While there are plenty of accounts on the natural history of Latin America, many of the best-known stories are from the point of view of outsiders, especially those from the age of extensive European exploration.
Over the past few months, I’ve been working as the Biodiversity Heritage Library Flickr Content Volunteer. As someone who really values the cross-section between art and science, it’s a fascinating task. The Flickr page is full of beautiful images of flowers, birds, and butterflies.
Like most people who go for a library science degree, I was a kid who loved libraries and books, often checking out more than I could get through in three weeks. (Admittedly, this still happens today. So many books, so little time.) Surprisingly instead of wanting to be a librarian, I figured I’d become a writer. As things tend to happen, the plan wasn’t as straight forward as I’d expected.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. Headquartered at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in Washington, D.C., BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and make it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”
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