The 2024 Biodiversity Heritage Library Annual Meeting saw BHL partners and interested parties returning to Chicago, Illinois, the location of many BHL gatherings over the years. This year’s meeting was also significant as it coincided with the dual emergence of Brood XIII of Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada) and Brood XIX elsewhere in Illinois and the Midwest.
BHL Annual Meeting attendees pose for a group photo at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Attendees were welcomed to Chicago by our co-hosts, The Field Museum of Natural History and the Chicago Botanic Garden. Throughout the week of 13 May to 17 May, attendees were treated to behind-the-scenes tours at both locations. The BHL Day 2024 Symposium, Year of the Cicada: Buzzing with 17 Years of Biodiversity Achievements, took advantage of the emergence of the Magicicada Brood XIII emergence and featured Magicicada expert, Dr. Gene Kritsky, as keynote speaker.
Meeting participants were invited to take part in the 2024 BHL Annual Meeting iNaturalist Bioblitz. Congratulations to Nicole Kearney of BHL Australia for topping the observed species list (88 species and 148 observations). I followed with 63 species and 288 — mostly Magicicada! — observations.
A very special treat at this annual meeting was a panel discussion sponsored by the Caxton Club, The Biodiversity Heritage Library, Seventeen Years of Grown From Its Chicago Roots.
BHL Business Meeting
For our first North American meeting since the 2019 BHL Annual Meeting in Ithaca, NY, 47 attendees participated (35 in-person and 12 virtually) from 29 BHL partners. For those who arrived on 13 May, there were a number of optional excursions (including an architectural river cruise of the Chicago River); later that evening, a well attended ice-breaker at Lou Malnati’s Pizza.
The next day, upon gathering at the Chicago Botanic Garden (hosted by Leora Siegel), BHL attendees were welcomed to the Garden by Dr. Kayri Havens (Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science, Chicago Botanic Garden). The official meeting was called to order by David Iggulden, BHL Chair (Head of Data & Digital in the Library and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). The Chair’s report, “Securing Our Future and Celebrating Our Past” gave a summary overview of Executive Committee activities over the past year as well as looking forward to the next.
David Iggulden presents the BHL Chair’s Report at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
David also announced the results of the 2024 Executive Committee Election. The 2024-2026 Executive Committee includes:
- Chair – David Iggulden, Head of Data & Digital in the Library and Archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- Vice-Chair – Kelli Trei, Biosciences Librarian at the Funk ACES Library, Associate Professor, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Co-Secretary – Gretchen Rings, Museum Librarian and Head of Library Collections for the Marie Louise Rosenthal Library at the Field Museum of Natural History
- Co-Secretary – Elisa Herrmann, Scientific Head of Library Collections and Information Supply, Head of Department Discovery Services and Information Management, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Secretariat Reports
BHL Program Manager Colleen Funkhouser’s report, “BHL in Transition: The BHL Program Manager’s Report,” summarized BHL’s financial status, user statistics, outreach activities, and outlined upcoming challenges with ongoing BHL transitions.
Bianca Crowley, BHL Digital Collections Manager, followed with her report, “BHL Collection Management: Refining Core Elements.” Bianca’s insightful report outlined BHL content growth and the role of BHL in the research life-cycle. She also discussed content curation and the role of the BHL Collections Committee.
I presented the Program Director’s Report, “Eras: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. Final BHL Program Director’s Report.” In this report, I outlined the deep history of biodiversity data held in BHL, the fragility of institutions, and continued importance of BHL’s standing on the pillars of Science (Data Generated by Science), Libraries and Literature (Data Born in Literature), and Technology (Data Delivered by Technology). Looking forward, the strongest pillar for BHL will be the Pillar of Science and important realignments must be done to work more closely with the science and informatics units of natural history museums, botanical gardens, and informatic research centers.
Martin Kalfatovic presents the Program Director’s Report at Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
BHL Lead Developer Mike Lichtenberg and BHL Technical Coordinator Joel Richard provided the “BHL Technical Team Report: 2023 Achievements and Current Work.”
BHL Data Manager JJ Dearborn delivered her report, “The Next Chapter: Transforming BHL to Address Global Challenges.” In addition to outlining her work as BHL Data Manager, JJ spoke to the challenges of liberating BHL data as well as the long term benefits to the global biodiversity community of mobilizing BHL data.
After lunch, attendees were welcomed to a number of tours of the Garden and facilities, including a Library and Rare Book tour, a cicada walk in the woods, Japanese Garden tour, Crescent Garden tour, Model Railroad Garden tour, and a private tram tour.
Meeting attendees visit The Lenhardt Library at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Photo by Martin R. Kalfatovic
Leora Siegel, Chicago Botanic Garden, shares a selection of rare books from The Lenhardt Library. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
Matt Evans, Managing Ecologist of Woodlands at the Chicago Botanic Garden, led small groups on a walk through McDonald Woods. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
Matt Evans and meeting attendees searched for emerging cicadas in McDonald Woods. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
Committee and Working Group Reports
Reconvening the following day at The Field Museum (hosted by Gretchen Rings), the first half of the day was devoted to reporting out by various BHL Committees and Working Groups. Daniel Euphrat (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives) and Elizabeth McKinley (The Field Museum) presented the work of the Cataloging & Metadata Committee; Nicole Kearney (BHL Australia) on the work of the Persistent Identifier Working Group; and Siobhan Leachman (Wikimedian) on the BHL-Wiki Working Group.
BHL Retrospective and Museum Tours
The Executive Committee led the group through a sailboat themed retrospective to review how the consortium is working in light of leadership changes at many institutions and the review of BHL’s sustainability. The group shared their perspectives on The Wind Pushing Our Sails (things that are helping BHL succeed and make progress), The Anchors Holding Us Back (things that are slowing BHL down), The Rocks Ahead of Us (risks or potential pitfalls), and Our Ideal Destination (our ultimate goal or vision for BHL).
The day closed with tours of a small portion of The Field Museum collections, including Anthropology, Paleontology, Botany, and of course, the library.
Bill Simpson, Head of Geological Collections and Collections Manager, Fossil Vertebrates, shared items from the paleontology collection at the Field Museum. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
Matt Von Konrat, Head of Botanical Collections and McCarter Collections Manager, Bryophytes and Pteridophytes, led us into the botanical collection. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
Gretchen Rings, Museum Librarian and Head of Library Collections, shared a selection of rare books from the Marie Louise Rosenthal Library. Photo by Martin R. Kalfatovic
Caxton Club Panel Discussion: The Biodiversity Heritage Library, Seventeen Years of Growth From Its Chicago Roots
The evening of 15 May was devoted to a reception and talk held at the Union League Club and sponsored by the Caxton Club. The evening opened with a welcome from Sarah M. Pritchard (Caxton Club Chair and Dean Emerita of Libraries and Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian at Northwestern University) and an introduction by Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives) which included a tribute to Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn, Past BHL Chair (Smithsonian Institution Libraries). The panel, The Biodiversity Heritage Library, Seventeen Years of Growth from Its Chicago Roots, included talks by myself, Gretchen Rings, and Leora Siegel.
The reception preceding the talks was generously sponsored by Jackie Vossler (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Advisory Board Member and Past Chair, The Caxton Club).
Sarah M. Pritchard, Caxton Club Chair, welcomed us to the BHL Discussion Panel at the Union League Club. Photo by Martin R. Kalfatovic
BHL Business Meeting Final Day
The final business day was again convened at The Field Museum.
BHL Engagement Workshop
In light of a changing environment – which includes turnover in leadership and staff at BHL Partners, shifting priorities and funding, and new technologies to assess – the Secretariat hosted an Engagement Workshop to share new project management strategies to coordinate the work of the consortium in actively managing BHL. The group used a Team Norms activity to draft a working agreement for the BHL Consortium to foster collaboration and teamwork.
Open Discussion Session
Led by BHL Program Manager Colleen Funkhouser, major topics discussed included a discussion of potential Field book projects from around the consortium. Institutions with potential projects include the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County; the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel; and BHL Australia.
There was also a discussion of the call for BHL internships funded by generous gifts in honor of BHL Past Chair, Constance Rinaldo. BHL Chair David Iggulden led an important and challenging discussion with input from many meeting participants around the topic of BHL Sustainability as BHL looks forward to 2025.
Closing Session
Chair David Iggulden closed the official business portion of the meeting with thanks to our generous co-hosts, Gretchen Rings and Leora Siegel, and a recognition of departed BHL staff and leaders.
Martin R. Kalfatovic (R) presented co-host Gretchen Rings (C) and Leora Siegel (L) with gifts of appreciation.
BHL Day 2024 Public Symposium: Year of the Cicada
After the close of the business meeting, The Field Museum hosted a public symposium, Year of the Cicada: Buzzing with 17 Years of Biodiversity Achievements, attended by more than 130 guests, in-person and online.
Dr. Gene Kritsky (Professor Emeritus of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University and Chief Science Officer at Center for IT Engagement) opened with a keynote, “A Tale of Two Broods previews the 2024 dual emergence of Broods XIII and XIX.” Kritsky, the leading authority on Magicicada, gave a general overview of Periodical Cicadas and then interesting observations about the current dual emergence. The last time these broods emerged together was 1803. Kritsky noted that Periodical cicadas are bugs of history, and understanding their biology and evolution has required the efforts of many entomologists over the past four centuries. Periodical cicadas are also bugs of climate: the evolution of their unique and lengthy life cycle was driven by the beginning of the last ice age, and the distribution of the broods was influenced by the retreat of the ice sheet. Even today, the timing of their adult emergence is dictated by our warming world.
The opening session was moderated by Leora Siegel (Senior Director, Lenhardt Library, Chicago Botanic Garden) and included Dr. Kayri Havens (Chief Scientist and Negaunee Vice President of Science, Chicago Botanic Garden) on “Managing Metacollections of Exceptional Species: Adapting Zoo Protocols for Better Botanic Garden Living Collection Management”; Dmitry Mozzherin (Assistant Research Scientist, Biodiversity Informatics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) on “Scientific Names Index: How To Perfect It?”. Dr. Roderic Page (BioStor and University of Glasgow) spoke on “Articles, Annotation, and AI”.
Anderson Feijó, Assistant Curator of Mammals, Field Museum, includes an acknowledgment for BHL in his publications. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
The second session was moderated by Gretchen Rings (Museum Librarian & Head of Library Collections at the Gantz Family Collections Center, Field Museum) and included talks by Anderson Feijó (Assistant Curator of Mammals, Field Museum), “How Have Pikas Successfully Colonized the Tibetan Plateau?”; Maureen Turcatel (Collections Manager, Field Museum), “Diversity and Evolutionary History of Horse Flies”; Siobhan Leachman (Chair, BHL-Wiki Working Group) on “BHL and the Wikiverse”; and Nicole Kearney (Manager, BHL Australia and Chair of BHL Persistent Identifier Working Group) on “Unlocking Australia’s biodiversity: Celebrating 50 Australian BHL contributors.”
A light reception followed the symposium and gave attendees and guests the opportunity to bid all a farewell before our next gathering.
Optional Excursion to the Adler Planetarium
To round out the week of behind-the-scenes tours, our hosts organized a tour of the Adler Planetarium’s collection of scientific instruments, cultural artifacts, and rare books. Attendees were treated to a sky show of Chicago’s night sky and then set off to explore the rest of the museum.
A look behind the scenes at Adler Planetarium. Photo by Colleen Funkhouser
A Final Note
The 2024 BHL Annual Meeting marks my final BHL meeting as an official participant in BHL. Since 2006, I have participated in all but one of the official BHL leadership meetings (from their start as “organizational meetings,” to “institutional council meetings,” to “Member Meetings,” and then “Annual Meetings”). As I look forward to my new role as Managing Director of the IIIF-C, I will take with me the skills I learned from my work with BHL as well as memories of professional and personal friendships that grew over those years. The IIIF-C community and BHL form a neat Venn Diagram with many institutions participating in both. I also plan to remain active as a champion for biodiversity, both professionally and personally, and hope to cross paths with many in the BHL community in the coming years.
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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