The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a digital library focused on biodiversity literature. As of November 2012, the BHL contained over 39 million pages from over 109,000 items and 57,000 titles. In the past year over 14,000 new items were added. The BHL sees over 100,000 visitors per month and has had over 3.6 million total visitors since 2007. Going forward, the BHL aims to increase agreements with publishers of in-copyright materials, explore risk management of materials from 1923-1961, and experiment with taxonomic markup of illustrations. Governance and funding structures were also discussed to support continued growth and participation of the BHL globally.

1. The Biodiversity Heritage Library
EOL Team Report: November 2012
Martin R. Kalfatovic | EOL Team Meeting
29 November 2012 | Museum of Comparative Zoology | Cambridge, MA

2. The Wherefore of BHL
The cultivation of
natural science cannot
be efficiently carried
on without reference
to an extensive library
Charles Darwin, et al
(1847)

3. Priority Goals and Activities
Year 6

4. 40 m + pages
115 k + items
60 k + titles
2013
39,859,323 pages
109,441 items
57,417 titles
28 November 2012

5. Items Added: Past 12 Months
Cornell ingest | Dec 2011
14,458
Average: 1,204 / month

6. User Statistics: 2007 - 2012
Visitors: 3,628,088
Page Views: 17,604,395
New vs. Returning: 48.88% vs. 50.12%
112,584 visitors | March 2012
2012
2007

7. 233233 Countries
Users in countries

8. TheMachineIsUs/ingUs
<Response
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-
instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Status>ok</Status>
<Result>
<Item>
<ItemID>16800</ItemID>
<Volume/>
<Contributor>MBLWHOI Library</Contributor>
<Sponsor>MBLWHOI Library</Sponsor>
<Language>English</Language>
<LicenseUrl/>
<Rights/>
<DueDiligence/>
<CopyrightStatus/>
<CopyrightRegion/>
</Item>

9. Increase agreements with
publishers of in copyright materials
(up from ~250)

10. Explore risk management of
1923-1961 imprints

11. Opportunities for Year 6

12. The Biodiversity Heritage Library: 2006

15. 2,567,169 total views | 45,222 images (9/2012) | 50K+

16. Experiment with taxonomic markup
Smithsonian Contributions
and Studies Series
Collaboration with Smithsonian
Institution Scholarly Press
1,000+ titles; 100,000 pages

17. Example of illustration described using Art of Life schema
Title Stictospiza formosa
Type Paintings
Date Publication: 1898
Agent Author: Arthur G. Butler (1844-1925)
Illustrator: F.W. Frohawk (1861-1946)
Description A pair of finches with green and yellow bodies resting on reeds
Subjects Scientific name: Amandava formosa (Latham, 1790)
Vernacular Name: Green Avadavat or Green Munia
Accepted Name: Amandava formosa (Latham, 1790)
Birds, finches
Inscriptions bottom center: Green Amaduvade Waxbill (Stictospiza formosa)
Source
Butler, Arthur Gardiner. Foreign finches in captivity. Hull and London: Brumby and Clarke,
limited,1889 (2nd edition). This image comes from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and is
available online at biodiversitylibrary.org/page/17195895
Rights Public domain
DLF Forum 2012 Denver CO Trish Rose-Sandler, Missouri Botanical Garden Art of Life project

19. Not Just ...

21. 233233 Countries
Users in countries

22. June 2012
Over 30 librarians,
scientists, informaticians
gathered in Cape Town,
South Africa to start the
formation of the BHL
Africa node; funded by
JRS Foundation

23. Global BHL Steering Committee
August 2011
Chair Vice Chair Secretary

24. Threats for Years 7-8

25. http://xkcd.com/14/

26. The Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science
and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors
the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
U.S. Code Title 17. Chapter 1. Section 109
But most of the time I am!
http://xkcd.com/14/

28. Unknown Unknowns

29. Opportunities for Years 7-8

30. Robust Governance Structure
Executive Committee
- Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary
- Program Director (ex officio)
- Technical Director (ex officio)
Steering Committee
- Direct monetary support of BHL central activities
- 10 institutions (subset of the Institutional Council)
Institutional Council
- Interested institutions who sign participation agreement
- 14 institutions

31. BHL Executive Committee, 2011-
Nancy Gwinn | Connie Rinaldo | Susan Fraser

32. Secretariat and Technical Staff
August 2011 Director
Program Technical Director
Program Manager Programmer
Collections Coordinator Data Analyst

33. BHL Member Participation Staff FTE
16.22 FTE from the 14
member institutions
(does not include Secretariat or Technical staff)

34. In-kind Participation Contributions
Staff $980K
Other $470K
Scanning $923K
Internal Grants $422K
External Grants $505K

35. BHL Funding
Steering Committee dues
MacArthur carryover (partly restricted)
JRS and Lounsbery grants (meetings)
Moore, NSF, NEH grants (restricted)
Donations
Other grants (restricted)
Member subvention (restricted)
Smithsonian Federal funds (restricted)

36. Facebook
Total Post Views: 245,095
Audience Growth (Total new people who like our page): 338
Audience Engagement (Total post interactions): 1,620
Total Monthly active Users by End of Q1, FY12: 1,273
Total Page Likes: 1,871
Blog
Total Visits: 4,868
Unique Visitors: 3,540
Twitter @ BioDivLibrary
Total Followers: 1,951

37. More Outreach

38. May I compliment you on this splendid service? The
Library's invaluable for my work on seasonal
variability of climate and vector-borne disease in
“
T
h British India, 1875-1940.
a
n
k
I really appreciatey your work. The Biodiversity Heritage
Library is an excellent resource that regularly helps my
o
u
assistant and I obtain original descriptions for plants .... I
feel so privileged m be working in a day in age when such
to
u
resources are so readily available and easy to obtain.
c
h
f
o
r
y
What an absolutely owonderful site.
It is a treasure trove of information.
u
r
Thank you! h
e

39. Looking Forward
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.
Charles Davies Sherborn
Epilogue to Index Animalium, March 1922

41. Thanks … Questions and Discussion