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Over the past few weeks, we here at the Biodiversity Heritage Library have been hard at work developing a user (that’s you!) survey. We’d like to know more about what you like about us, naturally, but we also need to know what you don’t like. As you may already be aware, the BHL is a work in progress. As such, we need your input to help guide the progression of our work over the next few years. We humbly request your assistance in responding to the BHL Survey 2010. This survey is a key component in our continuing efforts to build a library which is responsive to and serves the needs of our user communities (again, that’s you!). We can’t emphasize enough the value we place on your responses and ideas. They are sincerely appreciated and vital to further development.

The United Nations has been marking years for special observation since 1959. Since then, international relief agencies have rallied around Human Rights (1968), Apartheid (1978/79), Literacy (1994), and other issues that pose a global threat to sustained peace and prosperity. This year, the United Nations has named 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. The message is pretty simple. Individual lives are dependent on a healthy network of life. Human activity in the form of industry and commerce poses a threat to the health of that network.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is coming into a new era complete with a new look, new content, and new features. The first, most obvious, change will be the adoption of a new BLUE color scheme. Users will not be faced with the need to adapt to a new UI environment; we’re simply changing color as a way of marking BHL’s evolution.

BHL has released a beta version of its OpenURL Resolver API for testing. A full description of the service is available at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/openurlhelp.aspx. Any repository containing citations to biodiversity literature can use this API to determine whether a given book, volume, article, and/or page is available online through BHL. The service supports both OpenURL 0.1 and OpenURL 1.0 query formats, and can return its response in JSON, XML, or HTML format, providing flexibility for data exchange.

BHL developers have incorporated the Internet Archive’s open source book viewing application into the BHL portal, providing a new interface for using BHL’s digital books.

In May 2009, two new members were accepted into the Biodiversity Heritage Library:These two important institutions will greatly contribute to the strength of the BHL. Below is a little bit of information about our newest members. Look forward to more detailed profiles of these two libraries as well as in depth overviews of the original ten members.

The BHL portal is constantly changing as new features are added and old ones imporoved. Still, to better help you use the BHL portal “as it is” today, some BHL member library staff have created some quick “how to” videos to assist your use of the portal.