Two biodiversity/bioinformatics meetings in Belgium and the Netherlands (2-4 April 2015)

As Program Director for the Biodiversity Heritage Library, I participated in many meetings around bioinformatics. In April 2015, two important meetings were held in Oostende (Belgium) and Leiden (Netherlands).

The first of the two meetings took place in Oostende. The meeting was the Catalogue of Life Mini-Symposium held at the Vlaams Instituut Voor de Zee (VLIZ). In addition to staff from the Catalogue of Life, Donald Hobern (GBIF), David Remsen (Marine Biological Lab), and Tom Orrell (Smithsonian/ITIS) were attending. 

At the Symposium, I gave the following presentation:

Kalfatovic, M. (2015, April 2). Looking Forward: The Biodiversity Heritage Library. Catalogue of Life Mini-Symposium (CoL), Oostende (Belgium). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19393206

The weather in Oostende was challenging, high winds and rain; we also had to take a short ferry ride to the meeting space. All the things that make biodiversity meetings special.

Following the meeting in Oostende, many of the group moved on to Leiden for a focused meeting on the work of BHL, EOL, ITIS, and GBIF. In addition to those at the CoL meeting, Bob Corrigan (EOL), Peter Schalk (CoL/GBIF) were in attendance. The meetings were held in the offices of Naturalis, then still in their temporary quarters in the Pesthuis before moving to their new building.

Group photos are always a great part of the meeting, here, we posed as Dutch Masters:

I was also able to take a bit of personal time and visited Amsterdam, Ghent, and the fabulous tulip gardens of Keukenhof.

Meeting: 2015 BHL Annual Meeting and BHL Day (17-18 March 2015, The Field Museum, Chicago)

The 2015 BHL Annual Meeting was notable for a number of events, but the key feature was the first BHL Day forum. Modeled in an event held in January 2014 as part of the Global BHL meeting held in Melbourne, Australia. 

Christine (Giannoni) Weiss, Director of The Field Museum Library, organized and introduced the event. Dr. Debra Moskovits, Vice President, Science & Education at The Field welcomed all the BHL attendees. 

The featured speaker was Dr. Matt von Konrat (Head of Botanical Collections and Adjunct Curator & McCarter Collections Manager of Bryophytes and Pteridophytes), who spoke on the topic, "BHL: A Report from the Field." 

It was also announced at the meeting that The Field Museum would move from Affiliate to Full member.

The meeting (led by BHL Executive Committee Chair, Nancy Gwinn) covered many usual topics, including budget and spending, membership composition, strategic planning, and preliminary planning for the 2016 BHL Annual meeting, which would included a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the BHL. 

Dr. Matt von Konrat

The meeting also so attendance from members of the Global BHL community including BHL Africa (Anne-Lise Fourie), BHL Singapore (Eric Chen), and BHL Mexico (Patricia Koleff).

Group Photo

My 2015 Program Director's Report:

• Kalfatovic, M. (2015, March 17). Looking Forward: The Biodiversity Heritage Library: 2015-2016. 2015 BHL Annual Meeting and BHL Day, Chicago, IL (The Field Museum). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19010734