Meeting: 2008 BHL Architecture Meeting (19-21 March 2008, Cambridge, MA) & 2008 BHL Institutional Council meeting

In March 2008, BHL staff gathered in Cambridge, MA at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard) for an important meeting around BHL's technical architecture.

Attendees included:

• Freeland, Chris (BHL/MOBOT)
• Garnett, Tom (BHL)
• Higley, Graham (NHM)
• Leary, Patrick (EOL/MBL)
• Lichtenberg, Mike (MOBOT)
• Mignault, John (NYBG)
• Morris, Paul (Harvard)
• Norton, Cathy (MBLWHOI)
• Payette, Sandy (Fedora Commons)
• Rinaldo, Connie (Harvard)
• Scholz, Henning (Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
• Schopf, Jennifer (EOL)
• Thomson, Neil (NHM)
• Warnement, Judy (Harvard Botany) 
• Wendler, Robin (Harvard)

Key agenda items were discussions around the use of Fedora as a repository for BHL content. Chris Freeland provided an overview of the BHL applications, staff from the Encyclopedia of Life discussed possible integrations, and development desiderata were explored.

The planning work on BHL Europe as well as other international partners and their impact on BHL technology were covered.

The out of town group all stayed at the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge. The "She-Raton" was a regular haunt for BHL meetings in Cambridge. One of my favorite photos is below, capturing participants walking from the Commander to the Museum of Comparative Zoology. I call it, "March of the Bioinformaticians".

March of the Bioinformaticians

Following the Architecture Meeting, there was a meeting of the BHL Institutional Council on 21 March, also held at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge Massachusetts, led by the BHL Executive Committee, Graham Higley (Chair), Cathy Norton (Vice-Chair), and Connie Rinaldo (Secretary).

Meeting: Boston Library Consortium (18 March 2008, Boston Public Library) and BHL Presentation

Boston Public Library: Free to All

Ahead of the 2008 BHL Architecture Meeting (18-19 March 2008) and BHL Director's Meeting (21 March 2008), Chris Freeland and I gave presentations at the Boston Library Consortium (BLC)Meeting held at Boston Public Library (BPL). 

The BLC meeting was hosted by Barbara G. Preece who served as the Executive Director of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) from 2000 to 2009. 

The meeting also included a tour of the Internet Archive scanning center at BPL and some other behind the scenes look at BPL operations including work being done on the Adams Family Papers.

Chris Freeland presenting

A rapt audience

From right: Cathy Norton, Barbara Preece,
Matt Person, Diane Rielinger

• Kalfatovic, M. (2008, March 18). A Global Library for Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. Boston Library Consortium (March 2008 Meeting), Boston, MA (Boston Public Library). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19034559

Meeting: 2008 WebWise (5-7 March 2008, Miami Beach) the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Rijsttafel

The 2008 WebWise (5-7 March 2008) in Miami Beach was an important one for BHL. From the Smithsonian, I attended along with Suzanne Pilsk. Doug Holland from the Missouri Botanical Garden was there. The star of the event, however, was Cathy Norton from the MBLWHOI Library. Cathy, a prime mover of BHL was also the Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee and played a role in the informatics component of the Encyclopedia of Life.

In addition to a number of Smithsonian colleagues, Maura Marx and Beth Prindle (from Boston Public Library and who had recently launched the Adams Family Papers project) and Rachel Frick (IMLS Senior Program Officer) were there. All three ended up being long time supporters of BHL in various positions throughout the year. 

E.O. Wilson, the noted entomologist at Harvard, “wished” for an authoritative encyclopedia of life that would be freely available on the worldwide Web for the entire world. On May 9th, 2007, The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) was launched as a multi-institutional initiative whose mission is to create 1.8 million Web sites detailing all the known attributes, history, and behavior, about every known and described species and portraying that information through video, audio, and literature, via the Internet. A major contributor to the Encyclopedia is the Biodiversity Heritage Library that is currently scanning all the core biodiversity literature. -- "The Encyclopedia of Life, Biodiversity Heritage Library, Biodiversity Informatics and Beyond Web 2.0 (abstract)" by Cathy Norton. As published in First Monday.  Volume 13 Number 8 - 4 August 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v13i8.2226

Doug Holland and Suzanne Pilsk

The conference reception was held at the Wolfsonian Museum which was a highlight of the trip. Another highlight was dinner at Indomania, a great Indonesian restaurant on South Beach where we had a Rijsttafel ("elaborate Indonesian meal adapted by the Dutch from the hidang presentation of nasi padang from the Padang region of West Sumatra" -- Wikipedia) dinner.

Resources

• WebWise 2.0: The Power of Community. Schedule and Related Materials 

About IMLS and WebWise (from the 2011 Site)

The following is a description of the WebWise conference and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), circa 2011.

WebWise 2011

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in particular their Digital Media and Learning program provided support for this year's conference. Click here to learn more about WebWise, IMLS digital resources and how we bring together representatives of museums, libraries, archives, systems science, education, and other fields to explore the many opportunities made possible by digital technologies.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.