3
4
5
BHL Metadata Repository
Page Structure Map
Image
Number
Bib #
45632
Barcode
Sub-element
390888343 1
0001
0002
0003
0004
Internet Archive
If possible, auto create explicit
automated page numbering at
this point
International Digital Library
0005
BHL Metadata Repository II
Z39.50 Fetch: BHL from Internet Archive
or some other way to upload matching
description with the scanned images.
BHL MR Bib Records
BHL MR Item Records
Sub-element & page
/image structure
map
International Digital Library
Internet Archive
BHL Metadata Repository II
Bib/Sub-element/Page Structure Map
Bib #
Barcode
45632
Sub-element
390888343 1
Image
Number
0001
0002
0003
BHL MR
BHL MR
International Digital Library
0004
0005
BHL Metadata Repository II
BHL Public
Interface
BHL
BHL
MR
BHLMR
MR
International Digital Library
Taxonomic Web Services
e.g. CBOL, GBIF, ITIS,
GenBank, INOTAXA
documents, etc.
Internet Archive
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Agatea violaris
Type specimen from the
U.S. National Herbarium
(Smithsonian Institution)
collected by the United
States Exploring
Expedition, 1838-1842
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Specimen
- Plate or other visual image
- Taxonomic description
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Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
International Digital Library
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Co-evolving bioinformatics resources
produce a rich information ecology:
Consortium for the Barcoding of Life
(CBOL) with gene sequences deposited
in GenBank.
GBIF’s Electronic Catalog of Taxonomic
Names
Hebaria and museum specimen databases
Electronic Gazetteers and GPS.
Additional services – you’re invited to help
International Digital Library