This year, five NDSR residents will help us plan the next generation of BHL. You can stay up-to-date with their progress and findings on the new NDSR at BHL blog!

As part of “Foundations to Actions: Extending Innovations in Digital Libraries in Partnership with NDSR Learners,” the BHL NDSR residents, stationed at geographically-dispersed BHL partner institutions, will work on interrelated projects to improve the discoverability and functionality of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This project is a National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) program led by the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Map is from a poster presented at Digital Preservation 2016 by Joseph deVeer , Christine Giannoni , Douglas Holland , Richard Hulser , Martin Kalfatovic, Constance Rinaldo, Trish Rose-Sandler, Carolyn Sheffield, and Leora Siegel. Graphic by Grace Costantino.

The NDSR at BHL blog will features posts from the residents about project developments, successes, and challenges as well as discussions about biodiversity librarianship and content and data management in digital libraries. The residents also hope that the blog will help facilitate communication between librarians, archivists, and others interested in BHL and digital librarianship.

Click here to explore the NDSR at BHL blog. You can follow the blog to receive email notifications about new posts.

The residents and their respective host institutions and mentors are: Alicia Esquivel (Chicago Botanic Garden, mentor Leora Siegel); Marissa Kings (Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, mentor Richard Hulser); Pamela McClanahan (Smithsonian Libraries, mentors Carolyn Sheffield and Martin R. Kalfatovic); Katie Mika (Harvard University: MCZ, mentors Constance Rinaldo and Joseph deVeer); and Ariadne Rehbein (Missouri Botanical Garden, mentors Doug Holland and Trish Rose-Sandler). You can learn more about each of the residents in the bios below.

Meet the BHL NDSR Residents!

Alicia Esquivel

Alicia Esquivel is the NDSR resident at Chicago Botanic Garden working on a content analysis of BHL. She graduated from the University of Texas’ School of Information in 2016 with a MS in Information Science. While at UT she worked as a graduate research assistant at the Fine Arts Library and at the Harry Ransom Center as a digitization specialist working with audio materials. She discovered the world of bioinformatics while working on her capstone project with the UT entomology department. Alicia is enthusiastic about transforming data into useful information to facilitate research.

Marissa Kings 

Marissa Kings is the NDSR Resident at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Her project, “Digital Library Best Practices Analysis”, focuses on identifying high value tools and services used by large-scale digital libraries which might be applied to the next generation of the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Marissa graduated with her MLIS degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2015, where she concentrated in Archival Studies. She has previously worked and interned with organizations including the Martin County Library System, Florida Institute of Technology, the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, University of Oxford Institute of Archaeology, and the Bodleian Libraries. Marissa’s professional interests include digital preservation, community archives, and crowdsourcing. She also holds an MA in Maritime Archaeology from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom and a BA in Social Sciences (concentrating in Anthropology) from Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring Los Angeles, watching tennis, and thinking about going for a run.

Tweet @marissakings with cool digital humanities projects, crowdsourcing stuff, and things to do in L.A.!

Pamela McClanahan 

Pam McClanahan holds a MLS specializing in Archives, Records and Information Management from the University of Maryland ischool and has completed library and archival assessments and usability studies for local cultural heritage institutions. Her background is in the nonprofit fundraising field and environmental conservation, but is making a switch to the information profession.

For the National Digital Stewardship Residency program, Pam’s host site is Smithsonian Libraries where she will be working on a user needs and usability analysis to define recommendations and requirements for expanding the Biodiversity Heritage Library digital library functionality. Pam enjoys spending time with family and friends, being on the Chesapeake Bay, and working on craft projects. You can connect with Pam on Twitter here: @Pam_McClanahan!

Katie Mika 

Katie Mika graduated from Simmons College in 2015 with Masters’ degrees in History (MA) and Library and Information Science (MS). Katie previously held positions as a Digital Archivist and an Archives Processing Assistant. Her professional interests are focused on providing open and reliable access to information and issues related to intellectual freedom. Katie is carrying out her Residency at the Ernst Mayr Library at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology where she will develop tools and methodologies for importing crowdsourced data and corrections to enhance discovery in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Before moving to the Boston area for Graduate School, Katie worked as a Ski Instructor, and she enjoys cooking, skiing, and trail running.

Ariadne Rehbein 

Ariadne (Ari) Rehbein earned her Master of Library Science and Master of Information Science from Indiana University Bloomington and a B.A. with High Honors in English Literature from UC San Diego.

Ariadne brings her skills in digital collections interface design and development, outreach, and metadata to the “Treasures Unlocked” project, developed through her work for Indiana University’s Lilly Library and Library Technologies division, the University of Virginia Library, and the Society of American Archivists Students and New Archives Professionals Section. She is currently serving as a DPLA Community Rep.

As an NDSR Resident at the Missouri Botanical Garden, her work focuses on natural history illustrations sourced from digitized biodiversity literature. The direct results of her project will be user interface requirements and a report on image discovery best practices. She is excited to study the use of digital natural history illustrations across disciplines, by scholars and the public, to build upon the successful work of the “Art of Life” team members and citizen scientists, to gain from the expertise of digital library and botanical library professionals at the Garden, and to become more engaged in the realm of openly accessible biodiversity and cultural heritage collections.

Talk to Ariadne about #BHLib, #biodiversity, #digitalcollections, and #ndsr on Twitter @ari_rehbein!

From left: Bruno David, Martin R. Kalfatovic, Laurence Bénichou, Nancy E. Gwinn, Gildas Illien. Photo by Jean-Christophe Domenech

I was honored to participate in the signing ceremony on 2 December 2016 where Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle officially joined the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Accompanying Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn (Smithsonian Libraries Director and Chair of the BHL Members’ Council), the ceremony was held in the amphitheater of the Galeries d’Anatomie comparée et de Paléontologie. Attending on behalf of the MNHN were Dr. Bruno David (Director), Gildas Illien (head of the MNHN library), and Laurence Bénichou (Head, Publications Scientifiques).

Immediately before the meeting, I gave a presentation (“Increasing Access, Promoting Progress: Empowering Global Research through the BHL“) on BHL to representatives from a number of large natural history museums from around the world (including BHL partners American Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum of Natural History, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Natural History Museum (London), National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Libraries), Natural History Museum Los Angeles County, and Naturalis Biodiversity Center).

Earlier, on 30 November, I was treated to a tour of the MNHN library by M. Illien and had the opportunity to meet with key staff (Alice LeMaire, Anaïs Rameaux, Chloé Besombes, and Vincent Detienne) who will be participating in BHL. The following day, I met with Laurence Bénichou and the staff of the Publications Scientifiques. Topics included BHL metadata models and best practices to be reviewed for ingest of MNHN publications into BHL.

A tour of the Grand Hall of Evolution and the special exhibition, Espèces d’ours! was also arranged. The Grande Galerie de l’Évolution is an amazing four level exhibition that documents life on our planet. The installation is an outstanding re-envisioning of an older space for the 21st century. Of personal interest was the La salle des espèces menacées et disparues and a nice display of artifacts related to Raphus cucullatus.

On 2 December, before the signing ceremony, the Museum arranged for a tour of the Jardin des Plantes for me and Nancy E. Gwinn. Our host, Fabien Dupuis, Desk Officer from the office of International and European Affairs, provided an excellent tour of the gardens and greenhouses that are under the auspices of the Museum.

 

Gwinn (left) and Illien (right)

My special thanks to the staff of the Museum for arranging our visit. Gildas Illien was a superb host who juggled multiple high-profile events during this brief visit. It was a pleasure to meet him in person after many emails and phone calls. All of us at BHL and the Smithsonian look forward to working with him in the years to come. And at last, I was able to meet with Laurence Bénichou in France after seeing her in many other places around the world. Seeing her office, located in the 18th century home of noted naturalist  Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, made one appreciate the over 200 year history of scientific publishing at the Museum.

And yes, good food was had by all …

Raphus cucullatus