Meeting: EOD - eBooks on Demand (10-11 April 2014, Innsbruk, Austria)

The Books2ebooks (EOD - eBooks on Demand) network held an international conference focused on the use and re-use of digital content on 11 April 2014 in Innsbruck, Austria. The project focused on digitizing and increasing the visibility of public domain library books from libraries across Europe.

The meeting opened with a reception on the evening of 10 April in the library spaces.

I was invited to the meeting as the keynote speaker and asked to talk about BHL.

• Kalfatovic, M. (2014, April 11). Building for Demand: The Growth of the Biodiversity Heritage Library. 2014 EOD - eBooks on Demand Network Meeting, Innsbruk, Austria. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19514954

I really liked giving this talk and was able to use a number of various themes I'd developed over the years, Plato, Borges, etc. and got to do it high in the Austrian Alps in the beautiful spaces of the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Tirol. 

Quote from Phadrus: “You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.” (Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. Fowler, 1925. 275a)

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: 2014 BHL Members' Meeting (10-11 March 2014, New York City) and BHL Program Director's Report

In my role as BHL Program Director, I regularly made presentations at the BHL Annual Meetings. This meeting took place in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Botanical Garden, 10-11 March 2014).

This meeting saw the reappointment of William Ulate as BHL Technical Director as well as a suspension of the bylaws to allow for further consideration of the election of the Executive Council.

• Kalfatovic, M. (2014, March 10). 2014 BHL Program Director's Report. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18819223

Group Photo: BHL Leadership (2014)

William Ulate

NYBG