All posts by ulib-libraryjobs

Blog Reel, User Stories

Rejuvenating Centuries’ Old Botany with Phytogeography

Here’s a word of the day for you: Phytogeography. Phytogeography is a branch of biogeography that investigates the geographic distribution of plants and the effect that the earth’s surface has on that distribution. To go further down the rabbit hole, biogeography studies the distribution of species and organisms now and throughout time.

November 13, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Monsters Are Real

The Beautiful Monster: Mermaids

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed out from Spain with a mission to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, he found a whole “New World”…and something altogether more mysterious. On January 9, 1493, near the Dominican Republic, Columbus spotted three “mermaids.” How did he describe them? “They are not as beautiful as they are painted, since in some ways they have a face like a man” (History.com). The myth of a marine human extends as far back as 5,000 BCE, when the Babylonians worshipped a fish-tailed god named Oannes.

October 31, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Monsters Are Real

The Octopus…The Monster that Isn’t

Such a description conjures up images of a great behemoth, perhaps with sharp fangs, great talons, and fiery red eyes. It was given by George Shaw in a lecture to the Royal Institute and published in 1809. It is a description of the Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa), reaching a total size of 5-15 inches. Not quite the beast the description implies… The octopus, like the squid (aka kraken), has long held an unwarranted reputation as a monster.

October 30, 2014byGrace Costantino

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Monsters Are Real

Monsters Are Real…

“HIC SUNT DRACONES.” This phrase translates from the Latin as “here are dragons.” It is etched on the eastern coast of Asia on one of the oldest terrestrial globe maps, the Lenox Globe, dating to 1510. Though the phrase itself is found on only one other historical artifact, a 1504 globe crafted on an ostrich egg, the depiction of monsters and mythological beasts are common on early maps.

October 27, 2014byGrace Costantino

BHL News, Blog Reel

National Agricultural Library (NAL) Joins BHL!

We are pleased to announce that the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) has joined the Biodiversity Heritage Library as a BHL Affiliate. BHL has already ingested over 845,000 pages of NAL-digitized content made openly available within the Internet Archive. This formal partnership will allow us to strengthen our collection of agricultural-related content through direct collaboration with NAL.

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) comprises one of the largest collections of materials devoted to agriculture in the world.

October 22, 2014byGrace Costantino

BHL News, Blog Reel

The Field Book Project: Increasing Access to Researchers’ Fieldbooks

American Archives Month celebrates the importance of archives and the work of archivists as they seek to collect, organize, and make accessible unique materials from our nation’s history. The Smithsonian Field Book Project is an exciting example of such work, an effort across SI departments and divisions to increase accessibility to field book content. Field books are important because they are the primary source records of flora, fauna, and ecosystem biodiversity research.

October 21, 2014byJulia Blase

BHL News, Blog Reel

The Art of Science at Museum Victoria & in BHL!

This post originally published on the Museum Victoria blog to welcome the “Art of Science” exhibit to the museum and introduce audiences to BHL. Explore the latest BHL Australia developments in this past post. See the Museum Victoria collection in BHL here. The Art of Science exhibition presents the finest examples from Museum Victoria’s remarkable collection of natural history artworks.

October 17, 2014byNicole Kearney