BHL Portal, an early review
This site displays an elegantly designed simplicity that the web developer in me finds irresistible. It’s a marketing nightmare, but a researcher’s dream – a system to quickly and easily find the information you want with minimal distractions.
Is this any way to run an archive? You bet it is!
The above quote is from the “Family Matters” blog, a site dedicated to family historians. And now, it’s not discussing the latest and greatest genealogy site, but rather the Biodiversity Heritage Library portal.
This is an encouraging notice – not only for the fact that the outstanding usability and functionality that Chris Freeland and his team at the Missouri Botanical Garden is building into the site – but also for the fact that the BHL literature will have uses beyond the taxonomic community in areas we can’t even think of at this time!
Martin R. Kalfatovic is BHL Program Director and Associate Director, Digital Programs and Initiatives Division, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. As the BHL Program Director, Mr. Kalfatovic functions as the executive director and manager of the international consortium of over 80 natural history, botanical garden, government, and university libraries engaged in the mass digitization of taxonomic literature. The position also serves as a key contact for government, NGO, and academic leaders at both the national and international level. Within his role at Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Mr. Kalfatovic is responsible for the Libraries’ active Digital Library program. This program includes the creation of digital editions of library materials, online exhibitions, and new digital publications.
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