Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL
Blog Reel, User Stories

Time Traveling with BHL: Open Access to Historic Data Empowers Modern Research…At Home
Quote from Dr. Nicholas Pyenson about BHL's impact

As the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) has revolutionized global research by providing free, worldwide access to knowledge about life on Earth. BHL’s digital collections provide researchers with the information they need to document Earth’s species, conserve biodiversity, research the history of science, and confront formidable challenges — from extinction crises to climate change and the spread of zoonotic diseases.

Digital access to this essential literature is especially important right now, as the COVID-19 pandemic makes physical access to collections and institutional libraries impossible for many. Open access digital libraries like BHL make continued research possible.

Dr. Nicholas Pyenson, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals in the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Paleobiology, has been a longtime user of and advocate for BHL. The historic data accessible through publications in BHL underpins much of his work. For example,  the Discovery Reports, which present the results of groundbreaking investigations into the biology of whales, helped inform Pyenson’s studies on the evolution of cetacean body size and whale hearing.

Man in a blue coat on a beach investigating whale bones

Dr. Nicholas Pyenson at Cuverville Island, Antarctica. Photo credit: Martha Stewart.

While BHL has been a valued resource for Pyenson for many years, digital access to scientific literature has become especially important as research has shifted to a telework environment.

“As a researcher, the Biodiversity Heritage Library gives me the opportunity to seek and find scientific literature especially from home, during this pandemic — that’s something so valuable to me, when I’m far away from the Smithsonian Libraries’ many branches and deep storage archives,” emphasizes Pyenson. “Access to words, images, and ideas that are either decades or centuries old drives so much of my work. It also gives me a sense of connection to people I’ve never met, but nonetheless seem very real for the questions I want to answer.”

Pyenson shares more about BHL’s impact during these unprecedented times on the Smithsonian Libraries’ YouTube channel.

As our understanding of the natural world deepens and grows, trusted, openly available resources become ever more important. BHL’s Secretariat and technical staff, together with our colleagues at BHL’s over 80 partner institutions globally, are committed to ensuring continued access to BHL resources for researchers around the globe. Your support today is deeply impactful to our ability to continue providing support to the thousands of researchers who rely on access to our digital collections.

If you’re able to give, we welcome your contribution.

May 21, 2020by michelle.underhill
BHL News, Blog Reel

Overdue Thanks and Recognition for Rusty Russell and Lesley Parilla

This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian Field Book Project blog.

Since its inception, the Field Book Project has evolved from a single project focused on cataloging Smithsonian collections into a growing portfolio of projects, at first focusing on enhancing access to those same collections through conservation and digitization of the Smithsonian materials, and now as a multi-institutional digital initiative to provide open access to field notes through the Biodiversity Heritage Library. As with so many long-term projects or programs, staff have come and gone over the years. Many of those staff have made significant contributions and we try to share adequate thanks and acknowledgment for each.

Two individuals who were especially key to the project’s success—Rusty Russell, one of the original PI’s, and Lesley Parilla, the project’s longest serving cataloger—recently moved on to new positions. Both were integral to the project and we couldn’t be more grateful for their contributions. So with great pleasure, the current project team extends both their congratulations on the next phase of their respective careers and acknowledgement to both for their contributions.

In fact, when we look back it’s truly hard to imagine the Field Book Project taking off in quite the way it did without Rusty’s own intellectual investment and collaborative spirit. At the time the project kicked off, Rusty was serving as Collections Manager in the Department of Botany in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In many ways, it was his interest in the United States Exploring Expedition, also known as the Wilkes Expedition, and his efforts to track down some of the original source materials that became a major impetus for the project. A four-year voyage from 1838-1842, the Wilkes Expedition covered an impressive expanse of land and sea, including regions of the Pacific Northwest, down to Tierra del Fuego, on to Antarctica, not to mention the Fiji Islands. The expedition resulted in one of the largest, early collections of natural history specimens and artifacts—related not just to botany, but also ornithology, marine biology, anthropology and other fields—to be deposited in what was then known as the National Museum.

As with so many expeditions and other collecting events, over time the field notes and other original documentation from this expedition had become separated from the specimens and artifacts. If you’ve been following the Field Book Project blog, you already know that scientists’ field notes can be especially tricky to track down as they are often treated as what we refer to as “ancillary collections”, that is material that might support understanding of the main collections but because of their format are generally not managed using the same catalogs as those collections. As a result, field notes might be found in libraries, archives, or curators’ offices. And it can be quite difficult to know not only which department to start with but even which museum. Thus it can quickly become a wild goose chase.

For Rusty, though, rather than simply focusing all of his time and energy on finding the field notes relevant to his own interests, he started asking the bigger question: how can we make these kinds of materials easier to find in general?

Those who know Rusty will not be surprised that he approached the question in his typical collaborative fashion and began discussing possible strategies with colleagues both within and beyond the Smithsonian. Then, in 2009, he and Anne Van Camp, Director of Smithsonian Institution Archives, submitted a successful grant proposal to the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). As enthusiasm for the project spread, additional funding was brought in to support conservation and digitization of Smithsonian field notes, thanks to Smithsonian Women’s Committee, Save America’s Treasures, and others. More recently, the Arcadia Fund also provided generous funding, enabling us to continue both cataloging and digitizing Smithsonian field book collections, and CLIR has provided additional support to collaborate across 10 institutions to digitize and provide open access to their field note collections as well.

Lesley Parilla was one of our first catalogers, joining the project in 2011 as part of that first CLIR grant, so she was with us as the project continued to evolve. Lesley was already part of the Smithsonian family when she started, having worked as part of the Entomology Department where she took on a variety of tasks, including creating finding aids for field books and oral histories. Her transition to the Field Book Project seemed a natural fit!

In her six years with us, Lesley helped catalog almost half of the field books cataloged for the project so far. That’s over 4000 field book records! Not to mention the over 700 related collection and authority records she created as well. To say that Lesley’s work has increased the discoverability of Smithsonian’s field books would be an understatement. As the project progressed, Lesley also started taking on more responsibilities beyond cataloging, from managing the field book record database and website, to creating project documentation and training our interns. To better reflect her increased responsibilities, in 2015 Lesley became our Cataloging Coordinator, juggling her cataloging work along with the other behind-the-scenes tasks.

A great thing about having Lesley on the project was her knack for stories. She was always coming across interesting stories and threads when cataloging, and was happy to share her finds. She was a regular contributor to our different social media outlets (including this blog) where she would write about the fascinating things she found while cataloging field books. The topics that could pique her interest spanned the gamut. One day she could write about how the study of an expedition is supported by field books, herbarium sheets and published material, the next she would share an illustration of Albatross courtship behavior, and finally she’d write about how often researchers seemed to come across moonshiners in the field. Regardless of the topic at hand, what was always evident was Lesley’s enthusiasm for the project, the field books, and the researchers. Lesley’s eye for interesting details was our gain. This compelling storytelling wasn’t limited to the Field Book Project social media accounts. Lesley is a gregarious storyteller, and on any given day will have something new to share with friends and coworkers, be it about the material she is cataloging or the career of chef Jacques Pépin. Lesley moved on earlier this year to become an original cataloger for Smithsonian Libraries. While we were sad to see her leave the project, we are so happy her skills and enthusiasm will be supporting the Smithsonian in other ways.

Rusty has also since moved on and is now Director of the Gantz Family Collections Center at the Field Museum of Natural History. While we miss having Rusty at the Smithsonian, we are incredibly happy for him and the Field Museum. It is also perhaps a bit serendipitous for us, too, as the Library at the Field Museum is not only a BHL Member but also one of the partners on the current CLIR grant. So we’re feeling pretty lucky that they have a new leader in their corner who understands and loves field notes as much as we do.

So a hearty congratulations to Rusty and Lesley and warmest wishes to you both from the Smithsonian Field Book Project and BHL Field Notes Project teams!

June 2, 2017by lmyrick
Blog Reel, User Stories

Supporting Historical Paleontological Research

In 1911, the Smithsonian Institution debuted the world’s first large mounted Camptosaurus skeleton at its newly-opened Natural History building. The display featured two specimens erected side-by-side, one identified as Camptosaurus nanus and the other as Camptosaurus browni.

Camptosaurus, whose name means “flexible lizard,” was a plant-eating, beaked dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period. Both Smithsonian specimens were uncovered at a quarry near Como Bluff, Wyoming. The smaller of the specimens, dubbed C. nanus, was collected in 1882 by William Reed as part of a collecting expedition funded by the United States Geological Survey and under the technical direction of famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Marsh is well-renowned for his many contributions to the field of paleontology, which include discovering a plethora of fossil animals and naming a multitude of dinosaur genera including Camptosaurus. He is also notoriously remembered for his longstanding conflict with fellow paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope – a conflict that came to be known as the Bone Wars. The intense rivalry between the two men spanned decades as each undermined, ridiculed, and even sabotaged the work of the other in a struggle for scientific dominance.

The C. nanus fossil was originally accessioned into the collection of the Yale Peabody Natural History Museum, where Marsh was the Curator of Paleontology, until, after Marsh’s death in 1899, it was transferred to the Smithsonian in compliance with legislation regarding objects collected for, or whose collection was funded by, the US government. The fossil, which was cataloged as USNM 2210, was then prepared and mounted by Norman H. Boss in 1911 alongside the larger C. browni specimen. The mounts are detailed in a 1912 publication by Charles W. Gilmore. Interestingly, the specimens are now known to represent the juvenile (previously C. nanus) and mature (previously C. browni) stages of a single species, C. disbar.

Between 2004 and 2008, the Camptosaurus fossils were taken off display to allow for repairs and the creation of casts that may be re-exhibited with the reopening of the Smithsonian’s Deep Time Hall in 2019. The authentic fossils will be placed in the museum’s collections for research and conservation reasons.

The fascinating history of USNM 2210’s journey from rock to museum is detailed by National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) volunteer Mark Lay in the article A Brief History of Camptosaurus, U.S. National Museum Specimen 2210.

Trained as a physicist and nuclear engineer, Mark began volunteering in the Vertebrate Paleontology Preparation Lab at NMNH in 2007 after retirement provided him more time to pursue personal interests like paleontology.

Mark’s early volunteer activities in the Preparation Lab involved making molds and casts, primarily of USNM 2210. Since then, after moving to work with Department of Paleobiology Information Officer Tom Jorstad, he has transitioned to providing research support for requests from the public and outside researchers, as well as organizing and developing “who, what, when, where” metadata for paleontology-related photographic images in both Department and Smithsonian Institution Archives files. He also writes articles on various aspects of the Department’s history and currently is researching the first 100 years of vertebrate fossil preparation in the Smithsonian.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has proven to be an important resource for Mark’s research, providing information both about items in the collection and historical documents regarding the history of the NMNH and other natural history museums around the US.

“I am a big fan of BHL,” lauds Mark, who uses BHL up to 4-5 times a week. “I am able to spend only roughly one day per week in the NMNH. This means I can spend only a limited amount of time examining actual hard copy documents in the museum libraries. The fact that I can access many of the same documents via BHL means that I can also work from home – greatly increasing the amount of time that I can devote to my volunteer research. In addition, BHL’s inclusion of documents from other museums and universities enables me to access documents that otherwise would be extremely difficult for me to obtain. BHL doesn’t have everything I want, but I would be hard-pressed to do my research without it.”

Currently, Mark is working on a series of glass lantern slides dating from the mid-1890s through the late 1930s, now being digitized by the Archives and possessing limited metadata. BHL has been a valuable resource for obtaining more information about the slides.

“Some of these slide images were originally used in various Smithsonian publications from that era, making positive identification of the people, fossil localities, and dates much easier,” explains Mark. “More challenging have been the slides sent to the Smithsonian from a variety of museums around the U.S. So, our identification process has first concentrated on determining an initial ‘guesstimate’ of the curator, specimen, or collecting locality involved, then backtracking through relevant Smithsonian publications to see if the image appears. If not, we backtrack our guesstimate to publications from other ‘most likely’ museums. If all that fails, we dig deeper into the view or geology portrayed to see if we can find something similar and broaden the search to include relevant publications from other sources. Having so many of the Smithsonian and other museum publications from that time period in BHL has greatly sped up this process.”

Before using BHL, Mark scoured the physical copies of these publications to find this information – a time consuming and sometimes frustrating process. This all changed when Martha Rosen, a librarian in the NMNH Smithsonian Libraries, introduced him to BHL.

“I discovered BHL 5 or 6 years ago when I was sitting in the museum reference collection reading through some old United States National Museum annual reports, and complaining that my eyes were getting ready to drop out from going through so much text all at once,” recalls Mark. “Martha mentioned that I could get the documents on-line and gave me the BHL link. I downloaded a searchable PDF of the documents and went through them that evening, actually finding relevant information faster than I could with the hard copy.”

Mark’s volunteer work with the Smithsonian has allowed him to pursue his passions, enhance collection information, and share wonderful insights into the history of the museum and fossil preparation.

“Paleontology has been a long-standing interest,” Mark asserts. “To me, there is a fascination with bringing a fossil out of the rock encasing it and learning more about it. My interest in paleontological history is more recent, but the research has turned out to be no less rewarding.”

Mark’s articles, published through the Department of Paleobiology’s website, provide him a means to share the wonderful knowledge and history he is uncovering. For instance, Mark’s Camptosaurus article highlights the sometimes tangled path of a fossil from field to museum and provides insight into the changing philosophy of fossil preparation.

As Mark explains in his article, in the early 1900s, “preparators mounted a specimen and expected it to stay mounted forever – no provision was made for repair or reconstruction.” So when preparing USNM 2210 back in 1911, “heavy copper wire and iron strapping were used as a support armature, with thinner copper wire used to secure the manus and pes elements. In general, these supports have held up well, with only slight corrosion damage, but some of the bolts and rivets securing the skeleton were drilled through real bone and secured with glue. As we have dismantled the specimen, this mounting technique has occasionally necessitated our cracking bones in order to remove them from the armature, and then making appropriate repairs.”

Modern techniques accommodate the possible future need to dismantle specimens and allow for a more-realistic presentation of specimens. “The hard plaster we have used for the casts allows for support connections to be made through the simulated bone, reducing the amount of armature seen by the public and providing a more natural looking display. The philosophy is to make all changes reversible, while also ensuring repairs are both state of the art and long lasting,” explains Mark in his article.

We’re excited to see the ways that BHL has helped support Mark’s valuable work at the Smithsonian. It’s a great example of one of the many ways that BHL inspires discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge.

__________________________

This post may contain the personal opinions of BHL users or affiliated staff and does not necessarily represent the official Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) position on these matters.

August 11, 2016by ulib-libraryjobs
Blog Reel, Featured Books

These Polychaetes Will Make You Feel All Worm and Fuzzy

The National Museum of Natural History is hosting its inaugural celebration of International Polychaete Day (July 1, 2015) in the memory of Krisitan Fauchald, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution who dedicated his life to studying and sharing annelid, or segmented, worms with the world. A majority of polychaetes are marine worms, and include common names like bristleworms, lugworms, featherduster worms, and sea mice. However, more familiar types of worms such as earthworms and leeches are also considered polychaetes. The term polychaete means “many bristles” and most of the marine worms reflect this description by bearing numerous bristles along parapods, or segmentally arranged side flaps. Polychaetes are among the most common marine organisms with roughly 10,000 species of polychaetes currently known. This remarkably diverse group of animals comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and lifestyles and can be found throughout the world living on the sea surface, down in the ocean depths, among rock pools, or in the mud and sand at the seashore. To celebrate International Polychaete Day, we wanted to share a staff favorite from BHL’s collection: A monograph of the British Marine Annelids by William McIntosh.

Illustration of the bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus)

Bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus). McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 1, pt. 1 (1873). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

Illustration of Green-leaf Worm (Eulalia viridis), Eulalia tripunctata, Eumida sanguinea, and Nereiphylla paretti.

Green-leaf Worm (Eulalia viridis), Eulalia tripunctata, Eumida sanguinea, and Nereiphylla paretti. McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 2, pt. 1 (1908). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

William Carmichael McIntosh, an eminent Scottish physician and marine biologist, is best known for being the driving force for establishing the first marine biology station in the British Isles in 1896 and compiling a compendium on marine annelid worms. Interestingly enough, McIntosh’s groundbreaking research on marine worms actually began while he was employed as a psychiatrist and superintendent of the Murthly mental hospital near Perth, Scotland. While McIntosh conducted research in other areas, most of his career was occupied with studying these marine annelids and assembling his monumental monograph. The first volume of his monograph was published in 1873 and described nemertean, or ribbon, worms in great detail. Over the course of the next 50 years, McIntosh published three additional multipart volumes describing numerous other families and species of polychaete.

Illustration of Cirratulus tentaculatus, Bristleworm (Cirratulus cirratus), Dodecaceria concharum, and Scolelepis cirratulus.

Cirratulus tentaculatus, Bristleworm (Cirratulus cirratus), Dodecaceria concharum, and Scolelepis cirratulus. McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 3, pt. 2 (1915). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

Illustration of Amphitrite figulus, Sand Mason (Lanice conchilega), Polycirrus medusa, Amphiglena mediterranea, and Branchiomma argus.

Amphitrite figulus, Sand Mason (Lanice conchilega), Polycirrus medusa, Amphiglena mediterranea, and Branchiomma argus. McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 4, pt. 1 (1922). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

McInstosh believed that these marine worms were the most beautiful of all the invertebrates with their ornamentation and coloring. In his words, they held up against the “gaudy tints of butterflies and birds or the burnished splendor of beetles” (1908, vii). As a result, McIntosh felt it important to accompany his monograph, a major scholarly achievement in its own right, with beautiful illustrations that he hoped would make polychaetes known to a much wider audience. His sister, Roberta who was his workmate on several collection trips, encouraged McIntosh to take on the task of describing the various forms and functions of the marine worms they found from which she would create exquisite drawings. After his sister’s death, another artist, A.H. Walker, took over the task of completing and adding to the beautiful drawings started by Roberta. Each volume of McIntosh’s monograph set is filled with stunning illustrations of marine worms. In his final volume, McIntosh modestly acknowledges that “there are many gaps to fill in literature, anatomy, physiology and development, but he hopes that they are left in a better state than he found them” (Stiassny 2014, 111). We wholeheartedly believe William McIntosh has more than accomplished that endeavor.

Illustration of King Ragworm (Alitta virens).

King Ragworm (Alitta virens). McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 2, pt. 2 (1910). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

Illustration of Eunice, Red Gilled Marphysa (Marphysa sanguinea), Nematonereis unicornis, Opal Worm (Arabella iricolor), Bristleworm (Hyalinoecia tubicola), and Lumbrineris latreilli.

Eunice, Red Gilled Marphysa (Marphysa sanguinea), Nematonereis unicornis, Opal Worm (Arabella iricolor), Bristleworm (Hyalinoecia tubicola), and Lumbrineris latreilli. McIntosh, William Carmichael. A monograph of the British marine annelids. v. 2, pt. 2 (1910). Contributed in BHL from Smithsonian Libraries.

Polychaetes have existed for eons and can be traced back to around 500 million years ago. Researchers have found that polychaetes play a key role in ecosystem functions, as well as  a vital link in the ocean’s natural climate control system. Furthermore, with polychaetes usually being the dominant organism in a sample of mud or sand taken from the ocean floor on any part of the planet, polychaetes are excellent indicators for marine biologists about the effects of pollutants and the natural and human-induced changes in ecosystems. Join us in marveling at these amazing animals and discovering more about why a whole day is devoted to them on this inaugural International Polychaete Day through planned activities and social media using the hashtag: #InternationalPolychaeteDay.

Reference

Stiassny, Melanie L.J. (2014). McIntosh’s Monograph of Marine Worms. Natural Histories Opulent Oceans: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library (pp. 110-113). New York: Sterling Publishing.

July 1, 2015by tcmart2
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Happy Birthday Waldo Schmitt!
Do you know what carcinology is?

It is the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, barnacles and crabs. One of the pre-eminent carcinologists (a scientist who studies crustaceans) of the first half of the twentieth century was Waldo LaSalle Schmitt. Born on this day (June 25) in 1887 in Washington, D.C., Schmitt held various positions within the United States Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian, and the United States Bureau of Fisheries throughout his career. He authored more than 70 titles over his lifetime and was a member of numerous professional organizations, including president of the Society of Systematic Zoology and the Washington Academy of Sciences and a trustee of the Bear’s Bluff Laboratories, the International Oceanographic Foundation, and the Serological Museum of Rutgers University.

While his primary field of investigation was carcinology, Schmitt actually began his career in 1907 as an Aid in Economic Botany for the United States Department of Agriculture, and his early work with natural history involved the study of both the flora and fauna of D.C. and Maryland. It was in 1910 that his true love affair with marine invertebrates began when he was appointed Aid in the Division of Marine Invertebrates at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). During the appointment, he met Mary Jane Rathbun, a fellow Smithsonian zoologist who specialized in crustaceans and described more than a thousand new species and subspecies and many higher taxa over her career. Her influence helped set Schmitt on his carcinology track, and an opportunity with the United States Bureau of Fisheries from 1911-14 helped solidify that decision.

From 1911-14, the USS Albatross, an iron-hulled, twin-screw steamer in the United States Navy that was reputedly the first research vessel ever built especially for marine research, conducted a scientific investigation of the west coast of America and Alaska. The expedition examined existing and searched for new fishing grounds around Alaska, surveyed existing fishing grounds off Washington and Oregon, and performed a biological survey of the San Francisco Bay. Schmitt served as Scientific Assistant and Naturalist aboard the Albatross during this expedition, and used the crustaceans gathered during the survey as the material for his M.A. thesis for the University of California, entitled The Marine Decapod Crustacea of California.

Following the survey, Schmitt returned to NMNH, where he held various positions in the Division of Marine Invertebrates (serving as Assistant Curator from 1915-20 and Curator from 1920-43), the Department of Biology (serving as Head Curator from 1943-47), and the Department of Zoology (Head Curator from 1947-57). After his retirement in 1957, Schmitt continued to serve as an Honorary Research Associate with the Smithsonian until his death in 1977.

Over his career, Schmitt took part in many more biological expeditions and field trips, studying crustaceans and other biodiversity in California, Florida, South America, the Galapagos Islands, and the West Indies. His last expedition took him to Antarctica.

The Palmer Peninsula Survey of the United States Antarctic Research Program studied marine invertebrates and vertebrates, geography, botany, and entomology in and around multiple Antarctic sites from 1962-63. Schmitt collected over 29,000 specimens for the NMNH during the survey, and in recognition of his work, a thirty-mile ice-covered series of outcrops at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula was named after him – Schmitt Mesa.

Schmitt kept a series of field books detailing his work on the Palmer Peninsula Survey, and two of them, covering the period from November 24, 1962-March 10, 1963, have been digitized by The Field Book Project and made available within the Biodiversity Heritage Library. They have also both been fully transcribed within the Smithsonian Transcription Center, making it even easier for you to browse Schmitt’s incredible notes (Diary 1 and Diary 2).

An interesting excerpt from one of Schmitt’s digitized field books reveals his frustrations with the “college textbook oceanographers” serving on the Palmer Peninsula Survey. As Schmitt writes,

“College ‘students’ Ph.D.’s afloat. Two men are supposed to be on duty each operation or separate phase of work. Often (or at least at times) only one is around; and that one goes down to wake his relief; then without waiting to see that the awakened man gets up and onto the job goes off to bed. [It’s inconceivable].

Expensive gear is being towed behind, needs competent watch and attention, yet when ship stops or changes course, gear (or magnetometer) is endangered & then lost, and guy in charge of it blames the bridge for not notifying him of change – “they did not tell me.” Seems as though an alert man would realize change of course, absence of engine vibrations would sense at least some change requiring instrument care or retrieval. Much the same happens when wind direction dial in lab fails to register; student is aghast, I don’t know what’s wrong, I can’t get wind direction or force – a practical or experienced man could look outside or even through port & form an estimate as any old sea dog knows. Now I know why Coast guards & others are trained in sailing ships – to get practical experience – and to be able to form personal creditable and accurate determinations of wind, weather & sea conditions.

It would seem that any college textbook-oceanographer should serve an internship at Coast guard Acad (however limited) before being entrusted with valuable expensive and hard to replace gear & instruments. Nobody would let doctors fresh out of college operate on you, unless had interns experience, yet these Ph.D’s are turned loose without any first hand real practical [knowledge] of sea, & when balled out by one who knows the sea they resent it because man has had no college training… [they think] they know better because of textbook knowledge & the degree they have, a Ph.D. never made a man out of what wasn’t.”

Be sure to check out Schmitt’s field books to get more fascinating insight into the day-to-day life of a scientist at work in Antarctica.

Schmitt’s career was truly a remarkable one, contributing extensively to our knowledge of biodiversity and particularly crustaceans. In addition to the Schmitt Mesa named in his honor, the clam genus Waldo also bears his namesake. Check out other works by Waldo Schmitt in BHL and browse photos taken by him during his many expeditions, including the Palmer Peninsula Survey, from The Field Book Project in Flickr.

June 25, 2015by ulib-libraryjobs
BHL News, Blog Reel

On the Case: An Internship in Detective Work, Library Style

My earliest memory of the Natural History Museum is climbing the steps to see the “stuffed animal zoo.” It was a very rainy day and our plans of visiting the National Zoo were put on hold. However, my mom had an idea so that I- only about four or five at the time- could still see animals. I had no idea at the time what exactly she meant by “stuffed animal,” but I had a blast and returned frequently during our yearly trips up from Florida. The stairs seemed so much taller back then. Now they’re just a quick jaunt up to something much more than a place to escape the rain. As the years and visits went by, I found that I did not get bored by the many visits. Instead, I started looking at different aspects of the museum- beyond the educational tags and videos. I started seeing the museum as an entity and watching how much it meant to the different people visiting.

I completed my undergraduate degree at Florida State University, majoring in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences with a focus on Anthropology and History. I also completed a minor and certificate program in Museum Studies. I am currently working on completing my graduate degree at Catholic University of America in Library Information Science with a focus on Cultural Heritage Information Management.

Being able to work with the Smithsonian Libraries was an amazing experience. I was able to spend the last six weeks working with the Biodiversity Heritage Library as part of the Professional Development Internship Program. Those weeks flew by as I worked on a number of different projects. One of the main projects I worked on had to do with BHL’s issue tracking system, called Gemini. With digital libraries comes an even bigger audience which can lead to even more input. BHL users are able to note problems, questions, or requests that they have with items in the library which are then sent through to the issue tracking system. I was able to help unravel some of the difficult bibliographic questions which were anchored in the age old “what were the publishers thinking?” Bibliographic leg work made me feel as though my librarian skills were taking me down the path of a detective. Except instead of a dark alley I was making my way through the cyber-shelves of OCLC, wandering through different countries’ books to add to my collective knowledge about a title.

While working on different issues in the issue tracking system I was able to make edits to the records in the BHL. After doing cataloging and metadata work in previous internships I found it very interesting to see how that data was stored and edited in a digital library setting. The collaborative effort that went into editing BHL records and answering questions in the Gemini system was incredible. With participating institutions all over the world, communication and team work was indispensable.

Working with BHL was a big change from my previous library work. It was my first time in a library setting not working with books. The transition from working with books and documents in a digitization setting to never seeing a book was not as difficult as I was expecting. I was given first-hand experience working with digital surrogates or- as some would say- totally new digital objects. Beyond this, it was really interesting to see how you can work with people all over the country and world with technology. While that seems obvious, BHL takes this to a different level and really works at having clear communication lines. The collaborative effort was probably the most inspiring part of the internship. I saw how BHL’s work can be used in other aspects of librarianship which complements my library and information science education and gives me hope and ideas for the future of librarianship.

Mariah Lewis
BHL Professional Development Intern

August 28, 2014by ntay
BHL News, Blog Reel, Campaigns

Breathing Life Into a Museum Exhibit About Extinction

You are living in the midst of earth’s sixth great extinction event. You’ve been living in it since you were born. So have your parents, your grandparents, your great-great-great-great-grandparents, and all of your ancestors for about 10,000 years. It dates back to the extinction of the mammoths and has been increasingly accelerating as human actions and climate change reshape the balance of our planet.  Within the next century, 75% of the conservatively estimated 8.75 million species on earth may be extinct.

When many of us think of extinctions, we think of the countless species disappearing in the Amazon rainforest, the ocean’s coral reefs, or the forests of South-east Asia. But the truth is that extinctions happen in every corner of the globe. Some are noticeably notorious, others occur without us even knowing that the species existed in the first place. One of the most infamous North American extinctions is the demise of the Passenger Pigeon.

By the time Europeans first came to the New World, approximately 40% of all land birds in North America were a member of the species Ectopistes migratorius, or the Passenger Pigeon. Their population numbered in the billions, and their abundance spurred intense human hunting in the mid-1800s. Less than a century later, the Passenger Pigeon was extinct.

The fate of the Passenger Pigeon, and three other extinct North American bird species (Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen), are the focus of the new joint BHL/Smithsonian Libraries‘ exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History: Once There Were Billions.

The exhibit represents the culmination of three years of work for its curators, Gilbert Borrego (former BHL Library Technician for Smithsonian Libraries) and Dr. Helen James (Curator in Charge, Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History). The histories of these lost species are told through compelling narratives, taxidermied specimens (including Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon), books from the Smithsonian Libraries’ collection (many of which are available digitally in BHL), and images from BHL.

Most people are unaware of how involved and sometimes challenging building an exhibit can be. Several years, countless meetings, copious research, and dozens of individuals are required to bring an exhibit from conception to public launch. Sometimes the most difficult part can be simply honing in on the exact story you want to tell.

“The most challenging part of the exhibit was narrowing down our source material,” said Borrego. “The topic [of the exhibit] was originally much more general, focusing on extinct species. We knew Martha the Passenger Pigeon was to be included, but we looked at many other types of animals and plants before settling on the plight of birds from North America.”

Borrego first presented the proposal for “Once There Were Billions” in 2011, and since then he, James, and an army of scientists, librarians, and museum support staff defined the scope, drafted a script, selected specimens and images, and fashioned layouts for the physical and supplementary digital exhibits.
Once all the foundational work was complete, it was time to bring the exhibit to life. Plaques fresh off the press, freshly-cleaned bird specimens, and carefully conserved books were artistically arranged within two mammoth exhibit cases in the Evans Gallery on the Ground Floor of the National Museum of Natural History.

And voila! This specialized hub for extinction education opened to the public this past Monday, June 24, 2014, and will remain open until October, 2015.

If you’re visiting D.C., be sure to check out the exhibit. And if you’re an art fan, take some time to see the massive bronze sculptures of the birds crafted by artist Todd McGrain as part of “The Lost Bird Project” and situated around the Smithsonian grounds.
If you’re not in the area, you can still enjoy “Once There Were Billions” via the online exhibit, by browsing digital versions of select exhibit books in BHL, or by downloading free, spectacular illustrations of the featured species.
Educating each and every person about the plight of biodiversity on our planet, and the repercussions of doing nothing, is a critical part of ensuring that today’s species do not become just another extinction statistic. Exhibits like “Once There Were Billions” are just one way we can achieve this global awareness. But while you might not be in a position to build a museum exhibit, there are other ways you can help change the fate of doomed species. Supporting initiatives like BHL, which enable the research of scientists trying to document and conserve species around the world, helps prevent species decline.

Everyone can make a difference. What will you do to help curb the tide of the Sixth Great Extinction Event?

June 27, 2014by michelle.underhill
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The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and make it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”

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