All posts by michelle.underhill

Blog Reel

Color Our Collections

Get your colored pencils ready!

Join us for the Color Our Collections event this week, February 1-5, 2016. Led by The New York Academy of Medicine, the event invites you to download images from library and cultural institution collections, color them, and share them on social media using the event hashtag #ColorOurCollections.

February 1, 2016byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Fantastic Worlds: Exploring the Ocean through Science and Fiction

In July 2015, BHL founding institution Smithsonian Libraries opened a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History entitled Fantastic Worlds: Science and Fiction 1780-1910. The exhibit invites visitors to explore the fantastic worlds of fiction inspired by 19th century scientific discovery and invention. It features fabulous natural history books on topics ranging from marine life to geology and dinosaurs and expeditions to the polar regions and interior Africa.

January 21, 2016byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, User Stories

BHL: Continuing to Inspire a Love of Natural History

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter season is well underway. Cold temperatures mean that species of all kinds must face many new challenges in order to survive the next few months. Spiders are no exception. One might assume that spiders die off once winter hits. While this is true for some species, it is not true for all spiders – many remain active in winter months. How do they manage this? Through a variety of physiological and behavioral adaptations. Behavioral adaptations include moving their homes to “overwintering sites” such as the “subnivean zone,” an area between the snow and the ground, or concealed locations in leaf litter or under bark, where it’s warmer. Spiders also have a physiological adaptation that helps them brave the cold months.

January 14, 2016byGrace Costantino

BHL News, Blog Reel

BHL Receives 2015 Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives award for Field Notes Project

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has selected the “Biodiversity Heritage Library Field Notes Project” for a 2015 Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives award. The award of $491,713 will help support increased accessibility to original scientific documentation found in archival field notes in participating institution collections. Field notes provide valuable, primary research data about species and ecosystems that is often unpublished or unavailable through other sources.

January 7, 2016byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

An Artist Steps Out of the Shadows: Using Social Media to Solve a Question of Identity

Over the years, we’ve discovered that social media is a pretty awesome way to learn more about our collections. Recently, a Twitter conversation helped us unravel the true identity of an incredible natural history artist. In November, one of our star citizen scientists Siobhan Leachman was working on adding artist machine tags to images in the BHL Flickr (want to learn more about how to do that? See this guide!). She was working on Wonders of the Bird World (1921), which was digitized for BHL by Cornell University Library. The title page stated that it was illustrated by A.T. Elwes.

December 31, 2015byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

In Search of the White Whale: A Legend, a Fossil, a Living Mammal

1820. Far west of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. A whaleship pursues a pod of sperm whales. Suddenly, an eighty-five foot long giant charges the ship, ramming it with its head not once, but twice, caving in the bows and sending the ship to a watery grave. This is the story of the sinking of the Essex, the subject of Ron Howard’s movie adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s novel In the Heart of the Sea, opening this Friday.

December 9, 2015byGrace Costantino

BHL News, Blog Reel, Tech Updates

New Feature on BHL: Add Comments to a Book!

UPDATE: A new and enhanced commenting system is being planned for BHL. The commenting system described below has been disabled as of July 5, 2016. | We are pleased to announce that we have added the ability to add comments to books in the BHL website! This new feature will allow you to easily share your discoveries while reading BHL books, highlight interesting content, post your expertise for others to see, engage in conversations about BHL books from directly within BHL, and easily discover all of the great posts from your fellow biodiversity-enthusiasts.

December 2, 2015byGrace Costantino