If you caught our blog post yesterday, then you know that this week we’re starting a mini-series within our larger BHL and Our Users series. This mini-series spotlights a few of the EOL Fellows – scientists who have been awarded a fellowship through the EOL Rubenstein Fellows Competition – and discusses not only their work but also how they use BHL to support it. For this, our first post, we feature Dr. Breda Zimkus, a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Genetics Resources Facility Project Manager at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

Q: What are your research interests/field(s) of study & where do you do the bulk of your work (country)?

A: I am a biologist interested in phylogenetics, biogeography and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. My research integrates a broad range of techniques, including fieldwork, taxonomy and molecular systematics to interpret patterns of speciation and diversity. I am particularly interested in the phylogenetic diversification of African amphibians and use of molecular tools to define species boundaries. I have worked in many East African countries (Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania), and my most recent fieldwork in May/June 2011 was in the Central African country of Gabon where I completed a survey of amphibians of the Batéké Plateau National Park, which borders the Republic of Congo.

Q: In the program, Fellowships are expected to serve as a complimentary funding source to existing funding that supports your primary research activities. Please describe what you primary research activities are.

A: I am currently studying a number of frog groups that are distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, including puddle frogs (Phrynobatrachidae), rocket frogs (Ptychadenidae) and sand frogs (Pyxicephalidae: Tomopterna). I am using molecular systematics to identify cryptic species and investigating the complex diversification patterns of these lineages across the continent. In addition to being an Encyclopedia of Life Rubenstein Fellow this past year, I was also the recipient of a Ethel K. Allen, Sigma Delta Epsilon/Graduate Women In Science Fellowship, which funded my post-doctoral work on rocket frogs.

Q: Please describe how you use EOL to disseminate or support your primary research activities, or what your primary duties related to EOL are.

A: Africa still remains one of the most poorly understood areas for amphibians globally, with species rarely collected and basic data on their ecology and distribution incompletely understood. Consequently, conservation status is only adequately known for some species. This lack of knowledge is particularly worrying as concentrations of species are found in a number of sub-Saharan regions seriously threatened by environmental change. There is also a serious conservation risk to amphibians globally with the emerging prevalence of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis, possibly responsible for the extinction of many species. As an EOL fellow, I developed the African amphibian Lifedesk, so basic taxonomic data could be assembled to facilitate research. The website serves as a gateway for information regarding African amphibian species, where participants will write and edit species pages, upload images, and maintain bibliographic resources. In addition to serving as a stand-alone resource, this LifeDesk feeds content directly into the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) and AmphibiaWeb.

Q: Who is your Mentor, what is their area of interest (research activities), and how have they supported you throughout your Fellowship?

A: I have two mentors for this project. My post-doctoral research, including my EOL work, is currently being conducted in the laboratory of Dr. James Hanken of Harvard University. The Hanken Lab studies the evolution of morphology, developmental biology, and systematics and serves as a community research facility for NSF’s AmphibiaTree project. Most work focuses on amphibians but otherwise addresses a wide range of topics, taxa and methodologies. I am conducting my EOL Fellowship work in collaboration with Dr. Simon Loader, Director of the Molecular Systematics Laboratory and Post-doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Biogeography, University of Basel. His research is specifically focused on the phylogenetic diversification of African amphibians, using an integrative approach to interpret patterns of diversity in Africa.

Q: How does BHL support your Fellows activities, as well as those research activities that fall outside of your duties as an EOL Fellow?

A: BHL has been integral to both my EOL Fellow work and my primary research on discovering African amphibians species because original species descriptions and taxonomic revisions are essential to those working on species identification. One of the major goals of the African amphibians Lifedesk is to make PDFs of all non-copyrighted material available to herpetologists around the world. Many of the most important African amphibian research was done in the early 20th century, and these manuscripts were published in rare journals. Thankfully, BHL has digitized many of these important works, so I was able to assemble PDFs online using the BHL website and upload them to the African amphibians Lifedesk.

Q: When did you first discover BHL?

A: I first heard about BHL from the librarians at the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University while conducting my PhD research. At that point I used BHL only if I was unable to find a reference in the Ernst Mayr library. When I began my EOL fellowship, I began to use BHL on a daily basis, compiling PDFs to upload to the African amphibians Lifedesk.

Q: What are your favorite features/services on BHL?

A: I am lucky to be at an institution with an amazing library system, but BHL makes biodiversity literature accessible to everyone with an internet connection. It also allows me to have electronic copies of papers on my computer, so I have them whenever I need them.

Q: If you could change one thing about BHL, or suggest one thing to be the next developmental priority for BHL, what would it be?

A: It does take time to assemble PDFs because you must locate the journal, find the issue, select each individual page of that specific issue and then have the document emailed to you. I would love to see a time when I can search for a title of a specific paper and find the PDF already assembled.

Q: Do you have a favorite book in BHL, or a book that has most supported your research activities or EOL responsibilities?

A: George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937) was a zoologist that described an incredible number of amphibians (556 species), reptiles (872 species) and fish (1,096 species). Many of Boulenger’s African amphibian descriptions were published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. I found his work published in 1900 entitled “A list of the batrachians and reptiles of the Gaboon (French Congo), with descriptions of new genera and species” to be very useful for my recent trip to Gabon.

Thank you, Dr. Zimkus, for all the valuable research you have conducted on amphibians and reptiles, and for your pioneering efforts on the African amphibians Lifedesk for EOL! We are so thrilled that BHL has been a part of the endeavor, particularly as the library at your home institution is one of the key members of BHL (Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University)! As to your desire to eventually be able to find already-assembled PDF articles from BHL, we have been in the process of creating Citebank for some time now, with just that objective in mind. Citebank will act as an article repository, indexing and providing PDFs to articles found within larger journals and books in BHL. Though still in the developmental stage, Citebank is live on the web and already indexes and provides PDFs for a great deal of articles from BHL. We hope that this, and our other BHL efforts, will continue to play an important role in your vital research and conservation activities!

For the past couple weeks you’ve seen a lot from us on the blog, Twitter and Facebook about Charles Darwin with our recent release of the Charles Darwin Library on BHL. This week, we feature a user dedicated to saving the remaining two endemic non-flying mammal species of Hispaniola, and his project, “The Last Survivors,” is funded by the Darwin Initiative Fund. The beauty of this story from a socially-networked perspective? This user actually discovered BHL via Twitter! Social Media is a beautiful thing! So, without further ado, meet Dr. Jose Nunez-Mino!

Q: What is your title, institutional affiliation, and area of interest?

A: Dr. Jose Nunez-Mino. I work for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT). I am the field project manager for “The Last Survivors” which is financed by the United Kingdom government Darwin Initiative Fund. The project is a collaboration between organizations in the United Kingdom (DWCT and the Zoological Society of London) and the Dominican Republic (Hispaniolan Ornithological Society and the Dominican Republic National Zoo).

I am a forest ecologist and conservation biologist. My work involves carrying out research and trying to conserve the last two endemic non-flying mammal species of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) which are the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) and Hispaniolan Hutia (Plagiodontia aedium). Both species are currently listed as endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We take a very holistic approach which includes investigations on current and past distributions of both species, behavioral studies, genetic studies, capacity building (training) of in-country biologists and raising awareness of both species. You can find out about our project from our website: www.thelastsurvivors.org.

Q: How long have you been in your field of study?

A: I have been involved in conservation in one way or another for the whole of my life but have been involved professionally for eight years. I started my current job in October 2009.

Q: When did you first discover BHL?

A: About six months ago – via Twitter! It was quite a discovery for me. Having spent many hours in old, dusty libraries (oddly I grew quite fond of old, dusty libraries) during my academic years, it was great to discover a resources like this which offers you so much from the comfort of your desk.

Q: What is your opinion of BHL and how has it impacted your research?

A: BHL is an amazing resource. Not only is it useful but I love the way it has been put together so that it is also very user friendly. For me it means that we can look up information relating to the two species we are studying. Both were described in the 1830s but very little is known about them though some information is available in the historical literature. For example, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo was one of the original Spanish colonizers to come to Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic) and was the first to write about hutias in 1535 when he mentions that they were widely eaten and very tasty! Confirming that this species was killed and eaten in that period. We have also been able to access some great drawings of the species which we can use to both raise awareness and educate – my favorite is one from 1910 of a solenodon.

Q: How often do you use BHL?

A: Not as much as I’d like. My job takes me from my desk quite regularly (which is a good thing!) to areas where there is no phone receptions or internet (yes, there are still some places like this left). On average, probably once a month.

Q: How do you usually use BHL (read the titles online/download whole PDFs/Select Pages to Download/etc.)?

A: I start by having a look and reading online, but usually end up downloading the material to read it offline.

Q: What are your favorite features/services on BHL?

A: The way you can download a list of all your search results which allows you to come back and have a look at the material later on.

Q: If you could change one thing about BHL, what would it be, or what developmental aspect would you like the BHL team to focus on next?

A: I’d like to save my favorite articles on the website and then make them available to look at by other people. That would enable visitors to our website and Facebook page to easily access the fantastic historical material available on BHL. Maybe you can do that already and I just haven’t discovered it yet!

It would also be great if BHL could link directly into something like Amazon so that you can download books and articles to reading devices with one click.

Q: If you had to choose one title/item in BHL that has most impacted your research, or one item that you prefer above any other in BHL, what would it be and why?

A: Undoubtedly if would have to be Solenodon Paradoxus which was written in 1910. Although this book is over 100 years old, our level of knowledge about this species (actually both species) has not moved on much since then. This book provides a baseline of knowledge for anyone wanting to know more about these amazing endangered and venomous mammals.

Thank you, Dr. Nunez-Mino, for taking the time to share your experiences with BHL and tell us about the critical work that you do to save two such adorable creatures.

As to your suggestions for BHL, while a partnership with Amazon might be (at least currently) out of our reach, a project that has long been in development for BHL may provide some of the functionality related to saving and sharing articles that you desire. The project is called Citebank, and it will eventually serve as an article repository for BHL, indexing and allowing users to find items at the article level. Currently, any PDFs that you create using the “Select Pages to Download” feature on BHL for which you enter at least title-level information during the generation process are stored and indexed on Citebank. You can search the repository for these articles, and others can access them (including the full PDF that you originally generated) as well. While Citebank is still in development, we have hopes that this service will eventually meet the critical article needs of our users.