Towards the Universal Digital Library in Natural History Antonio G. Valdecasas, Marian Ramos & Isabel Morón Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC

Forty years ago, E. Mayr said that the geographic location of a taxonomist will considerably influence his research strategy, mentioning that it is not reasonable to embark in a world bibliographic revision of a group if you are isolated in some remote area. …but this not a problem today thanks to… M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC

…Digital Libraries(1): Round the clock availability: 24 hours, 365 days a year M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC No physical boundaries: all over the world Multiple acces: same document simultaneously available to multiple readers Information retrieval: search by any term Space: little space demand Added value: documents can be enhanced to improve legibility HOWEVER, digitization is not a long-term preservation solution (1) From the Wikipedia

The beginnings In 2005 the Natural History Museum (London), the Smithsonian Institution (Washington), Harvard University and some other academic centres in the USA decided to involve in the development of a Universal Digital Library to allow the access to all the biodiversity literature through Internet. Biodiversity Heritage Library Members - American Museum of Natural History (New York) - The Field Museum -Harvard UniversityHarvard University - Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic - Missouri Botanical Garden - Natural History Museum, London - The New York Botanical Garden - Royal Botanic Garden, Kew - Smithsonian Institution Contributing Member - University of Illinois at urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at urbana-Champaign M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC

2007: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is born M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Museum für NaturKunde, Berlin Natural History Museum, Londres Narodni muzeum, Praga European Digital Library Foundation Angewandte Informationstechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbH Atos Origin System Integration Freie Universität Berlin Georg-August-Universität Gottingen Stiftung Öffentlichen Rechts Naturhistorisches Museum, Viena Land Oberösterreich Hungarian Natural History Museum Museum and Institute Zoology University of Copenhagen Stichting Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis National Botanic Garden of Belgium Royal Museum for Central Africa Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Bibliothèque nationale de France Museum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (MNCN) Universitá degli Studi di Firenze (Museo di Storia Naturale) Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgo Species 2000 John Wiley and Sons limited Smithsonian Institution, Washington Missouri Botanical Garden Helsingin yliopisto, University of Helsinki, Viikki Science Library Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 2009: Biodiversity Heritage Library-Europe starts 28 institutions in 14 countries

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC BHL-Europe multilingual web portal

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Two additional reasons, for BHLs - Access of biodiversity scientific literature to improve research - Repatriation of knowledge to developing world

2007: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is born M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC September 2009 October 2009

Present content and target figures M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC BHL (13 September 2009): 14,792 titles 39,183 volumes 15,884,273 pages Target 50 million pages available by June 2011BHL- Europe: Target 26 million pages available by May 2012 BHL (6 December 2009): 36,921 titles 70,613 volumes 26,435,981 pages

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Some examples of CSIC contribution to BHL-Europe 1878 Titles Volumes 1,245,600 pages Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid Plus supplementary archive material

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Some examples of CSIC contribution to BHL-Europe Digitisation project of Fondo Salvador, XVI-XVIII: 1,097 volumes including 3 incunables 202 vols s. XVI 462 vols s. XVII 412 vols s. XVIII 20 vols s. XIX Salvador Family

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Some examples of CSIC contribution to BHL-Europe Estimated 60,000 species EOS Entomological Journal 1925 – volumes pages GRAELLSIA Zoological Journal 1943 – Present 72 volumes pages

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Functionality Download: Bibliographic Information Selected pages Download PDF Download OCR Download Images Download All Alternate Page Viewer (beta) Taxon names in pages About 400,000 EOL species pages have BHL linkages

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Who can benefit Naturalist and scientist Historians of science General public

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Who can benefit For naturalist and scientist BHL includes works dealing not only with taxonomy but with ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation.

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Another example Looking for Francois Lequat original description of his voyage to Mascarene islands? It is not yet in BHL but… …BHL is a subset of the Internet Archive And the book can be found and downloaded from one of the other associated libraries

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Who can benefit Poe and Natural History200 birth anniversary Historians of science

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Who can benefit The following three publications offer a very different history of the early development of Natural History and Taxonomy, with important practical and theoretical consequences for this discipline Or, in another instance, it will be possible for anybody to consult original papers and decide if Darwin was really a ‘tipologist’ or if this conclusion was gained by a biased look at his work. Historians of science. Another example.

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Who can benefit General public

Why a single specialized portal? Looking for this article?: SYNOPSES OF THE ANTHOMYIID GENERA MYDÆA, OPHYRA, PHYLLOGASTER, TETRAMERINX, AND EULIMONOPHORA (DIPTERA) J. R. MALLOCH; Canadian Entomologist 53 pp 9-13 M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Arriving from Google Directly from BHL

BHL BHL-Europe BHL-China BHL-Japan BHL-Rusia BHL-India BHL- Australia What comes next M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC BHL-Global

M N C N M useo N acional de C iencias N aturales, CSIC Contacts Dr. Henning Scholz Antonio G. Valdecasas More information:

Medieval library in Chinguetti, Mauritania Thank you for your attention