BHL at the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections

The 31^st Annual Meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) (http://www.spnhc2016.berlin/) was jointly hosted by the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum in Berlin, 20-25 June 2016. The SPNHC conference brings together representatives from natural history museums, universities, and biodiversity data aggregators and serves as a wonderful opportunity for BHL to connect with formal partner institutions, collaborators such as GBIF, as well as many BHL users.

As part of the Technical Sessions on 23 June, Dr. Jiří Frank (Scientific Secretary, Národní Muzeum, Prague) and Carolyn Sheffield (BHL Program Manager) co-presented on BHL and its intersections with natural history collections and other biodiversity data aggregators. The talk, entitled Harnessing biodiversity literature for Natural History collections curation and research–a digital library perspective, attracted approximately 100 attendees, most of whom indicated they were familiar with BHL and more than half indicated they use it on a regular basis. The presentation was framed by the perspective of Národní Muzeum, BHL’s long time collaborator and newest Affiliate partner, and included an overview of the BHL consortium structure and some of the services integrated into the BHL website. Highlights included examples of how BHL data intersects with other resources such as EOL, DPLA, and GBIF. The talk concluded with a brief summary of goals for future collaborations, notably via recent initiatives amongst Národní Muzeum  and other European partners.

Slides are available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B00hDkSQMhfDN0tKTE9haTBmNGc/view?usp=sharing