All posts in BHL News

Wai Yin Pryke ( Director, National Library, National Library Board of Singapore) visited with BHL Program Director Martin R. Kalfatovic and Program Manager Carolyn Sheffield on 19 May 2016. Ms. Pryke is visiting various libraries and other institutions on an official visit to the United States. It was also an honor to have Ms. Pryke accompanied by Elaine Ng.

BHL participated in BioBlitz 2016 in Washington, D.C. on 20-21 May. A BioBlitz focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. In this special edition of the BioBlitz, held in conjunction with the National Park Service’s centenary, the D.C. BioBlitz was accompanied by a two-day Biodiversity Festival on the National Mall at Constitution Gardens.

Help improve Wikipedia articles about New Zealand species! On Sunday, 29 May 2016, the Friends of Te Papa will be hosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon focused on adding New Zealand plant and animal species to Wikipedia. The edit-a-thon will occur from 10:00-17:00 NZST at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand. You can sign up here to attend in person.

This post originally published on the Smithsonian Libraries blog Unbound.  Important entomological work. The Bahá’í faith. Secret tunnels under Washington, DC. What do all of these elements have in common? Curiously, Smithsonian scientist Harrison Gray Dyar, Jr.. Dyar, Honorary Custodian of Lepidoptera at the United States National Museum (now, National Museum of Natural History) for over 30 years, was a prolific entomologist – studying sawflies, moths, butterflies and mosquitos and publishing his findings. He described hundreds of species and genera and brought new ones to light.

BioBlitz 2016 is coming to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. May 20-21, and BHL is participating! According to the National Geographic website: “A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time.

In conjunction with the BHL Day event at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, BHL partner representatives got down to work. The combined 2016 BHL Joint Meeting was co-hosted by Natural History Museum, London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 12-15 April 2016. The first order of business was the 7th Global Meeting which took place on 12 April 2016 at the Natural History Museum. Representatives from all BHL’s global partners (with the exception of BHL México) were in attendance. A key outcome of this meeting was to merge the existing Global BHL group into the BHL as the newly formed BHL Global Committee (BGC).

2016 marks the 10th anniversary of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. As part of our #BHLat10 celebrations, and in conjunction with our Annual Members Meeting, we hosted a public BHL Day on April 12 at the Natural History Museum, London.