The history of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, presented at the BHL-Africa Launch Ceremony, Pretoria, South Africa. By Nancy Gwinn, April 15, 2013.

1. The Biodiversity Heritage Library
Origin | Growth | Partnerships
BHL Africa Launch | 15 April 2013
Nancy E. Gwinn | Smithsonian Libraries

2. The cultivation of
natural science cannot
be efficiently carried
on without reference to
an extensive library
Charles Darwin, et al
(1847)
Darwin, C. R. et al. 1847. Copy of Memorial to
the First Lord of the Treasury [Lord John
Russell], respecting the Management of the
British Museum. Parliamentary Papers,
Accounts and Papers 1847, paper number
(268), volume XXXIV.253 (13 April): 1-3.
[Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online]
Looking Forward

3. A large library
Yet another physical difficulty is the
task of assembling the library and
indexes which will enable the
student to work under proper
conditions…. the beginner must now
be prepared to spend liberally, or
else must establish himself in an
institution where a large library
exists; if he work by himself with
only a few books, he will have to
confine himself to a very narrow
specialty indeed.
'The Limitations of Taxonomy' by J.M. Aldrich, Science, April 22, 1927,
vol. LXV, no. 1686, p.381

4. Libraries & Laboratories
2005, London

5. 2003. Telluride. Encyclopedia of Life meeting
February 2005. London. Library and
Laboratory: the Marriage of Research, Data
and Taxonomic Literature
May 2005. Washington. Ground work for the
Biodiversity Heritage Library
June 2006. Washington. Organizational and
Technical meeting
October 2006. St. Louis/San Francisco.
Technical meetings
February 2007. Museum of Comparative
Zoology. Organizational meeting
May 2007. Encyclopedia of Life and BHL
Portal Launch. Washington DC.
February 2008. Launch of EOL species
pages and associated BHL literature
BHL Timeline

6. INTERNET ARCHIVE HEADQUARTERS
SAN FRANCISCO, CA

7. F
BHL
Formed in 2006....Now 15 Member Institutions
15 Members
•Academy of Natural Sciences Library and
Archives
•American Museum of Natural History
Library
•California Academy of Sciences Library
•Cornell University Library
•The Field Museum Library
•Harvard University Botany Libraries
•Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of
Comparative Zoology
•Library of Congress
•Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution Library
•Missouri Botanical Garden Library
•Natural History Museum, London, Library
& Archives
•The New York Botanical Garden
•Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Library &
Archives
•Smithsonian Institution Libraries
•United States Geological Survey Libraries

9. BHL US | UK

11. How is BHL Organized?
Executive Committee
- Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary
- Project Director & Program Manager
- Technical Director
Steering Committee
- Institutions who contribute member
dues annually
- Officers elected from this group
Institutional Council
- All Steering Committee members
- Other groups who are committed to purpose

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

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

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

15. Funding BHL US|UK
- Private Grants
- US Federal Appropriations
- Membership dues

16. Accomplishments

18. 40,381,261pages
111,715 items
58,495 titles
5 March 201
Content Growth
2007-2013

19. 3.8 million total views | 63,000 images (13 Feb 13)

21. BHL & EOL Booth
American Library Association Meeting
Dallas, TX, January 2012

22. Meetings

23. BHL US-
UKAnnual Meetings - Face to Face
- Steering Committee
- Institutional Council
- Global BHL
- Technical Group
Telephone Conferences
- Executive Committee - weekly
- Steering Committee - monthly
- Global BHL - as needed

24. Inventing as we go. . .
BHL US-UK Governance
Memoranda of Understanding
Bylaws
Meetings
Constant Communication (email, telephone,
social media, blog, etc.)

25. Life and Literature
Conference and JRS
Africa meetings
Chicago, Illinois
November 2011

26. 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

27. Some
Statistics

28. User Statistics: 2007 - 2012
Visitors: 3,628,088
Page Views: 17,604,395
New vs. Returning: 48.88% vs. 50.12%
2007
2012112,584 visitors | March 2012

29. ~1.6 m users | 16 m page views
233 countries

30. Macaw (Metadata
Collection and
Workflow). Scanning
workflow and ingest
management tool.
Based on “Paginator”
(MOBOT), Macaw
allows for creating
robust page level
metadata and pushing
content to other
repositories (e.g.
Internet Archive and
local storage) .

31. Social Media
Social Media

32. “
T
h
a
n
k
y
o
u
m
u
c
h
f
o
r
y
o
u
What an absolutely wonderful site. It
is a treasure trove of information.
Thank you!
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 British India,
1875-1940.
I really appreciate your work. The Biodiversity Heritage
Library is an excellent resource that regularly helps my
assistant and I obtain original descriptions for plants .... I
feel so privileged to be working in a day in age when such
resources are so readily available and easy to obtain.

34. Thanks to
Martin Kalfatovic

35. Congratulations
BHL Africa!