Encyclopedia of Life Informatics (Data Model) Workshop Engaging Partners The Biodiversity Heritage Library Martin R. Kalfatovic Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Engaging Partners

The Biodiversity Heritage Library

Engaging Partners Round Table Martin R. Kalfatovic Head, New Media Office and Preservation Services Department Smithsonian Institution Libraries Areas of Interest Digital conversion technologies Network information discovery and retrieval Technology review editor, Library Information Technology Association (LITA) Areas of Work Writing purchase orders and annoying staff in the contracts office

Martin R. Kalfatovic

Head, New Media Office and Preservation Services Department Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Areas of Interest

Digital conversion technologies

Network information discovery and retrieval

Technology review editor, Library Information Technology Association (LITA)

Areas of Work

Writing purchase orders and annoying staff in the contracts office

Vast, But Not Infinite

Vast, But Not Infinite 100 characters (Western European languages, plus spaces and some punctuation) Each line has 50 spaces Each page is 40 lines long Each book is 500 pages long Total Books: 100 1,000,000 Googolplex: 1 followed by a googol (10 100 ) zeros Kurd Lasswitz, “The Universal Library.” 1901 Jorge Louis Borges, “The Library of Babel.” 1941 Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea . 1995

100 characters (Western European languages, plus spaces and some punctuation)

Each line has 50 spaces

Each page is 40 lines long

Each book is 500 pages long

Total Books: 100 1,000,000

Googolplex: 1 followed by a googol (10 100 ) zeros

But where can we put it? Compressed (at today’s standards) this would be about 50 petabytes (about the size of a small-town library building)

Compressed (at today’s standards) this would be about 50 petabytes (about the size of a small-town library building)

Digitization Projects Amazon: Search Inside the Book Google Book Search Microsoft Live Text! Open Content Alliance Biodiversity Heritage Library

Amazon: Search Inside the Book

Google Book Search

Microsoft Live Text!

Open Content Alliance

Biodiversity Heritage Library

Challenges/Opportunities Cheap Scanning Internet Archive Scribe Kirtas APT 2400 Scanner

Cheap Scanning

Internet Archive Scribe

Kirtas APT 2400 Scanner

What Do You Do With a Million …? Books? Name strings? Images? Specimens? Web pages?

Books?

Name strings?

Images?

Specimens?

Web pages?

Engaging Partners Can the layered architecture accommodate input from and contribute to your project? Yes

Can the layered architecture accommodate input from and contribute to your project?

Yes

Engaging Partners Do you have any software / components that you would like to integrate within the EoL informatics package? Chris Freeland

Do you have any software / components that you would like to integrate within the EoL informatics package?

Chris Freeland

Engaging Partners Can we build crosswalks with your project? BHL data will provide the historic groundwork for a significant number of EoL species content

Can we build crosswalks with your project?

BHL data will provide the historic groundwork for a significant number of EoL species content

Engaging Partners What changes to the data model or additional WorkBench modules would help meet your needs ... Within the WorkBench layer, building bibliographic citation scraping tools that can roundtrip between EoL and other tools: e.g. Zotero and Connotea

What changes to the data model or additional WorkBench modules would help meet your needs ...

Within the WorkBench layer, building bibliographic citation scraping tools that can roundtrip between EoL and other tools: e.g. Zotero and Connotea

Engaging Partners “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it” - Vannevar Bush (1945)

“The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it”

- Vannevar Bush (1945)