April, May, and June were busy months for processing license agreements and adding new in-copyright titles: 35 in all, bringing our total to 56 for the first half of 2016! Many licensors outside the BHL Consortium gave permission for their content, which adds contemporary scholarship to the collection already rich in legacy literature.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Below is the full list of in-copyright titles added between April 1st and June 30th, 2016. We thank the individuals and organizations who so generously gave BHL permission to make them available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license:

1. Ohio Coleopterist Society
   1. Ohio Beetles Bulletin (2009–)
2. Wim Vader and fellow editors
   1. Amphipod Newsletter (1972–)
3. Maryland Ornithological Society
   1. Field List of the Birds of Maryland (3rd. Ed.)
   2. Maryland Birdlife (1945–)
   3. The Yellowthroat (1980–)
4. Mantis Study Group
   1. Mantis Study Group Newsletter (1996-2007)
5. Phasmid Study Group
   1. Phasmid Studies (1992–)
6. Mary Bamas Pomeroy
   1. Favorite Wildflowers of the West Coast
7. New York Entomological Society
   1. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society (1923-1965)
   2. Entomologica Americana (1926-1975)
   3. Journal of the New York Entomological Society (1923-1999)
8. Western Carolina Botanical Club
   1. Shortia (1979–)
9. Southern California Botanists
   1. A Flora of the Santa Rosa Plateau, Southern California 
   2. Crossosoma (1975–)
   3. Endangered Plant Communities of Southern California
   4. Flora and Ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains (1st and 2nd Eds.)
   5. Leaflets (1992–)
   6. SCB News (1973-1991)
10. Arkansas Native Plant Society
    1. Claytonia (1981–)
11. Pacific Seabird Group
    1. Pacific Seabird Group Bulletin (1974-1993)
    2. Pacific Seabirds (1994–)
12. Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University
    1. Bulletin of Popular Information (1911-1939)
    2. Arnoldia (1940–)
13. Wildlife Conservation Society
    1. Zoologica (1907-1973)
14.  Micropalaeontological Society
    1. A Stereo-Atlas of Ostracod Shells (1973-1999)
15. Delaware Native Plant Society
    1. The Turk’s Cap (1998–)
16. Tennessee Ornithological Society
    1. The Migrant (1930–)
    2. The Tennessee Warbler (2000–)
17. Wilson Ornithological Society
    1. The Wilson Bulletin (1894-2005)
    2. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology (2006–)
18. Queensland Museum
    1. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum (1912–)
19. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
    1. Muelleria: An Australian Journal of Botany (1995–)
20. Illinois Ornithological Society
    1. Meadowlark (1992–)
21. Northern California Botanists
    1. Botanical Leaflets (2007–)

As in the previous quarter, most of the new titles are the result of the Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature (EABL) project. EABL solicits print and digital materials from content providers across the United States, including small organizations with unique publications that reflect their niche research areas.

If you would like more information about how copyright information is displayed in BHL and how in-copyright content may be used, see the Licensing and Copyright page on the BHL wiki; for information about how to contribute in-copyright content and the complete list of in-copyright titles that BHL has secured permission for to date, see the Permissions page.

As always, check the blog and follow BHL on Facebook and Twitter (@BioDivLibrary) for updates on new content!

In case you missed our last post recapping the in-copyright content in BHL over 2015, we secured agreements with 23 licensors to provide 34 in-copyright titles for free and open access via our online collection.

BHL is thrilled that for the first few months of 2016, we have gotten permission to add 20 new in-copyright titles! Why such a sudden bounty? We have the work of the new IMLS-Funded Project: Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature (EABL) to thank for securing the large majority of these agreements and for performing the work of integrating this new content into our collection. Some of the titles below are from small natural history organizations that had previously digitized their content but lacked a way to have it represented in BHL. In the coming months, as larger content providers benefit from EABL assistance, the list will grow to include unique titles never before digitized.Our latests in-copyright titles are:

1. Arachnologische Mitteilungen from the Arachnologische Gesellschaft
2. Sage Notes from the Idaho Native Plant Society
3. Roosevelt Wild Life Station:
   1. Roosevelt Wild Life Annals
   2. Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin
4. Long Island Botanical Society Newsletter from the Long Island Botanical Society
5. California Native Plant Society:
   1. The Bay Leaf from the East Bay Chapter
   2. Mimulus Memo from the Kern Chapter
   3. The Pipevine from the Mount Lassen Chapter
6. “A short Flora of Berwickshire” by M E Braithwaite (2014)
7. Golden Gate Audubon Society’s The Gull
8. Quaestiones Entomologicae of the University of Alberta
9. The Echinoderm Newsletter from the Smithsonian Institution
10. Wisconsin Entomological Society
    1. Wisconsin Entomological Society Newsletter
    2. “Checklist of Wisconsin Dragonflies” (1993)
    3. “Wisconsin Millipeds” (1995)
    4. “Checklist of Wisconsin Centipedes (Chilopoda)” (1997)
    5. “Checklist of Wisconsin Butterflies” (2002)

Linnaean Society of New York

1. Transactions of the Linnaean Society of New York
2. Abstract of the proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York
3. Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New York

As a reminder, our in-copyright titles are availble under a Creative Commons license as specified in the volume metadata. Would you like to learn more about reusing CC licensed content? Please see our Licensing & Copyright page as linked from the footer of our website:

When I learned of the amazing opportunity to intern at the Smithsonian Libraries, I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of it. I was lucky enough to be chosen to be the Biodiversity Heritage Library In-Copyright Collection Management Intern. I knew the BHL was a digital library but, having no previous experience with a purely digital collection, I couldn’t begin to start making a guess. What I ended up doing was so much cooler than anything I could have anticipated. I got to spend the whole week pushing my attention to detail and love of consistency to the limits. Now that may sound boring to some but this is the kind of thing I do at home for fun.

From left: Jacqueline Chapman, Bianca Crowley, Kam Wies

Because BHL is a digital library, copyright plays a huge role in their work. Some of the materials being digitized are still under copyright, which means that the BHL has to get permission, in writing, for the materials to be added to their collection.

Getting permission is just step one. Some copyright holders ask that there be what’s called a “moving wall” (or embargo). In academic publishing, access is sometimes only allowed to paid subscribers so publishers may not want their most current materials to be made accessible for free (see Wikipedia for more information). This can be a one year moving wall or even a fourteen year moving wall. It all depends on the wishes of the publisher.

BHL wants to make sure they can provide as much access as possible and having the option for a moving wall available to a publisher allows for that. The issue with having a bunch of publications that all have different moving walls is you then have to keep track of and keep up with them every year.

BHL manages this process by using an issue tracking system (again, see Wikipedia for more information). They create ‘issues’ for each publication title that has a moving wall in order to make sure it is being updated every year as appropriate. My first task was to make sure all of the permissions titles that had moving walls (about 60 of them), had open and up to date issues in the tracking system. I also had to make sure that there was an issue for each title because some publications had multiple titles and each title needed an issue created for it. I really loved this. Making sure information is accurate across multiple platforms (issue tracker, BHL website, permissions titles spreadsheet) and consistently formatted means that work can run easier, no matter who in the world is using the system.

Once I completed that introductory task, I moved on to the process of ‘reconciling moving walls’. I had to review each moving wall issue in the tracking system to make sure they were up to date. For example, if a title had a 3 year moving wall, 2013 should now be in BHL. I checked BHL to make sure the title was in the collection. Then reviewed the title for any gaps in the journal run or if we were missing the new year allowed due to the moving wall. If there were any missing materials, I had to find out which of the Contributor libraries had the missing materials and ask them to digitize it. There were so many little steps and details to pay attention to and I had fun delving into each issue.

This was a project that may have been created to help the BHL keep on point with their digitization of new materials but it was built with me in mind: someone who can easily work across multiple platforms and screens, has an acute attention to detail and strong desire to achieve consistency. This week was so interesting and informative. I had so much fun not only doing the project for the BHL but meeting all the different people who make the Smithsonian Libraries run smoothly. We did tours of multiple libraries and learned so much about the collections and how the librarians help the researchers. I can only hope that when I graduate I find a job that is as much as fun as this internship has been.

What do the Scarborough District, tigers, Socieded Cientifica Argentina, Auckland Institute and Museum, birds and the Svjatoj Nos wetlands have in common?

Actually not much…

…except that they are the newest in-copyright additions to the BHL collection!

If you still think that BHL is strictly about legacy literature, think again. Although still a very small portion of our collection, in-copyright titles now total over 400 from 170 licensors. Please see our Permissions page to learn more about the in-copyright content in our collection.

Where possible, BHL acquires permission in the form of a signed license agreement from copyright holders to digitize post-1922 publications. These publications are available for open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Users are welcome to reuse the in-copyright content in BHL so long as they adhere to the terms of the CC license, meaning:

• you attribute the content to the copyright holder,
• use the content for non-commercial purposes such as educational or personal use
• share the content under the same license (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Our latest (bio)diverse mix of titles hails from all over the world:

The Natural History of the Scarborough District
Since 1889, the Scarborough Field Naturalists’ Society has encouraged the organization of “amateur naturalists’ with interests throughout the spectrum of natural history.” BHL is pleased to include this publication in our collection as we feel we are the perfect place for these types of smaller scholarly society publications.

Tracking tigers : a review of the status of tiger, Asian elephant, gaur, and banteng in Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia, and Yunnan (China), with recommendations for future conservation action by Will Duckworth and Simon Hedges (1998)
In 1998 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indochina programme commissioned a report on the status of large mammals. “It was an incredible piece of work and represents an expertly pieced together compilation of data and information from every source possible” explains Michael Baltzer, Director of the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative. As the first in-copyright WWF publication to become a part of the BHL collection, we hope this is a good sign for additional WWF publications to come.

Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica Argentina
A pioneering institution for scientific study in Argentina since 1872, the Sociedad Cientifica Argentina has published its Anales for over 130 years. BHL is thrilled to be able to provide this complete publication through the present day. Digitization of the Anales is underway and should be available shortly.

Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum and Poirieria
The Auckland Museum Institute dates back to 1867 when it assumed the management of the Auckland Museum and became the regional representative of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Its Bulletin covers a spectrum of topics related to natural and human history. The Auckland Shell Club was formed in 1931 as a section of the Auckland Museum Institute, dedicated to “all things molluscan, ie: shell collecting (recent and fossil), conchology and malacology (study of shells and shellfish), and molluscan ecology and conservation.” These publications will be available in BHL soon.

Ornithological Society of Turkey Bird reports and Ornithological Society of Turkey Bulletins 
In 1978, the Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME) formed as a successor to the Ornithological Society of Turkey. Its purpose is to promote research and address conservation issues for birds in the region between, “between Europe, China and the Horn of Africa on two major migration flyways crossing Central Asia’s wind-swept steppes, the Caucasus’s towering mountains, Arabia’s wide arid deserts and the tropical seas of the Indian Ocean.” Previously, the OSME gave permission for BHL to include Sandgrouse and its Bulletin in our collection. It has now added 2 more titles, published under its former name. Please stay tuned for digital copies of the Bird reports and Bulletins to appear in the coming weeks.

Ecology of the Svjatoj Nos wetlands, Lake Baikal by J. Mlíkovský & P. Stýblo (eds.)

These stunning wetlands are located on the Kola Peninsula along one of the most northeastern coasts in Russia. BHL is pleased to make this work available in our collection soon.

Digitization is in progress for these titles and you can see them appearing via our recent additions list.

Want to see more in-copyright content in BHL? Let us know what you’d like to see!

Did you know that there is modern literature in our collection?

We have permission with over 165 licensors to provide nearly 400 in-copyright titles for free and open access under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. In other words, we have contemporary titles in our collection that you are free to use so long as you attribute the content to the copyright holder, use the content for educational or personal use only (commercial use is NOT allowed) and share the content under the same license (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0). You can even create derivatives of the content for reuse so long as you adhere to the terms of the license.

BHL is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of 4 new in-copyright titles that we are in the process of adding to our collection:

The San Diego Shell Club [http://www.sandiegoshellclub.com/]
Since 1961, the San Diego Shell Club has been promoting research and appreciation of Mollusca through “lectures, club meetings and field trips,” as well as through their peer-reviewed publication, The Festivus. The Club has relationships with natural history museums in southern California including the San Diego Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

• BHL is looking forward to providing back-issues of The Festivus through 2013 in our collection soon. Please monitor our recent additions page to track its progress. The San Diego Shell Club offers copies of their current volume for a very affordable fee via their website.

California Botanical Society [http://calbotsoc.org/madrono/]
Dedicated to the advancement of Western American botany, the California Botanical Society has been operating since 1913. Through its peer-reviewed publication, annual banquet, research support, graduate student support and community outreach it continues to play a major role in promoting scientific study and raising awareness about this important niche area of botany.

• Digitization of Madroño; a West American journal of botany is actively in progress with over 50 volumes and counting. The California Botanical Society agreed to provide in-copyright volumes for the BHL collection under a 3 year “moving wall” or embargo meaning that for 2015 we will complete digitization up through the 2012 volume. Every year thereafter, we will digitize one more volume such that the 2013 volume will be available in 2016 and so on.

Work in progress…and if you are wondering why the current series of volumes for this title is out of sequence, it is because we are still in the process of digitizing the title, modifying the metadata, and ensuring we have all volumes present and accounted for. Sequencing volumes in their proper order takes manual curation of the items in our collection. Thanks, in advance, for your patience. Notice other titles with volumes out of order? Please let us know and thanks! We’ll get to it when we can.

The Royal Society of Queensland [http://www.royalsocietyqld.org/index.htm] began with the publication of its first Proceedings in 1884 as a successor to the Philosophical Society of Queensland. Over 150 years later, the Society is not only the oldest scientific institution in Queensland but is still producing its Proceedings on an annual basis. Entirely run by volunteers, the Society “seeks to increase awareness of the sciences in Queensland” by promoting “original research and the application of scientific method and knowledge to policy-making and decision-making.”

• Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. BHL digitized early volumes of the Society’s publication in 2009 and is in the process of digitizing through 1955. Please stay tuned for more volumes to appear in the coming weeks.
• The earliest volumes of the Society were published as the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Queensland vol.1 (1859) to vol.3 (1872) and will be digitized to BHL as well. These early volumes are proving tricky to track down within our BHL consortium partner holdings but where there’s a will, there’s a way…

Would you like to contribute any in-copyright content to the BHL? If we hold the content in one of our partner libraries we would be happy to digitize it under a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and make it available via our website. Please see our Permissions page for more information and contact us [http://biodiversitylibrary.org/contact].