Expanding+Access+to+Biodiversity+Literature

= Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature =

media type="custom" key="28256025" width="81" height="1" align="right" //Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature//, which is funded generously by the [|Institute of Museum and Library Services] (IMLS), will significantly increase online access to biodiversity material by positioning BHL as an on-ramp for biodiversity content providers that would like to contribute to the national digital library infrastructure through the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The grant proposes to address challenges facing content providers—including insufficient amounts of content, indexing of scientific names, and metadata creation—and make necessary digital infrastructure enhancements by creating an innovative model for open access to data and to support collaboration among these institutions. The project would meet the goals of the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program by increasing access to digital services, expanding the range and types of digital content available, improving discoverability, and supporting open access.

The Project Team will interact with content providers to improve metadata through training and quality control, engage the community through outreach on a national level, pursue copyright permissions, and improve BHL’s digital infrastructure through system enhancements. This project will address the challenges that many libraries, archives, and museums face in sharing their content by developing partnerships and providing the tools and services needed for future and ongoing participation in a shared and sustainable national digital platform.

The goals of the project are to: 1) Expand BHL’s role as a subject-specific content provider for life sciences; 2) Serve as an aggregator to allow small natural history collections to present the ir content in DPLA via BHL and expand the community of content providers by working with new partners; 3) Preserve and provide access to small natural history and botanical collections and publications through outreach, assistance with scanning, and software tools to format and normalize data for ingest; and 4) Increase the quality of partner metadata through use of DPLA metadata best practices.

The Project Team has four intended outcomes and a means towards measuring the success of these outcomes: 1) Expand public access to biodiversity literature; 2) Increase in the number of new and first time content providers to both BHL and DPLA, ideally with at least 100 added by the second year; 3) Serve as a model for “subject-based” hubs; and 4) Develop processes that will ensure long-term biodiversity contributions to DPLA.

Success will also be measured by the increase in the number of new metadata records to BHL and DPLA (~300,000 new records added by the second year), and by the increase in the amount of biodiversity and cultural heritage materials discoverable in BHL and DPLA, as indicated by an increase in the number of contributed items and pages. Another measure of success will be an increased utilization of BHL’s self-service ingest tool (Macaw) by the content providers over the next several years. Additionally, the project will add up to 50 titles that are still in copyright to the BHL portal and thus make current content accessible through DPLA.

By removing obstacles that obstruct content providers’ participation and by developing tools to support and facilitate contribution to DPLA, this project will strengthen the holdings of BHL and DPLA and will benefit those institutions that lack the resources to make their collections widely accessible. Participating libraries, museums, and natural history societies will benefit by exposing their content more broadly, and researchers and the public will benefit from the increased access to biodiversity content. These often hidden collections will be made available to the public at large on a shared national platform. BHL will provide a repository/delivery system that allows natural history institutions that don’t have the capacity to purchase or host their own system to share their digital content.

The project runs from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2017 and will be conducted by the New York Botanical Garden in partnership with Harvard University, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
 * This project was made possible in part by the [|Institute of Museum and Library Services] [ LG-70-15-0138-15 ] || [[image:biodivlib/IMLS_Logo_2c.jpg width="214" height="95"]] ||

**Project Team**

[|New York Botanical Garden]
 * Susan Fraser, Principal Investigator
 * Susan Lynch, Data Manager
 * Donald Wheeler
 * Mariah Lewis, Metadata Specialist
 * Andrew Tschinkel, Digitization Technician

[|Missouri Botanical Garden, Center for Biodiversity Informatics]
 * Trish Rose-Sandler
 * Mike Lichtenberg

[|Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University]
 * Constance Rinaldo, Community Coordinator
 * Joe deVeer
 * Patrick Randall, Community Manager

[|Smithsonian Institution Libraries]
 * Martin Kalfatovic, BHL Program Director
 * Carolyn Sheffield, BHL Program Manager
 * Bianca Crowley, BHL Collections Coordinator
 * Joel Richard, Head, Web Services

Original Proposal & Schedule
Project Narrative & Proposal

Presentations/Papers/Conferences

 * Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), October 2017, Ottawa, ON (presentation)
 * Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) Annual Conference, September 2017, Indianapolis, IN (poster)
 * Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting, July 2017, Portland, OR (poster)
 * Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, June 2017, Toronto, Canada (poster)
 * Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) 48th Annual Meeting, June 2017, Chaska, MN (workshop)
 * "Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature," Digital Initiatives Symposium, April 2017, San Diego, CA (presentation)
 * "Getting the Most out of the Biodiversity Heritage Library," Northeast Natural History Conference, April 2017, Cromwell, CT (workshop)
 * American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, February 2017, Atlanta, GA (small press table)
 * Cheadle Center for Biological and Ecological Resoration (CCBER): "Natural History Collections Documents Workshop: Physical Preservation, Metadata, and Document Databasing," August 2016, Santa Barbara, CA (virtual presentation)
 * Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) 48th Annual Meeting, May 2016, Cleveland, OH

Media Coverage

 * American Libraries Magazine: [|Fielding a Field Notes Comeback]
 * In the Company of Plants and Rocks: [|Wyoming Native Plant Society helps to liberate Plant Names for Creative Re-use]

Recent BHL Blog Posts
rss url="http://biodiversitylibrary.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/BHLExpandingAccess?alt=rss" link="true" number="10" (see all EABL-related posts [|here])

Content Added

 * **Content Provider** || **Title** ||
 * [|Allred, Kelly] || //[|The New Mexico Botanist]// ||
 * [|American Arachnological Society] || //[|The Journal of Arachnology]// ||
 * [|American Association of Zoo Keepers] || //[|Animal Keepers' Forum]// ||
 * [|American Birding Association] || //[|North American Birds]// ||
 * [|American Fern Society] || //[|Pteridologia]// ||
 * [|American Malacological Society] || //[|American Malacological Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|American Malacological Bulletin: Special Publications]// ||
 * || //[|Bulletin (American Malacological Union)]// ||
 * || //[|Annual Reports]// ||
 * [|Amphibian & Reptile Conservation] || //[|Amphibian & Reptile Conservation]// ||
 * Amphipacifica Research Publications || //[|Amphipacifica]// ||
 * [|Amphipod Newsletter, Editors] || //[|Amphipod Newsletter]// ||
 * [|ANeT-India] || //[|Halteres]// ||
 * [|Arkansas Native Plant Society] || //[|Claytonia]// ||
 * [|The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University] || //[|Bulletin of Popular Information]// ||
 * || //[|Arnoldia]// ||
 * [|Association of Southeastern Biologists] || //[|The ASB Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|Southeastern Biology]// ||  ||
 * [|Biodiversity Journal] || //[|Biodiversity Journal]// ||
 * Braithwaite, Michael || //[|A short flora of Berwickshire]// ||
 * [|California Native Plant Society, East Bay Chapter] || //[|The Bay Leaf]// ||
 * [|California Native Plant Society, Kern Chapter] || //[|Mimulus Memo]// ||
 * [|California Native Plant Society, Mount Lassen Chapter] || //[|The Pipevine]// ||
 * [|Cambridge Entomological Club] || //[|Psyche]// v.1-89 ||
 * [|Carnegie Museum of Natural History] || //[|Annals of the Carnegie Museum]// ||
 * || //[|Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History]// ||
 * || //[|Special Publications of Carnegie Museum]// ||
 * || //[|Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum]// ||
 * [|Carolina Bird Club] || //[|CBC Newsletter]// ||
 * || //[|The Chat]// ||
 * [|Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies] || //[|EcoFocus]// ||
 * || //[|IES Newsletter]// ||
 * [|Cherokee Garden Library, Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center] || //[|The Southern Cultivator]// ||
 * || [|Hastings Seed Company Records] ||
 * [|Chesapeake Bay Foundation] || //[|Annual Report]// ||
 * || //[|Investigative Reports]// ||
 * [|Cleveland Museum of Natural History] || //[|Kirtlandia]// ||
 * [|Colorado Native Plant Society] || //[|Aquilegia]// ||
 * || //[|Newsletter]// ||
 * [|Delaware Native Plant Society] || //[|The Turk's Cap]// ||
 * [|El-Hennawy, Hisham K.] || //[|Serket]// ||
 * [|Florida Exotic Plant Pest Council and Southeast Exotic Plant Pest Council] || //[|Wildland Weeds]// ||
 * [|Florida Ornithological Society] || //[|Florida Field Naturalist]// ||
 * [|Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and the University of Southern Mississippi] || //[|Gulf Research Reports]// ||
 * || //[|Gulf and Caribbean Research]// ||
 * [|Idaho Native Plant Society] || //[|Sage Notes]// ||
 * [|Illinois Native Plant Society] || //[|The Harbinger]// ||
 * [|International Carnivorous Plant Society] || //[|Carnivorous Plant Newsletter]// ||
 * [|International Hoya Association] || //[|Fraterna]// ||
 * [|International Ornithologists' Union] || //[|Proceedings of the International Ornithological Congress]// ||
 * [|Iowa Ornithologists' Union] || //[|Iowa Bird Life]// ||
 * [|Kentucky Ornithological Society] || //[|The Kentucky Warbler]// ||
 * [|Kloppenburg, Robert Dale] || //[|Hoya New]// ||
 * [|The Lepidopterists' Society] || //[|A synonymic list of the Nearctic Rhopalocera]// (Memoir No.1) ||
 * || //[|A catalogue/checklist of the butterflies of America, north of Mexico]// (Memoir No.2) ||
 * || //[|Supplement to A catalogue/checklist of the butterflies of America, north of Mexico]// (Memoir No.3) ||
 * [|Linnaean Society of New South Wales] || //[|Proceedings]// ||
 * [|Lloyd Library and Museum] || //[|Botanicum medicinale]// ||
 * || //[|Botanica in originali, seu, Herbarium vivum]// ||
 * || //[|Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis]// ||
 * || //[|Flora: afbeeldingen en beschrijvingen van boomen, heesters, éénjarigeplanten,enz., voorkomende in de nederlandsche tuinen]// ||  ||
 * || //[|Flora Graeca, sive, Plantarum rariorum historia, quas in provinciis aut insulis Graeciae]// ||
 * || //[|Index universalis in omnes XII centurias Botanicae in originali D. Io. Hieron. Kniphofii seu Herbarii vivi]// ||  ||
 * [|Long Island Botanical Society] || //[|Long Island Botanical Society newsletter]// ||
 * [|Lunds Botaniska Förening] || //[|Opera Botanica]// (no.42, 1977) ||
 * [|Mantis Study Group] || //[|Mantis Study Group newsletter]// ||
 * [|Maryland Ornithological Society] || //[|Field List of the Birds of Maryland]// (3rd Ed., 1996) ||
 * || //[|Maryland Birdlife]// ||
 * || //[|The Maryland Yellowthroat]// ||
 * [|The New York Academy of Medicine] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library] || //[|A Botanist's Ramble in Central America]// ||
 * || // [|Algunas palmeras industriales de la flora istmeña] // ||
 * || //[|Ensaio para uma synonimia dos nomes populares das plantas indigenas do Estado de S. Paulo]// ||
 * || // [|Orchideen-Sammlung des Herrn Martin Rücker Jenisch zu Flotbeck-Park bei Hamburg] // ||
 * [|New York Entomological Society] || //[|Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society]// ||
 * || //[|Entomologica Americana]// ||
 * || //[|Journal of the New York Entomological Society]// ||
 * [|New York State Museum] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|New York State Ornithological Association] || //[|The Kingbird]// ||
 * [|North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences] || //[|Brimleyana]// ||
 * [|Northern California Botanists] || //[|Botanical Leaflets]// ||
 * [|Ohio Biological Survey] || //[|Ohio Biological Survey Notes]// ||
 * [|Ohio Coleopterist Society] || //[|Ohio Beetles Bulletin]// ||
 * [|Pacific Coast Entomological Society] || //[|The Pan-Pacific Entomologist]// ||
 * [|Pacific Science Association] || //[|Pacific Science]// ||
 * [|Pacific Seabird Group] || //[|Pacific Seabird Group Bulletin]// ||
 * [|Pennsylvania Horticultural Society] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|Phasmid Study Group] || //[|Phasmid Studies]// ||
 * Pollock, Andrew || //[|Binomial and trinomial index to The Auk, 1884-1940...]// ||
 * [|Raptor Research Foundation] || //[|Raptor Research News]// (v.1-5, 1967-1971) ||
 * || //[|Raptor Research]// (v.6-15, 1972-1981) ||
 * || //[|The Journal of Raptor Research]// (v.21-39, 1987-2005) ||
 * || //[|Wingspan]// ||
 * [|San Diego Zoo Global Library & Archives] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|Smithsonian Institution] || //[|Echinoderm Newsletter]// ||
 * [|Southern California Botanists] || //[|Crossosoma]// ||
 * || //[|Endangered Plant Communities of Southern California]// ||
 * || //[|A Flora of the Santa Rosa Plateau]// ||
 * [|SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry] || //[|Roosevelt Wild Life Annals]// ||
 * || //[|Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin]// ||
 * [|Tennessee Native Plant Society] || //[|Tennessee Native Plant Society Newsletter]// ||
 * [|Tennessee Ornithological Society] || //[|The Tennessee Warbler]// ||
 * || //[|The Migrant]// ||
 * [|Tower Hill Botanic Garden Library] || //[|Transactions of the Worcester County Horticultural Society]// ||
 * [|U.S. Department of Agriculture] || //[|Census of Agriculture]// ||
 * [|University of Alberta, Entomology Department] || //[|Quaestiones entomologicae]// ||
 * [|University of California, Berkeley] || //[|A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California]// ||
 * [|University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|University of Texas Libraries] || ([|see all titles]) ||
 * [|University of Washington Botanic Gardens] || //[|The Arboretum Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|Camas Quarterly]// ||
 * || //[|ProHort]// ||
 * || //[|The University of Washington Arboretum Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|Urban Horticulture]// ||
 * || //[|Urban Horticulture Presents]// ||
 * || //[|Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin]// ||
 * [|Vascular Plant Herbarium, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University] || //[|Canotia]// ||
 * [|Virginia Museum of Natural History] || //[|The Insects of Virginia]// ||
 * || //[|Jeffersoniana]// ||
 * || //[|Myriapodologica]// ||
 * [|Virginia Native Plant Society] || //[|Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|Sempervirens]// ||
 * [|Western Carolina Botanical Club] || //[|Shortia]// ||
 * [|Western Field Ornithologists] || //[|California Birds]// ||
 * [|Western Society of Malacologists] || //[|Occasional Papers]// ||
 * [|Wildlife Conservation Society] || //[|Zoologica]// ||
 * [|Wilson Ornithological Society] || //[|The Wilson Bulletin]// ||
 * || //[|The Wilson Journal of Ornithology]// ||
 * [|Wisconsin Entomological Society] || //[|Checklist of Wisconsin Butterflies]// ||
 * || //[|Checklist of Wisconsin Dragonflies]// ||
 * || //[|Newsletter of the Wisconsin Entomological Society]// ||
 * || //[|Wisconsin Millipeds]// ||
 * [|Wyoming Native Plant Society] || //[|Castilleja]// ||
 * [|Yale University] / [|Medical Heritage Library] || //[|An Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine]// ||

Contact Us

 * For more information please contact the project's Principal Investigator, Susan Fraser at 718-817-8879 or sfraser@nybg.org