All posts by ulib-libraryjobs

BHL News, Blog Reel, Campaigns, Fossil Stories

A Celebration of Fossils: Fossil Stories

October 14, 2015, is National Fossil Day, a day to celebrate all things fossils! Museums around the country are celebrating with fossil-related events the entire month of October, especially during the week of Fossil Day. BHL will be joining the fossil-mania next week with our social media campaign, Fossil Stories, running October 13-16, 2015. Rocks hold the key to the history of life on Earth. Buried within the earth are millions of years’ worth of fossils, each of which tells a unique story about the life and ecosystems that once dominated our planet. These fossils not only reveal Earth’s past, but also provide insight into our future.

October 9, 2015byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, User Stories

The scientific and historical importance of small, old collections

In 1838, Ferdinand Joseph L’Herminier, a French botanist and zoologist born in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, published the first description of the Double-striped Thick-knee (vocifer), today known by the scientific name Burhinus bistriatus vocifer [1]. L’Herminier used six specimens to describe the species, which he originally named Ædicnemus vocifer. One of the specimens that L’Herminier used for his description is housed in the Baillon Collection at the Musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire, La Châtre, France.

October 8, 2015byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Georgiana Molloy (1805-1843) Botanist, Western Australia

Georgiana Molloy arrived in the Swan River Colony (now Perth, Western Australia) in 1830 and was among the small group of British colonists who founded the settlement of Augusta in the far southwest. Today, she’s remembered as the first internationally successful female botanist in Western Australia. Specimens from two of her collections, including Type specimens, are archived in Kew Herbarium and Cambridge University Herbarium. Some of her letters and some diaries have also survived, held at the Cumbria Archive Centre in Carlisle UK and the JS Battye Library in Perth WA. Researchers unable to access these documents first-hand have been able to view some sources online for several years but things are changing.

September 24, 2015byBernice Barry

BHL News, Blog Reel

Nicole Kearney from BHL Australia visits BHL at Smithsonian Libraries

As the Coordinator of BHL Australia, I’m based at Museum Victoria in Melbourne. This is a very long way from BHL headquarters in Washington DC – in both space and time. The time difference between Melbourne and DC is 14 hours and, while I’ve had countless conversations with BHL staff via email, our opposing work hours make phone calls or virtual meetings almost impossible. Last month I was able to visit my BHL colleagues in person. I had been invited to speak at the Society of American Archivists conference about my work digitizing and transcribing the handwritten field diaries of Australia’s early naturalists.

September 18, 2015byNicole Kearney

BHL News, Blog Reel

Smorball and Beanstalk: Games that aren’t just fun to play but help science too

As game players are growing beanstalks and leading the Eugene Mellonballers to victory, historic books are being saved from digital oblivion.

August 28, 2015byTrish Rose-Sandler

Blog Reel, Featured Books

Brilliant and Remarkable Birds of Brazil

One of the joyous things about being a Librarian caring for special and rare collections is that you frequently find something remarkable and new to you in those collections. Add on the role of BHL staffer and this multiplies through digitization requests posted by users of BHL. Approximately five years ago a request was posted for a book unknown to me by an artist I had not come across. The catalogue record flagged that it was a folio of coloured plates which consigned the volume to a long queue for bespoke in-house scanning. Time passed and circumstances changed, and earlier this year I was informed that it had been scanned and was ready for loading to BHL.

August 27, 2015byAlison Harding

BHL News, Blog Reel

Historic Field Diaries from BHL Australia Now in BHL!

This post was originally published on the Museum Victoria Blog. See the original post here.

In November 2014, Museum Victoria started a project to digitize and transcribe the field diaries in our collection. These diaries, handwritten by Australia’s early field naturalists long before the days of electronic notetaking, are rich in scientific data and historic detail. They provide insights into past species distribution and abundance, as well as the trials and wonders experienced on historic expeditions. They are fascinating sources of information and yet very few people have ever read them.

August 18, 2015byNicole Kearney