During 14-17 March 2017, the Biodiversity Heritage Library held its Annual Meetings in Singapore, hosted by the National Library Board. The meetings were attended by 24 BHL partner representatives from nine countries.

2017 BHL Annual Meeting Group photo LKC Natural History Museum, Singapore

Shakespeare in Print: The First Folio

Led by Wai Yin Pryke, National Librarian of Singapore, our hosts arranged three unique venues for the meetings. Committee meetings started off at the National Library Board building in downtown Singapore. The opening day of the meetings also included a curator-led tour of the exhibitions “Shakespeare in Print: The First Folio” (which included a copy of the First Folio on loan from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries ) and “Anatomy of a Free Mind: Tan Swie Hian’s Notebooks and Creations“. BHL was also treated to an overview of the rare collections from the National Library’s Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.

Nigel Taylor with Ely Wallis

The BHL Open Day Symposium and reception was hosted by the Singapore Botanic Gardens and Dr. Nigel Taylor, Group Director SBG. At the close of the symposium, Dr. Taylor led a group on a tour of the library and archives of the Gardens and a walking tour of the fabulous tropical botanical garden. See earlier blog post for more information.

Dr. Peter Ng, Director of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore was our host for the BHL Partners’ Meeting held on 16 March 2017. To open the meeting, Chair Nancy E. Gwinn provided a “State of the BHL” overview of the past year. Gildas Illien (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle) gave a presentation on how the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle became one of BHL’s newest Members. This was followed by four project presentations:

• BHL Egypt by Ahmed Barghout, BHL Egypt / Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Foundations to Actions (NDSR) by Constance Rinaldo, Librarian of the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (Chair, BHL Members’ Council)
• Expanding Access to Biodiversity Literature (EABL) and Torrey Digitization & Transcription by Susan Fraser, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garden
• BHL and Smithsonian Field Notes Projects by Carolyn A. Sheffield, BHL / Smithsonian Libraries

Peter Ng

Nigel Taylor

Wai Yin Pryke

LKC Natural History Museum

All partners present were also given the opportunity to provide brief reports on their work over the past year and plans for the current year. These reports can be found here, along with reports from those partners unable to attend the meeting in person. Bianca Crowley, the BHL Collections Manager, also provided a 2016 collections report via video recording. The meeting concluded with a ceremony honoring the volunteers from around the world who contribute to the BHL. After the Partners’ Meeting, Dr. Ng also kindly led a tour of the museum for all BHL meeting attendees.

Kalfatovic, Gwinn, and Diana Duncan (The Field Museum) at Volunteer Recognition Ceremony

Gildas Illien

The final day of meetings saw the BHL Member representatives return to the National Library Board building to conclude the business portion of the meetings as well as the Membership Committee meeting. BHL Program Director Martin R. Kalfatovic gave the Program Director’s Report, which included an overview of the coming year and outlined goals and technical priorities. Carolyn A. Sheffield, BHL Program Manager, provided a financial overview for the current and forthcoming year and, with Jane Smith (Natural History Museum, London and Vice-Chair, BHL Members’ Council) led a strategic planning session.

At the business meeting, the Members voted in favor of restructuring the Affiliates fee to  USD 3,000 for the first year (with an included BHL workshop) and then an ongoing fee of USD 1,000.

The Members also selected the location of the 2018 BHL Annual Meeting. The 2018 meeting will be held in Los Angeles, California and jointly hosted by the Natural History Museum / Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden.

Constance Rinaldo (L) & Jane Smith (R), not pictured, Doug Holland

BHL Members also elected a new Executive Committee. The new BHL Executive Committee now consists of (see previous post for more information):

• Constance Rinaldo, Librarian of the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (Chair)
• Jane Smith, Head of Library and Archives, Natural History Museum, London (Vice-Chair)
• Doug Holland, Director of the Peter H. Raven Library, Missouri Botanical Garden
• Nancy E. Gwinn, Director, Smithsonian Libraries (Immediate Past-Chair)

The meetings were adjourned and followed by a reception where Dr. Gwinn was honored for her five years as BHL Chair. BHL also thanked all the staff from the National Library Board, Singapore, led by Wai Yin Pryke, that contributed to the success of the meetings.

Jane Smith, Wai Yin Pryke, Constance Rinaldo & Nancy E. Gwinn (L to R)

Abigail Huang,Grace Chan, Thiruselvi Gopal, & Chris Koh National Library Board Staff

Despite its relatively small size and urbanized environment, Singapore has a rich avifauna which has attracted interest since the 19th century. However, it was only in 1927 that the first book on the birds of Singapore was printed – The Birds of Singapore Island, co-authored by John Alexander Strachey Bucknill and Frederick Nutter Chasen, and published by the Raffles Museum.

Plate VIII from The Birds of Singapore Island. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47191313. Digitized by National Library Board, Singapore. The White-bellied Sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) is a common resident bird of prey. When Singapore issued its “Bird” series of currency notes in 1976-1984, the White-bellied Sea-eagle was featured on the front of the highest denomination note – the $10,000 note.

Bucknill’s original collaborator for the book was Major John C. Moulton, a zoologist who was Director of the Raffles Museum and Library in Singapore from 1919 to 1923. In 1921, Moulton secured the assistance of Sir John Bucknill to produce a handbook on the common birds of Singapore which would be illustrated with attractive color plates. Bucknill was a former Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements and the Chairman of the Raffles Museum and Library Committee at that time. He was well-known for his interest in birds and had written and published several papers and books on the subject. To provide the illustrations for the book, an artist in India, Gerald Aylmer Levett-Yeats, was commissioned to paint the birds.

However, the publication of the book was delayed when Moulton was transferred to Sarawak as the chief secretary to the government in 1923. Owing to the pressure of other work, Moulton had to withdraw from the project, leaving Bucknill’s manuscript, the completed illustrations and his own notes in the hands of Cecil Boden Kloss, the new director of Raffles Museum and Library.

Plate XI from The Birds of Singapore Island. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47191337. Digitized by National Library Board, Singapore. The Malayan Long-tailed Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda longicauda) is Singapore’s only native parakeet species.

A zoologist who specialized in small mammals, Boden Kloss felt that he lacked the “ability and the inclination” to write the book himself. The task of completing the book was taken up by Frederick N. Chasen, the curator of Raffles Museum (later its director). The scope of the book was extended to include not only the common birds of Singapore but also the less common birds. To keep the book within certain limits of size, Boden Kloss abridged the manuscript by reducing Bucknill’s notes on the species featured in the book.

Plate XVII from The Birds of Singapore Island. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47191383. Digitized by National Library Board, Singapore. The Malayan Brain Fever Bird (or the Plaintive Cuckoo) (Cacomantis merulinus) is an uncommon resident cuckoo species. Bucknill and Chasen noted that this bird has a Malay name which means “the deserted child” because its mournful voice “reminds one of the constant laments of someone bemoaning his fate”.

The book was finally published at the end of 1927. Sadly, both Bucknill and Moulton had passed away a year earlier in 1926.

The book covers all the common birds of Singapore and features 31 attractive color plates. Every bird is described in detail, including information on the status of each bird in Singapore. Written in a popular style, one of its notable features is the absence of technical terms. As stated in its preface, the book is “intended for the use of the uninitiated, both residents and visitors, who wish to know something of the birds they may see about them.” Despite being written for the lay person, the book provides a valuable source of historical information for the study of birds in Singapore.

Plate XXVIII from The Birds of Singapore Island. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47191469. Digitized by National Library Board, Singapore. A common resident, the White-headed Munia (Lonchura maja) was popularly known to Europeans in Singapore in the past as the “Cigar-bird” because its white head resembles a “partly smoked cigar.”

The Birds of Singapore Island (1927) has been digitized for BHL by National Library Board, Singapore.

You can view all of the illustrations from this book in Flickr, all of which have been taxon tagged with the name of the species they represent. You can learn more about BHL’s citizen science Flickr tagging initiative here.

References 

• Bucknill, J. A. S. & Chasen, F. N. (1927). The birds of Singapore Island. Singapore : Printed at the Govt. Print. Office by W. T. Cherry, Govt. Printer. (Call no.: RRARE 598.295957 BUC)
• Lim, K. S. (1997). Birds : an illustrated field guide to the birds of Singapore. Singapore : Sun Tree Pub. (Call no.: RSING 598.095957 LIM)
• Lim, K. S. (2009). The avifauna of Singapore. Singapore : Nature Society (Singapore), Bird Group Records Committee. (Call no.: RSING 598.095957 LIM)
• Liu, G. (1987). One hundred years of the National Museum : Singapore 1887-1987. Singapore : The Museum. (Call no.: RSING 708.95957 LIU)
• Raffles Museum and Library. (1876-1955). Annual report. Singapore : The Museum. (Call no.: RRARE 027.55957 RAF)
• Sim, C. H. (1994). Singapore money book. Singapore : Moneyworld Asia. (Call no.: RSING 769.5595957 SIN)
• Yong, D. L. & Lim, K. C. (2016). A naturalist’s guide to the birds of Singapore. Oxford, England : John Beaufoy Publishing. (Call no.: RSING 598.095957 YON)

Oriental Scops Owl, a species found in South Asia, including Singapore. A History of the Birds of Ceylon. v. 1. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37019175

BHL is pleased to welcome the National Library Board, Singapore as a new member in BHL Central and simultaneously as BHL-Singapore, the newest node in Global BHL. The 16th member of the BHL Central consortium, BHL Singapore will help identify and digitize historical science literature from its collections and add these to the BHL’s online holdings, where all materials may be accessed free by the public.

“The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the preeminent global repository for historic science literature,” said Martin Kalfatovic, BHL Program Director and Associate Director for Digital Services at the Smithsonian Libraries. “We are pleased to welcome our first BHL member outside of our original United States and United Kingdom circle. Singapore’s importance as a regional coordinator for biodiversity research will directly expand the reach of BHL in this area of the world.”

BHL is a consortium of major natural history, botanical and research libraries. BHL’s goal is to contribute to the global “biodiversity commons” by digitizing and aggregating the resources housed within each of the participating institutions, providing free and open access to the legacy literature that underpins the work of the natural science community.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library also serves as the literature digitization component of the Encyclopedia of Life, a global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other forms of life on earth.

To explore the Biodiversity Heritage Library, visit biodiversitylibrary.org.

BHL now comprises 16 member and 5 affiliate institutions. View the list of our current members and affiliates here.