The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a vast digital library containing literature on biodiversity. It was formed in 2005 by major natural history institutions to make biodiversity literature openly accessible online. The library aims to digitize and provide free access to literature that is typically scattered in various physical libraries. It addresses the long half-life of publications in taxonomy and the need for students and researchers to access original references. The founding institutions include the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum, and others. The library utilizes permissions and open access to digitize content and allows for reuse through sites like Encyclopedia of Life.

1. Biodiversity Heritage
Library – the vast library of
life
Alison Harding

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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, Epilogue to Index Animalium, March 1922

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• The cited half-life of publications in taxonomy is
longer than in any other scientific discipline
• The decay rate is longer than in any scientific
discipline
- Macro-economic case for open access, Tom Moritz

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• 2003 Encyclopedia of Life
Meeting, Telluride, Colorado
• 2004 Webwise: Sharing Digital Content
• 2005 February - Library and Laboratory: the
Marriage of Research, Data and Taxonomic
Literature, London
• 2005 May – Interested Libraries meet in
Washington to lay groundwork for BHL

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• American Museum of Natural History
• Natural History Museum
• Smithsonian Institution
• Field Museum (Chicago)
• Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution Library (MBL/WHOI)
• More….

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• Missouri Botanical Garden
• New York Botanical Garden
• Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
• Harvard University, Botany Libraries
• Harvard University Ernst Meyer Library of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology
• And later…

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• California Academy of Sciences Library
• Cornell University Library
• Library of Congress
• US Geological Survey
• Academy of Natural Sciences Library & Archives

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• Vision Inspiring discovery through free access
to biodiversity knowledge.
• Mission The Biodiversity Heritage Library works
collaboratively to make biodiversity literature
openly available to the world as part of a global
biodiversity community

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• Open Access
• Permissions
– Seek permission
– Opt-in copyright
• Re-use
– Encyclopaedia of Life
– Tropicos.org
– BioStor

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• Butterflies and Moths of the World Generic Names
and their Type-species

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Scanning
• Title selection
• Bid list
• Monographic deduplication
• Internet Archive
– Metadata
– Scanning
• Editing

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Feedback

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27. Questions?