Smithsonian Libraries

This year's CBHL conference

The Libraries was well represented at this year’s annual meeting of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) on May 12-15, 2009, hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. Robin Everly, Botany-Horticulture Librarian and Leslie Overstreet, Curator of Natural History Rare Books, Joseph F. Cullman 3rd, Library of Natural History, attended the conference. The theme was, "Growing Green: the role of gardens as models of conservation and sustainability". Martin Kalfatovic, Assistant Director for Digital Services, presented to a full audience information on Botanicus, Biodiversity Heritage Library, and TROPICOS at the preconference. The presentation was well-received and discussed amongst participants throughout the conference.

At Wednesday's evening literature awards reception held at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove Park, TL-2 or Taxonomic Literature: a selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries, and types, 2nd edition, was given a special recognition award by the organization. This fifteen-volume work is one of the most important resources in taxonomic literature. Through its over 30-year history, it's been written, organized, and produced by botanists, most recently Laurence Dorr and Dan H. Nicolson of the Smithsonian’s Botany Department. At the reception, many librarians recalled fondly working with many of the botanists involved in TL-2.  

Finally, Robin Everly was elected by the CBHL membership to serve on the Board as Second Vice President. It’s a four-year commitment, with the third year serving as the organization's Board President.  

For over 40 years, CBHL has been an independent, innovative group of primarily botanical, horticultural, and natural history librarians. They work in partnership with researchers.  Their skills and training reach across all aspects of librarianship and information management.—Robin Everly

Edgar Allen Poe, Master of the...Mollusk?

In 1839 Haswell Barrington And Haswell of Philadelphia published The conchologist's first book: a system of testaceous malacology, arranged expressly for the use of schools, in which the animals, according to Cuvier, are given with the shells, a great number of new species added, and the whole brought up, as accurately as possible, to the present condition of the science. by E. A. Poe.  Was Edgar Allen Poe really an amateur naturalist and mollusk enthusiast, or merely an impoverished novelist willing to do anything (even plagiarism!) for a buck? 

In fact, Poe was hired to write the preface and introduction, and to translate from the French Georges Cuvier's descriptions of the animals, but it was Thomas Wyatt who originally wrote the textbook on conchology. In later years, Poe was accused of plagiarism (by his biographer and literary executor R. W. Griswold) but it seems that attributing the authorship to Poe was likely done to increase interest in the title and to avoid copyright issues with Wyatt's original publisher, Harper & Brothers.

To confuse the issue of authorship further, Wyatt's book was largely based on that of Scottish naturalist Thomas Brown, who published his The Conchologist's Textbook... in Glasgow in 1833. 

2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe.  The conchologist's first book... is the only volume "by" Poe that went to a second edition in his lifetime. The Biodiversity Heritage Library has select editions of all the titles above available in full-text if you'd like to compare for yourself!

For more information on Poe's work on conchology (the study of mollusks) Cornell University has an online exhibition Nevermore: the Edgar Allen Poe colleciton of Susan Jaffe Tane which includes images from Poe's own copy of the first edition; and The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore has bibliographic notes on the work and much more.—Keri Thompson

Historic Smithsonian publications available

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Originally uploaded by Smithsonian Libraries

Historic publications of the Smithsonian Institution are being scanned as part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). There are still gaps in the series as the Libraries works with volumes that were difficult to digitize (tightly bound, containing large foldouts, etc.) Missing volumes will be completed as technology permits.

The four largest of these series are currently available only through the BHL web interface. As time permits, they will be integrated into a unified Smithsonian publications site.

• Bulletin - United States National Museum http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7548
• Smithsonian contributions to knowledge http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7997
• Smithsonian miscellaneous collections http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/8128
• Proceedings of the United States National Museum http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7519
• Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7964

An additional publication, long sponsored by the Smithsonian, is also available:
• Atoll Research Bulletin http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/atollresearchbulletin/index.cfm

All titles are (or will be shortly) available via the E-journal A-Z List as well as through links in the SIRIS records for the titles. —Elizabeth Periale

Darwin @ 200

Portrait of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), Biologist
Originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution

“The cultivation of natural science cannot be efficiently carried on without reference to an extensive library.” (1)
- Charles Darwin, et al (1847)

Today, February 12, 2009, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Later this year will be yet another landmark date for Darwin, the sesquicentennial (mark your calenders now for November 24th!) of the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859).

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries is a key member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) Project, a consortium of ten natural history and botanical garden libraries engaged in the task of digitizing the worlds taxonomic literature.

Those working in systematics and taxonomy are heavily dependent on the historic literature – to a greater extent than perhaps most of the sciences. This importance of the literature, as well as the ongoing importance of publication (and library deposit) to validate taxonomic concepts, contribute to the mission and continue to inform the day to day development of the BHL.

This portrait of Darwin, by Ernest Edwards, is blogged from the Flickr Commons. Staff from the Smithsonian Libraries are part of a team from across the Smithsonian pushing our photo collections out into a new environment. This portrait of Darwin has inspired the Flickr community to comment on Darwin the man and his contribution to science.

Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. Smithsonian Institution Libraries, is the source for this portrait of Darwin. Scientific Identity is a treasure trove of portraits of scientists and inventors from over the years, including many of Darwin's coevals.

Darwin himself acknowledged the importance of library materials to the study of natural history in the passage quoted above (in a document signed by Darwin and over 30 other notables including Charles Lyell, W.J. Hooker, and Richard Owen) which was part of an appeal for support of natural history research at the British Museum. —Martin Kalfatovic

Portrait of Charles Darwin by Ernest Edwards
From Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. Smithsonian Institution Libraries

(1) Darwin, C. R. et al. 1847. Copy of Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury [Lord John Russell], respecting the Management of the British Museum. Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers 1847, paper number (268), volume XXXIV.253 (13 April): 1-3. [Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online]

Smithsonian Libraries staff presentations

Smithsonian Libraries staffers regularly speak at meetings and conferences. Expert staff talk on many aspects of the work done at Smithsonian Libraries. A small sampling of such presentations are now available on SlideShare in the "Smithsonian Libraries" group. Stay tuned for more to come.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library Mass Digitizing Project: A Grandeur in this View of Digital Libraries

View more presentations from Martin Kalfatovic. (tags: bhl biodiversity heritage li...)

New Smithsonian Publications added to BHL

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Originally uploaded by Smithsonian Libraries

As part of its participation in the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries has recently digitized most of the series Bulletin of the United States National Museum (1875-1971) and the Proceedings of the United States National Museum (1878-1968). Both titles are museum-oriented publications that document important research at the Smithsonian, including reports on expeditions, catalogs of the collections and descriptions of new species.

The volumes come from SIL’s Smithsoniana collection, housed in the Museum Studies and Reference Library, and were scanned at the FedScan scanning center at the Library of Congress. Although the goal is to digitize both series in their entirety, you may notice a few missing issues. The scanning process was often complicated by the publications’ unexpected features like fold out maps. Check back as SIL solves these digitization conundrums and adds new volumes!

Click here to view the available Bulletins.
Click here to view the available Proceedings.

-ECR

Smithsonian Librarian Named Director of Biodiversity Heritage Library

Tom Garnett, associate director for Digital Library and Information Systems for the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, has been named the first Program Director of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. He has coordinated the Biodiversity Heritage Library initiative since its inception in 2004. He begins his new position March 31. Garnett has more than 27 years of experience in the library field creating, scoping, implementing, and managing major digital library projects. For the past 23 years, he has worked in the Smithsonian Libraries, where he served as Systems Administrator in the Systems Office, before being promoted to Assistant Director and then Associate director for Digital Library and Information Systems.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of 10 natural history, botanical, and research institute libraries that collectively hold a substantial amount of the world’s published knowledge on biological diversity. It was organized to digitize the legacy literature of biodiversity and make it available as part of a biodiversity commons. Scientists and students from around the world will be able to search and read biodiversity texts from the collections of these libraries and link them to relevant taxonomic, geographic or other useful databases. The project will make information more accessible worldwide and reduce the need for expensive, labor-intensive library research.

-Catherine Fraser

Presentation for the Boston Library Consortium

   
  Originally uploaded by matt707

I, along with my colleague Chris Freeland of the Missouri Botanical Garden, was invited by the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) to make presentations on how the Biodiversity Heritage Library has created a portal to biodiversity literature from our diverse collections.

Attending the presentation were over 50 staff from BLC institutions (MIT, UMass-Amherst, Brandeis, MBL/WHOI, Boston Public Library, etc.), including Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis.

We had an enthusiastic group that asked a number of great questions.

- Martin Kalfatovic

My presentation is available online at SlideShare

Global Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. Martin R. Kalfatovic. Boston Library Consortium Meeting. Boston Public Library. 18 March 2008. Boston, MA.

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Biodiversity Heritage Library Scanning

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  Originally uploaded by martin_kalfatovic

On March 18, I visited the Northeast Regional Scanning Center at Boston Public Library. The Northeast Regional Scanning Center is currently scanning books from Harvard (Museum of Comparative Zoology and Botany Libraries) and the Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Library for the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL).

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries is a key player in the BHL and currently hosts a single scanning station in the National Museum of Natural History and is actively working with the Library of Congress on establishing the 10 station "FedScan" center at the LC's Adams Building.

Visit the BHL portal at: www.biodiversitylibrary.org and follow the latest developments on the BHL blog at biodiversitylibrary.blogspot.com.

- Martin Kalfatovic