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The name services are XML-based web services that can be invoked via SOAP or HTTP GET/POST requests. Responses can be received in one of three formats: XML wrapped in a SOAP envelope, XML, or JSON.

A characteristic of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) that distinguishes it from other mass digitization projects is the incorporation of service-based algorithms to identify scientific name strings throughout digitized content. These ‘taxonomically intelligent’ services, powered by uBio.org’s TaxonFinder and NameBank, have been incorporated into the BHL Portal to provide names-based interfaces into taxonomic literature.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History hosted a day long symposium to celebrate 300 years of Linnaean taxonomy. In addition to the symposium, the museum featured an exhibition of a 1st Edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae. The exhibition, “A Tribute to Carl Linnaeus, 1707-1778” (November 13-14) features the author’s own copy of Systema Naturae (courtesy of the Swedish Embassy), with illustrations by Georg Dionysius Ehret. At the evening reception, the Biodiversity Heritage Library displayed the online version of the 1758 edition of Systema (from the Missouri Botanical Garden Library) and there was also an appearance by Linnaeus [as envisioned by Hans Odöö].

“This site displays an elegantly designed simplicity that the web developer in me finds irresistible. It’s a marketing nightmare, but a researcher’s dream – a system to quickly and easily find the information you want with minimal distractions.”

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is currently scanning material five locations around the world. As materials are scanned, they are deposited directly into the Internet Archive repository.

Suzanne C. Pilsk and Martin R. Kalfatovic (Smithsonian Institution Libraries) made an hour long presentation, “The Biodiversity Heritage Library Mass Digitizing Project: A Grandeur in this View of Digital Libraries”, on the BHL at the LITA National Forum held in Denver, Colorado, October 6, 2007.

Eight BHL member staff attended the 3rd Open Content Alliance meeting held in San Francisco on October 17, 2007. In addition to the main meeting, BHL member staff took to time to arrange a number of technical meetings with Internet Archive staff, the development team of the OpenLibrary.org project, and others in the Bay Area.