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“BHL is a Game Changer for Scholars”: BHL Empowers Research on Landscape...
The large-leaved kōwhai (Sophora tetraptera) is native to the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, where it is widespread and common. While it grows naturally only in Aotearoa, it has been cultivated...
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Flytraps, Sundews, and Pitchers: Discovering the Carnivorous Plants of BHL
In a world where staggering habitat destruction and biodiversity loss have become the new normal, understanding the extraordinary interactions between plants and humans is increasingly urgent. Yet the...
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Supporting the Biodiversity Community: BHL Engages in Global Biodiversity...
The Biodiversity Heritage Library thrives on international partnerships and collaborative projects. In the fall of 2021, representatives from BHL participated in a number of planning meetings and...
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BHL Bi-annual Newsletter (November 2021) Now Available!
Our latest bi-annual newsletter is now available! From the release of an Acknowledgment of Harmful Content to supporting research on natural mosquito control measures and landscape gardening history,...
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Understanding BHL Through Metadata: Patterns of Bio-Diverse Knowledge Production
During my time as an intern for the Biodiversity Heritage Library (July-August 2021), I worked on a project, I hope, will help engender important and critical conversations around the Library’s work...
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The Geopolitics of Metadata: Knowing Panama Through the Biodiversity Heritage...
In the first part of this blog series, I explained a portion of the analyses I performed during my time as an intern for the Biodiversity Heritage Library (July-August 2021). These analyses revolved...
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From Poetry to Pulp Fiction: Carnivorous Plants in Popular Culture
Carnivorous plants, beguiling vegetables capable of attracting, trapping, and digesting animal prey, have fascinated generations of botanists on nearly every continent. However, there is perhaps no...
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Acknowledging Harm, Rethinking Collections
The Biodiversity Heritage Library has released an Acknowledgment of Harmful Content to recognize deep prejudices within some of the pages of its collection. As a digital library of natural science...
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Welcome to JJ Dearborn, BHL Data Manager
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is pleased to welcome JJ Dearborn to the newly created position of BHL Data Manager. The new Data Manager position is part of the BHL Secretariat, hosted by the...
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Catalogue of All Specimens of Natural History Collected by Mr Blandowski’s...
Blandowski’s Catalogue is one of the most precious items held by the Museums Victoria Archives. It documents natural history specimens collected by William Blandowski (1822-1878) and Gerard Krefft...
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New Article PDF Content Available
The BHL Tech Team is pleased to announce a new form of content available in BHL: Article PDFs. While this may not sound like anything new, after all, we have had a tool to download PDF content for...
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10 Years of BHL Growth and Transformation While Program Director
This month (April 2022) marks my tenth year as the BHL Program Director. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of change -- and a lot of growth -- with the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Taking...
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The Vast Library of Life: 15 Years of the BHL Portal
It seems like we are on an anniversary splurge. In April, I marked my 10th year as BHL Program Director. Today is a more important date in BHL history. May 9, 2007 marked the official launch of BHL...
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BHL Bi-annual Newsletter (May 2022) Now Available!
Our latest bi-annual newsletter is now available! From welcoming new staff to celebrating major milestones, don’t miss the latest news from the BHL community. View our May 2022 Bi-annual...
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2022 BHL Annual Meeting — A Global Hybrid
For the first time, the Biodiversity Heritage Library held its annual meeting in conjunction with a major biodiversity/natural sciences organization. In June 2022, BHL joined with the Society for the...
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OCR Improvements: An Early Analysis
Optical character recognition (OCR) plays a critical part in BHL's contributions to the scientific community. OCR in and of itself is a remarkable achievement, converting images of typewritten text to...
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The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera: A Story of Pirate Publishers,...
In 2017, The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera published its final issue. The journal’s website was turned off and, to ensure ongoing access to the biodiversity knowledge contained within its...
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Constance Rinaldo, Immediate Past Chair, BHL Executive Committee, has died
It is with unbelievable sadness that we pass along the news that Constance Rinaldo, in so many ways the heart of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, has died after a rapid and sudden illness. After...
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A Report on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility’s 29th Governing...
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) convened for the 29th Governing Board meeting (GB29) in a hybrid format in early October 2022. This was the first meeting with in-person attendance...
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New Collection Development Policy
The BHL Collections Committee has completed a comprehensive review and revision of BHL's collection development policy. The new policy is written to provide recommendations and serve the collection...
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BHL Bi-annual Newsletter (November 2022) Now Available!
Our latest bi-annual newsletter is now available! From saving pirated research journals to releasing our new Collection Development Policy, don’t miss the latest news from the BHL community. View our...
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In Memoriam: David Remsen. BHL has lost one of its key founding figures
Last week, the biodiversity informatics community and BHL lost one of its most creative minds. David Remsen lost his lifelong battle with mental illness and passed away on Wednesday, December 14,...
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BHL Technical Development: Year in Review
For BHL, 2022 was a year to focus on critical upgrades for the BHL platform to ensure the sustainability of our services for our global users. Although BHL's basic technical infrastructure remains the...
View ArticleProviding More Robust Data in BHL’s OAI-PMH Dublin Core Feed
Recently, BHL performed a comprehensive review of all live data feeds and outputs to ensure that we are providing robust metadata to our downstream consumers. Live BHL data can be found at BHL’s...
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BHL is Round Tripping Persistent Identifiers with the Wikidata Query Service
In the Spring of 2022, the BHL Cataloging and Metadata Committee investigated the possibility of harvesting persistent identifiers (PIDs) from Wikidata as part of the group’s longstanding project to...
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