Tom Garnett and Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) Council Meeting. May 15, 2007. Washington, DC.

1. Open Access to Biodiversity
Literature
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
www.biodiversitylibrary.org
by Tom Garnett and Martin Kalfatovic
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

2. Biodiversity Heritage Library
• American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY)
• The Field Museum (Chicago, IL)
• Harvard University Botany Libraries (Cambridge, MA)
• Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum
of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, MA)
• Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA)
• Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO)
• Natural History Museum (London, UK)
• The New York Botanical Garden (New York, NY)
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, UK)
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington, DC)
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

3. Biodiversity Heritage Library
The 10 partner libraries collectively hold a
substantial part of the world’s published
knowledge on biological diversity. Yet, this
wealth of knowledge is available only to those
few who can gain direct access to these
collections. This body of biodiversity
knowledge is thus effectively withheld from
wide use for a broad range of applications,
including research, education, taxonomic
study, biodiversity conservation, protected
area management, disease control, and
maintenance of diverse ecosystems services.
Much of this published literature is rare or has
limited global distribution and is available in
only a few select libraries.
Insecta. Diptera. Volume I (1886-1901)
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

4. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Current Collaborators
Internet Archive
OCLC
Open Content Alliance
ICZN
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

5. Biodiversity Heritage Library
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

6. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Mandates:
Open Access: all
content can be
reused, repurposed,
reformatted, sliced,
diced, scraped,
harvested, integrated.
Reptilia and Batrachia. (1885-1902) by Albert C.L.G. Günther
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

7. 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
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

8. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Internet Archive
Set up scanning centers in
London, New York,
Washington, Boston, etc.
High-quality, non-destructive
Scanning.
Image files and text derived
from OCR.
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

9. Biodiversity Heritage Library
BHL Portal
Ingest image and OCR files
from scanning centers
Bibliographic metadata from
the member libraries;
Create page level Globally
Unique Identifiers (GUIDs)
for linking to other taxonomic
services
www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Jacob Christian Schäffer
Elementa entomologica . . . 1766.
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

10. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Classes of texts
Public Domain – pre-1923
Non-profit society journals
Post-1923 monographs
some with copyright renewals
some without copyright renewals
Commercial journals
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

11. Biodiversity Heritage Library
BHL Seeks Permissions
BHL will digitize learned society backfiles
and mount them through the BHL Portal
at no cost.
Will provide a set of files to the learned
society for reuse as they see fit.
Will index the issues using Taxonomic
Intelligence increasing their usability.
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

12. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Benefits
Use of the articles will increase as
evidenced by citation upsurge.
Long-term management of the digital assets
is provided by the BHL at no cost so it’s
“SEP.”
Content will be integrated into EOL project
through TI nomenclatural linking.
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

13. Biodiversity Heritage Library
BHL is seeking working relationships
with
American Institute of Biological Sciences
BioOne
Jstore
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition (SPARC)
CITESEER
Synthesys (Synthesis of Systematic Resources)
EDIT (European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy)
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

14. Biodiversity Heritage Library
How to Approach Society Journals?
One-by-one?
A small conference with editors/directors?
Focus on specific sub-disciplines?
Suggestions?
Questions?
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries

15. Biodiversity Heritage Library
Contact Information
Tom Garnett, Acting Project Director,
Biodiversity Heritage Library
202-633-2238
garnettt@si.edu
BHL Portal
www.biodiversitylibrary.org
AIBS Council May 15, 2007 Tom Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries