All posts in Blog Reel

It is one of the most poisonous of all known toadstools, and it is responsible for a majority of human deaths involving its type – mushrooms. It is the Amanita phalloides, more commonly known as the Death Cap. This innocent-looking fungi has been blamed for the deaths of Roman Emperor Claudius and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It causes, often fatal, damage to the kidneys and liver, and there is no known antidote.

The modern ecological movement* can be traced back to the 1970 observance of Earth Day. Now a global celebration, the first Earth Day was conceived by a United States Senator from Wisconsin and called for nationally coordinated educational programming to raise consciousness about increasing environmental degradation. Forty years later, “Earth Day is everyday” and the UN has named 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity in an effort that mirrors Sen. Gaylord Nelson’s hopeful vision.

In November 2009, the BHL started ingesting biodiversity related content from the Internet Archive. Since then, the BHL collection has grown significantly. Each week, the BHL brings in new content from the Internet Archive based on a criteria of selected Library of Congress Subject Headings and call numbers, with the aim of bringing in content related to the literature of biological diversity.

One of the most endangered species on the planet is Diceros bicornis, commonly known as the Black Rhinoceros. Distributed throughout Africa, south of the Sahara, the “current range of black rhinoceroses is bounded by Cameroon, Kenya, and South Africa but their distribution within those limits is fragmented.” The threat to the Rhino population is largely due to a demand for the species’ horns, “both for use in Chinese traditional medicine and for traditional dagger handles in Yemen.” The demand for these horns increased significantly in the 1970s as the “oil-rich Gulf States” experienced increased income. “It is estimated that between 1970 and 1992, around 96 percent of the black rhinoceros population was lost.”

If you ever owned a lizard as a pet growing up, chances are good that you owned one of EOL’s featured species, an Anolis carolinensis, or Green Anole, also sometimes called the American Chameleon, although it is not a type of chameleon. This misnomer comes from this species’ ability to turn from green to brown. This species is the only Anole species native to North America, and is found primarily in the southeastern United States.

Staff from the Biodiversity Heritage Library received the Outstanding Collaboration award from ALCTS on June 27, 2010.

So, many of you participated in our BHL User Survey 2010, and we greatly appreciate your contributions! One of the most prevalent themes throughout the range of responses that we received was that our users want to be able to submit requests for scanning. So, you spoke; we listened. Introducing the new scanning request form on BHL!