Meeting: Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning (20-21 April 2008, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia)

In 2008, Harvard University Botany Libraries and the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology led an IMLS National Leadership Grant ($40,000), "Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning", to look at new ways to increase digitization output, especially for special collections:

• The Harvard University Botany Libraries and the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, along with the partner institution libraries of the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, The New York Botanical Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Internet Archive, will plan a cost-effective and efficient large-scale digitization workflow with enhanced metadata for biodiversity library materials designated as “special collections.” The partners propose to identify solutions for digitization of special collections materials by developing and comparing various technological, economic, and process models. -- IMLS Grant: LG-50-08-0058-08

On 20-21 April 2008, a meeting was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) to work on deliverables for the grant. See article cited below for outcomes.

As with all BHL meetings, there was also an opportunity to visit library and museum collections.

Participants in the meeting included:

• Constance Rinaldo (Harvard, MCZ and project lead)
• Judith Warnement (Harvard Botany Library)
• Tom Baione (American Museum of Natural History)
• Martin R. Kalfatovic (Smithsonian/BHL)
• Susan Fraser (New York Botanical Garden)
• Doug Holland (Missouri Botanical Garden)
• Robert Miller (Internet Archive)
• Eileen Matthias (Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia)d

See also the related publication:

• "Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning," with Constance Rinaldo, Judith Warnement, Tom Baione, and Susan Fraser. Ariadne. Issue 67, July 2011. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue67/rinaldo-et-al/ 

Meeting: 2014 BHL Technical Meeting (2-3 April 2014, St. Louis)

The 2014 Spring CNI meeting was being held in St. Louis and it seemed like a good opportunity to save on travel expenses and add on a BHL. 

We scheduled the BHL meeting for 2-3 April, right after CNI. BHL gathered the staff involved in technical development at the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was a useful meeting to cover key topics during the ongoing technical transition of BHL.

We stayed, as was often the case, at Trelease House, the apartment building the Missouri Botanical Garden provides for academic and research visitors. On the night of April 3, I woke up at 05:30 to my phone making emergency alert sound. 

Tornado warning in area with one spotted nearby (near the Ritz Carlton where CNI was in fact). Get up and out to main room. My suitemates were unaware of alert, so I got everyone up and we all go to shelter just as sirens go off outside and loudspeakers shout "take shelter immediately". Can't get to basement from front of building, so we go under stairs. I get messages from other BHL staff in other rooms that they're all sheltering. 

Group photo with World's Fair Donuts

Later that day, when we go to dinner in a downtown restaurant, there is another tornado warning and we all have to head to the basement of the restaurant for about 20 minutes.

 

Doug Holland (right) giving a tour of the Rare Book Collection (with Kia Siang Hock from the National Library Board, Singapore)

When there wasn't a threat of tornados, the Missouri Botanical Garden was looking great as springtime was underway.

Views of the Missouri Botanical Garden

Meeting: 2010 BHL Institutional Council Meeting (21-22 March 2010, New York City)

The 2010 BHL Institutional Council meeting was held in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History, 21-22 March 2010, hosted by AMNH Library Director, Tom Baione.

This was one of the most intense of the leadership meetings from the early days. The meeting itself was only one day, 22 March. People arrived on the 21st and there were some informal meetings over dinner that outlined some governance workings that were formalized at the meeting the next day.

The key move was to delay the scheduled Executive Committee election by temporarily suspending the BHL Bylaws (my knowledge of Roberts Rules of Order helped me figure out the proper way to do this. Doug Holland formalized the process by moving that the election be suspended and the current Executive Committee remain in place while a new bylaws task force convene. This had the benefit of avoiding a certain, and embarrassing, election loss by a key BHL partner and keeping a strong team in place (Cathy Norton, Connie Rinaldo, Doug Holland).  

We also had a presentation on fund raising from the AMNH development team. There were grand plans for a cooperative fund raising effort, but that eventually died due to opposition from individual institutional fund raising priorities.

I also helped to organize how we could count partner "in kind" contributions, a tool that lasted for many years. Martin: put together Member Contribution document. He wants to know if it makes sense and asks that we send suggestions about how and what to report.

There were good reports from Bianca (Lipscomb) Crowley on collections and issue tracking, and scanning operations at partners. Chris Freeland gave a technical update, including usage of the BHL site. BHL Program Director Tom Garnett gave a full financial report. At this point, BHL was in Year 3 of the MacArthur grant with two years left to go. As Tom noted, "BHL needs to get years 4 and 5 right!"

In an update on global BHL activities, Graham Higley (NHM London and Encyclopedia of Life) reported on BHL Europe and other projects. It was proposed a group be formed to monitor/expand those efforts. Nancy Gwinn (Smithsonian), proposed the group be called the BHL Global Coordinating Committee which ended up sticking. Chris Freeland was keen to ensure that BHL come up with a way to ingest content from a variety of providers around the world.

Meeting: 2012 BHL Institutional Council Meeting (15-16 March 2012, Cambridge, MA), Changing of the Guard

The 2012 BHL Institutional Council meeting, held at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, was a landmark for many reasons.

In addition to the usual reports from the BHL membership and BHL staff members (Tom Garnett, Chris Freeland, Grace Costantino, and Bianca Crowley) there was a report on the "Life and Literature" conference held the previous fall at The Field Museum in Chicago.

There were also discussions of the strategic plan as well as spending plans.

Included tours of the Mayr Library collections and a celebratory dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club.

As Deputy BHL Program Director, I gave a presentation that focused on the contributions of Smithsonian Libraries to the BHL. 

• Kalfatovic, M. (2012, March 15). Smithsonian Libraries & The Biodiversity Heritage Library: 2004 - 2012. 2012 BHL Institutional Council Meeting, Cambridge, MA (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18903011

Changing of the Guard

This meeting also saw significant changes to the leadership of BHL which were the topics of discussion by the BHL Steering Committee.

Cathy, Tom, Graham with custom BHL vests

The original Executive Committee (Graham Higley, NHM London, Cathy Norton, MBLWHOI Library, and Constance Rinaldo, MCZ Harvard) stepped down or into new roles. This was also the last meeting of Tom Garnett as BHL Program Director as he stepped down to retire. It was at this meeting that I was appointed BHL Program Director, officially taking up the role in a few weeks.

It would also turn out to be the last BHL meeting for Chris Freeland as Technical Director as he took a new position at Washington University later in the year.

Connie, Tom, and Cathy

Tom at the Blackboard

Graham and Nancy Gwinn, Smithsonian Libraries

Group photo on the steps of the MCZ

Meeting: The 2017 BHL Annual Meeting travels to Singapore, 14-17 March 2017 and a new Chair of the Executive Committee

In 2017, The National Library Board of Singapore hosted the BHL Annual Meeting as well as a number of side events across the city. The official meeting didn't open until 14 March 2017, but we did open with a dinner on the 13th. Elaine Ng (CEO, the National Library Board, Singapore) and Wai Yin Pryke (Director, National Library, National Library Board of Singapore) were our most gracious hosts.

I'd previously visited Singapore in February 2014 after a Global BHL Meeting in Melbourne, Australia. I was hosted by the National Library Board (NLB) and that visit lead to NLB becoming a BHL member. But more about that visit in another post. 

It was at this meeting that Connie Rinaldo (MCZ, Harvard) took over as Chair of the BHL Executive Committee from Dr. Nancy E. Gwinn (Smithsonian Libraries). The group honored Dr. Gwinn for her years of service to BHL at the conclusion of the meeting.

From left: me, Wai Yin Pryke, Connie,

Jane Smith (NHM, London), Nancy E. Gwinn

For the 2017 BHL Annual Meeting, I travelled to Singapore directly from a Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ (4-8 March 2017). Starting in Arizona (and then travelling via San Francisco cut off a little bit of the jet lag!

From Left: Out on the Town; at the Botanic Garden; Connie and Jane

Over the course of the visit, I did a number of presentations, for the actual meeting, the BHL Open Day Symposium at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and a public lecture at the National Library of Singapore.

  

• Kalfatovic, M. (2017, March 16). Empowering Global Research in Biodiversity: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. 2017 BHL Annual Meeting, Singapore. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911858
• Kalfatovic, M. (2017, March 17). 2017 BHL Program Director's Report: 11 Years of Growth & Sustainability. 2017 BHL Annual Meeting, Singapore. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911907
• Kalfatovic, M. (2017, March 17). A Vast Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. 2017 BHL Annual Meeting, Singapore. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911997

 

From Left: Connie, Drs. Xi and Cui (BHL China): National Library of Singapore; with Ely Wallis (BHL AU)

 

From Left: BHL Meeting; Gardens by the Bay, Super Grove; Connie and Gildas Illien (Paris)

Official Group Photo

Pre-meeting dinner with National Library Board Staff

and John Cole (Library of Congress)

Meeting: 2018 BHL Annual Meeting (12-16 March 2018, Los Angeles) and BHL Program Director's Report

 

The 2018 BHL Annual Meeting was held in Los Angeles, 12-15 March, 2018. The meeting was split over two locations, The Natural History Museum (hosted by Richard Hulser), Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden (hosted by Susan Eubank).

The meeting also so a lot of membership changes with the addition of new members, members moving between levels, creation of the Reciprocal Partnership category.

In many ways this was peak BHL in terms of membership and participation. In 2019, there was a subtle shift in BHL priorities as a focus on data began to surface and new thinking about the value proposition of BHL in a biodiversity commons was formulated.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the "BHL Day" event which featured a talks by two Postdoctoral Fellows at the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, Dr. Alexis Mychajiliw and Dr. Libby Ellwood, as the featured speakers. Grace Costantino (BHL) opened with a talk about BHL and its users, Empowering Global Research followed by Drs. Ellwood (Passenger Pigeons in the Western United States) and Mychajiliw (Eyewitness to Extinction). 

Earlier that day, the group was given a special tour behind the scenes at the Tar Pits. Being in Southern California inspired me to look back to the speech by Walt Disney on the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

• Kalfatovic, M. (2018, March 14). 2018 BHL Program Director's Report: Secretariat & Technical Update. 2018 BHL Annual Meeting, Los Angeles. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18828793

To all who come to this happy

place: Welcome. BHL is your

land. Here age relives fond

memories of the past, and here

youth may savor the challenge

and promise of the future. BHL

is dedicated to the ideals, the

dreams, and the hard facts that

have created the World, with

the hope that it will be a

source of joy and inspiration

to all. -- Walt Disney (not), July 17, 1955

Some side excursions included a visit to The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. In off hours, some of us paid a visit to The Last Bookstore and the Santa Monica Pier.

Arriving at the Natural History Museum
(from left: Costantino, Sheffield, Rinaldo, Freeland, Crowley, Lynch)

Ellwood and Mychajiliw

Group Photo