Expanding Access Training Workshop

On February 4-5, 2016, Smithsonian Libraries hosted staff from the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University), and the Missouri Botanical Garden as part of a training workshop for the New York Botanical Garden’s IMLS-funded grant, Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature.

The BHL Secretariat staff (Carolyn Sheffield, BHL Program Manager; Bianca Crowley, BHL Collections Manager; Grace Costantino, BHL Communications and Outreach Manager; and BHL Program Director, Martin Kalfatovic) conducted the two day workshop based on previous workshops for BHL Africa and BHL Mexico. The workshop provided an intense overview of the methodologies for partnering with institutions not currently participating in the BHL in order to add new content to BHL and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

Participating staff included:

New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library

• Susan Fraser (Director of the NYBG LuEsther T. Mertz Library, Project Director)
• Susan Lynch (Systems Librarian, Data Manager)
• Mariah Lewis (Metadata Specialist – and former Smithsonian Libraries’ intern)

Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

• Constance Rinaldo (Librarian of the Ernst Mayr Library of the MCZ/Harvard University)
• Joe deVeer (Project Manager and Museum Liaison for the Ernst Mayr Library of the MCZ/Harvard University)
• Patrick Randall (Community Manager)

Missouri Botanical Garden, Center for Biodiversity Informatics

• Trish Rose-Sandler (Digital Projects Coordinator, Center for Biodiversity Informatics, Missouri Botanical Garden and Data Analyst for BHL)

Thanks to the staff from the Smithsonian Libraries’ Natural History Library for hosting the event in their training room.

If you would like to learn more about Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature, please visit the project’s wiki page.