Smithsonian Libraries

Announcing TL-2 Online

The Smithsonian Libraries is pleased to announce that the online version of Taxonomic Literature II, or TL-2, is now online on the Libraries' website. We are calling this TL-2 Online.

What is TL-2?

TL-2 is an essential tool for Botany research that includes botanists and their publications from 1753 to the present. Comprising fifteen volumes, seven original and eight supplemental, Tl-2 is organized alphabetically by author and includes some biographical information about each author.  The main content for the author entries is the publications that he or she has written. TL-2 was constructed such that each author is assigned a unique abbreviation and each publication a unique number. There are nearly 10,000 authors and over 37,000 publications in TL-2 and the entire set of data is cross-referenced in the two indexes in each of the fifteen volumes.

To put it simply, TL-2 is a database published in the form of a book. Now that the Libraries, with generous permission from the publisher, has digitized and placed the content online the door has been opened to utilize the data from TL-2 in new ways, some of which we haven't even imagined yet. 

What can I do with TL-2?

Currently the website allows you to search TL-2 Online either via a simple keyword search, or a more advanced search on several fields including logical AND and OR operators. Additionally, all volumes of TL-2 may be read online using a simple page-turning application. Finally, in addition to the scan of the page, all pages that contain searchable data are presented with the corrected OCR text that was created during the digitization process. 

Our goal was to construct TL-2 Online using modern web development techniques to minimize page refreshes in order to offer a better experience for readers. The result is that viewing search results and reading the volumes online is very, very fast. 

The data used to create TL-2 Online is also available for download and use by other people and organizations. The download file contains the full corrected text as well as the XML version of the parsed data. Due to the fact that we continue to work on the data and plan to do additional parsing, this data is subject to change and a version number and last modified date are provided for reference.

What else do you have planned?

We're very glad you asked that! As part of the Libraries' website redesign, TL-2 Online will be one of the first components of the new Digital Library that to be presented entirely as Linked Open Data (LOD). Overall, LOD will be integral to the entire Digital Library, but TL-2 will be the first data set that we make available in that manner. The Smithsonian Libraries will aims to become the permanent home for TL-2 and the authority for TL-2 Linked Open Data identifiers. Although LOD is not directly visible to visitors to our site, making it available allows other computers and software to more easily reuse and query the data without extensive programming.

We also plan to continue parsing the data inside TL-2 in order to provide new avenues for using and analyzing the data. Expect the TL-2 Online website to expand to include new downloadable data and new features when the time comes. For example, may botanists contributed specimens to herbaria (libraries of plant specimens) around the world. We would like to present that data in a searchable fashion on the site when the data is ready.

Lastly, a note: Since TL-2 Online was digitized from a printed work, there are bound to be errors in the OCR and places where the parsing was not quite accurate. Although we have minimized many these, there may still be some that exist. Please be patient and feel free to contact us if you'd like to bring anything to our attention.

We hope that botanists around the world continue to use TL-2 and that they find our new online offering even easier to use than the printed work. 

New & Notables: December 2011

We're testing out a new way of displaying our "New & Notable" books by combining them in to one post per month. Also, above the book listings, you'll see a slideshow with links to the WorldCat records for each book. If you are not a user of our physical collection, WorldCat will help you find a copy of the book in a library near you. If you enjoy our "New & Notable" section, we would love to hear your comments below.

 

Here are some of the newest additions to the National Air and Space Museum Library collection:

	Ascend or Die: Richard Crosbie: Pioneer of Balloon Flightsby Bryan McMahon.  History Press Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, 2010.  TL620. C76 M36 2010
	Fighting Seventeen: A Photographic History of VF-17 in World War II by Lee Cook.  Schiffer Military History, Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2011.  D790. 375 17th C66 2011
	Millville Army Air Field: America's First Defense Airport (Images of Aviation) by John Galluzzo.  Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, South Carolina, 2011.  UG634.5 M55 G35 2011
	Storms of Controversy: The Secret Avro Arrow Files Revealed by Palmiro Campagna.   Dundurn Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2010.   TL685.3 C35 2010

—Leah Smith

 

New books in the National Museum of American History Library:

	American Eden : from Monticello to Central Park to our backyards : what our gardens tell us about who we are by Wade Graham. New York : HarperCollins Publishers, c2011. SB451.3 .G718 2011
	Born southern : childbirth, motherhood, and social networks in the old South by V. Lynn Kennedy. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. RG652 .K46 2010
	The sword of St. Michael : the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II by Guy LoFaro. Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, c2011. D769.346 82nd .L64 2011
	Master mechanics & wicked wizards : images of the American scientist as hero and villain from colonial times to the present by Glen Scott Allen. Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, c2009. Q127.U6 A6815 2009
	American tempest : how the Boston Tea Party sparked a revolution by Harlow Giles Unger. Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, 2011. E215.7 .U64 2011

— Trina Brown

 

New items in the Botany-Horticulture Library:

Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasey. San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, 2010 SB475.9.E35 C74 2010

— Robin Everly

 

New books in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library:

	Crystal and arabesque : Claude Bragdon, ornament, and modern architecture . Jonathan Massey. Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, c2009. NA737.B65 M37 2009 CHM From the 1890s to the 1930s, Claude Bragdon enjoyed an international reputation as an architect, designer, and critic working in the progressive tradition associated with Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Prairie School. In 1915 Bragdon created “projective ornament,” a system of geometric patterns designed to serve as a universal form-language integrating not only architecture, art, and design, but also a society divided by differences of class, gender, religion, culture, and national origin. Spreading across the surfaces of buildings, posters, books, and the settings Bragdon designed for massive community singing festivals, projective ornament came to symbolize the progressive potential of modernity for thousands of Americans.
	Triumvirate : McKim, Mead & White : art, architecture, scandal and class in America's Gilded Age / / by Mosette Broderick. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. NA737.M4 B76 2010 CHM A rich, fascinating saga of the most influential, far-reaching architectural firm of their time and of the dazzling triumvirate—Charles McKim, William Mead, and Stanford White—who came together, bound by the notion that architecture could help shape a nation in transition. They helped to refine America’s idea of beauty, elevated its architectural practice, and set the standard on the world’s stage.
	Bauhaus : a conceptual model / / editor, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin/Museum für Gestaltung, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, and Klassik Stiftung Weimar ; in cooperation with, Museum of Modern Art, New York ; [translations, Benjamin Carter... et al.]. Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz, c2009. N6868.5.B27 B38 2009 CHM Essays: The Bauhaus on the market : on the difficult relationship between the Bauhaus and consumer culture / Regina Bittner ; Escape into the public sphere : the exhibition as an instrument of self-presentation at the Bauhaus / Patrick Rössler -- Selective appropriation : remarks on the reception of Bauhaus pedagogy in Germany / Rainer K. Wick ; Teaching at Black Mountain College and the New Bauhaus : the seperation of art and design / Gabriele Diana Grawe ; The Bauhaus : internationalization and globalization / Klaus von Beyme ; "Timeless gothic" instead of "Dentist-style with housing cubes" : The National Socialist opposition to the Bauhaus / Justus H. Ulbricht ; Vice versa-art of the people? / Ulrike Bestgen and Werner Möller ; The Bauhaus today / Philipp Oswalt.
	Gerrit Rietveld  by Ida van Zijl.   London ; New York, NY : Phaidon, 2010. NA1153.R5 Z54 2010 CHM From his first great design masterpiece, the Red-Blue Chair, to his final design for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Gerrit Rietveld created a significant body of work and left a remarkable legacy. His simple yet dynamic design style has greatly affected international furniture design and has made a significant contribution to the history of architecture. His unconventional approach and extraordinary furniture, hailed by Theo van Doesburg as 'the new sculpture', inspired many of his contemporaries just as it continues to inspire today's designers; he has he has been cited as a source of inspiration by designers ranging from Verner Panton to Konstantin Grcic. This detailed yet accessible monograph is structured chronologically and richly illustrated with photographs and sketches of Reitveld's furniture design and his twenty-odd architectural projects.

—Elizabeth Broman

National Poinsettia Day

December 12th marks National Poinsettia Day in the U.S., by order of a House of Representatives Resolution in 2002. The holiday occurs on the anniversary of the death of Joel Poinsett, who brought the cheery plant to the United States from Mexico in the 1800s. Today, the Smithsonian Gardens cultivates over 3,000 of the plants at their facility in Maryland to decorate SI buildings on the Mall and surrounding area.  We were able to take a sneak peek of the plants (which took up four greenhouses!) before they were deployed for holiday decorating. They made quite a jolly sea of red and green.

 

Exterior of the Smithsonian Gardens Greenhouse Facility. 

One of several greenhouses filled with poinsettias.

 

Interested in cultivating your own poinsettia collection? The all-purpose book for those growing and propagating poinsettias is the The Poinsettia Manual which was published in 1990 in its third edition by Paul Ecke Poinsettias.  This manual provides everything a grower needs to know about producing and selling poinsettias.  The Smithsonian Institution Libraries own a copy of both the 2^nd and 3^rd editions.  In 2004, this publication was updated and is now called the Ecke Poinsettia Manual.  It is published by Ball Publishing Company.   The Paul Ecke Ranch, in Encinitas, California, is the world’s largest poinsettia breeder.

 

The Poinsettia Manual.

 

To learn more about poinsettias in general, take a look at SI Gardens' Poinsettia Fact Sheet. And be sure to read more about SI Gardens, their poinsettias and the interesting link between the Smithsonian and Joel Poinsett in this Around the Mall blog post. 

 

Poinsettias surrounding a holiday tree, decorated by SI Gardens staff, in the National Museum of Natural History rotunda. 2010.

— Erin Rushing and Robin Everly, with thanks to SI Gardens staff Vickie Dibella and Monty Holmes.

East Coast earthquake affects Botany-Horticulture Library at Smithsonian

It made national news! A rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake on the East Coast which has caused the closing of some of Washington D.C.’s  iconic structures such as the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral.  What is less known, is the effect it has had on the interior of the Botany-Horticulture Library located in the National Herbarium and one of the 20 Branch libraries in the Smithsonian Institution Library system.

 

While the only Natural History library in the building to have extensive damage, the Botany-Horticulture library had eight shelf ranges or an estimated 1600 linear feet destroyed beyond repair due to the August 23rd quake.  Many shelves, filled to 100% capacity with books, shifted severely and ended up leaning on the windows, which line one side of the library.  Luckily, no window panes were broken and nobody was hurt.  Many Smithsonian staff, including Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ Director, Nancy Gwinn, came in the same evening following the afternoon quake and carefully removed books most likely to cause further damage if there were aftershocks.  

 

Although the books were supporting the shelving structure instead of the reverse, there was very little damage to the books.  Approximately, 18,000 books are now being housed on shelves in our new Natural History East Court Library.  Luckily, there was a moving company finishing up moving the collection from the Smithsonian Naturalist Center from Leesburg.  They were able to step in and quickly moved the books and journals to our other library so the damaged shelving could be removed and the collection could be made once again accessible to SI staff and visitors.  New shelving has already been reinstalled and plans are being made to bring the books and journals eventually back to the Botany-Horticulture Library. 

Robin Everly


Photos courtesy of Martin Kalfatovic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinglibrarian/sets/72157627394103839/