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Version 3 of the BHL API has been launched.

The development of a new API version was spurred by the recent introduction of full-text search to the BHL web site. In addition to the inclusion of full-text search, the entire API has been examined and updated. New methods have been added, existing methods have been modified, and many methods have been dropped entirely (or incorporated into other methods).

On behalf of the Biodiversity Heritage Library community, the BHL Executive Committee, chaired by Constance Rinaldo (Ernst Mayr Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University) and the BHL Secretariat, led by Martin Kalfatovic (Smithsonian Libraries),  offer our condolences for the irreparable losses sustained by the National Museum of Brazil (Museu Nacional) in the tragic fire of 2 September 2018.

BHL staff are currently in communication with our colleagues at BHL SciELO in São Paulo to expedite processing of additional volumes of Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro for the BHL. We are also exploring additional ways that the BHL’s extensive collection of biodiversity literature can support the work of researchers and scholars of the National Museum.

Em solidariedade ao Museu Nacional do Brasil.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library

My first experience with the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) occurred during my search for information on a certain gastropod, Tegula patagonica, for a biological research paper on the relationship between the abundance of marine gastropod shells and varying beach substrates in coastal Patagonia. I had just returned to Cornell University from field research in Bahía Bustamante, a small coastal town in Argentina, and I needed to begin compiling my research into a paper. However, there was one small catch – because Bahía Bustamante had no reliable internet connection, I had been unable to research the shells I was using for my project while in the field. Therefore, upon returning to Cornell, I had to first identify every shell I had used to the species level, and then research each species before I could even begin to write my paper.

The BHL proved the most useful resource in my search for information on Patagonian gastropods. By typing in Tegula patagonica alone, I found results not only in English and Spanish (which I could read and use for my paper), but also various other languages such as German, French, and Portuguese. Furthermore, I did not even have to leave my room to access these materials.

Back in June I attended the 50th Annual Meeting of The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) which was also host to the 25th anniversary meeting of the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Group (EBHL) as well as the 22nd annual meeting of Linnaeus Link partners. The theme of the meeting was “Botanical and Horticultural Libraries in the Modern Era: Training and Vision for the Future” and it encouraged its attendees to “[discuss] how technology has united us and what the future holds in store for us as we enter the new millennium.” The joint meeting was held between the New York Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Presentations centered around new or revamped digitization projects, implementing electronic access to materials as well as initiatives to better integrate library and archival materials into research discovery systems.

One of the most interesting titles which the MBLWHOI Library has scanned into the Biodiversity Heritage Library is Résultats des campagnes scientifiques accomplies sur son yacht par Albert Ier, prince souverain de Monaco = Results of the scientific campaigns carried out on his yacht by Albert I, sovereign prince of Monaco.

This important book series is part of the MBLWHOI Library Special Collection of the great voyages of scientific exploration. Resultats… brings together the science and data collected by the research expeditions led by Prince Albert I of Monaco (1848-1922) at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Centuries, and the title consists of 110 volumes published from 1889-1950.

The volumes were included as part of a small exhibition prepared by MBLWHOI Library staff for the current head of state of Monaco and great-grandson of Prince Albert I, HSH Prince Albert II. During the visit, MBLWHOI librarians Jen Walton and Matt Person shared past and present connections between Monaco and the MBL and between this important series and current MBL environmental and biological research.

Íris Sampaio, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries at the University of the Azores & Senckenberg am Meer, Germany, has been studying octocoral taxonomy and ecology for eleven years. Résultats des campagnes has had a significant impact on Sampaio’s research, providing her with data on octocoral species collected in the Azores. Thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, she now has easy access to the title’s public domain volumes.

BHL Program Director Martin Kalfatovic was invited to participate in a symposium, hosted by JSTOR Global Plants, at Botany 2018 in Rochester, MN entitled The Future of Digital Projects for Research & Teaching in Botany.

The symposium addressed questions such as: what existing digital projects in botany have been successful and how did they become so; what areas of need should future projects explore; how do we define success for digital projects; how do digital projects directed at students differ from those aimed at the researcher; how can we use digital projects to reach new students and interested lay people; and how are new digital projects funded and supported for the long term.