A Vast Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library as a window to the living world

Martin R. KalfatovicSmithsonian Libraries | Washington, DC

Mae Jemison Science Reading RoomPretoria, South Africa | 11 June 2012

A Vast Library of Life:The Biodiversity

Heritage Library as a window to the living

world

Lion

Lion

Walrus

Armadillo

Giraffe

Lion

Lion = Panthera leo

Walrus = Odobenus rosmarus

Armadillo = Dasypus novemcinctus

Giraffe = Giraffa camelopardalis

Where do these names come from?

Biodiversity Heritage LibraryVishwas Chavan travels a lot. An informatician based at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India, he collects data on what types of animal live where in India to enter into a biodiversity database … Much of the information Chavan seeks is in old, out-of-print tomes … To find them, Chavan has spent years trailing around libraries. He dreams of the day when books such as these are scanned and made available as digital files on the Internet.

“Science in the Web Age: The Real Death of Print”

by Andreas von BubnoffNature 438, 550-552 1 December 2005

BHL US Partners

Scanning a Books

Biodiversity Heritage Library : 2006

> 390,000 views in 10 months

> 30,000+ images

Demonstration of BHL Flickr Collection

BHL Africa

Thanks to the generosity of the JRS Foundation, an initial meeting with potential African BHL participants was held in Chicago (Nov 2011).

In June 2012, again with the support of the JRS Foundation, the first BHL African Organizational meeting will be held in Cape Town in conjunction with the SANBI BIMF 2012 meeting.

Over 25 participants from sub-Saharan Africa will join BHL members to discuss the parameters of a BHL Africa.

Thank you