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)

Publication: "Data Born in Literature: The Biodiversity Heritage Library – A Global Digital Library Serving the Planet" (2025)

Last year, Digital Libraries Across Continents, Edited by Le Yang and Alicia Salaz was published by the Taylor & Francis Group. Included in the collection was my chapter,  "Data Born in Literature: The Biodiversity Heritage Library – A Global Digital Library Serving the Planet." 

The chapter gives an overview of the origin and growth of The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and the vision for the BHL to move from a traditional "digital library" to a 21st century repository of all heritage biodiversity literature recast and refactored as actionable data. 

The 2019 BHL Annual Meeting (Ithaca, NY) was where the idea that BHL is more than just "books" and exists as data first came about. It's hinted at in my presentation as Program Director, "Seeing a Butterfly & Knowing What It Is: BHL: Past > Present > Future" and was fleshed out in the coming years. I'll cover that in more detail in future posts.

• Citation: Kalfatovic, Martin R., "Data Born in Literature: The Biodiversity Heritage Library – A Global Digital Library Serving the Planet," in Yang, L., & Salaz, A. (Eds.). (2025). Digital Libraries Across Continents (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003473589.

More about Digital Libraries Across Continents:

Digital Libraries Across Continents illustrates how digital librarianship practitioners and scholars digitize, exhibit, and preserve their cultural heritage, and how these practices may be influenced by the policy, economic, and sociocultural environments in which they are developed.

Including scholarly articles, case studies, examples of best practice, and conceptual essays solicited from different continents, this book provides an overview of the status quo of digital libraries around the globe. The case studies examine how macro-level policy, funding, and social priorities influence the development of digital libraries. The volume offers a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between libraries in different countries and the ways in which they view, foster, develop, and sustain digital librarianship. Chapters within the book examine systems, standards, workflows, content, protocol, social and policy environments, culture, metadata, and more, through a series of case studies provided by practitioners working in these settings. Taking a comparative international approach, the book promotes the development of inclusive, accessible, and sustainable digital libraries that serve a global human knowledge endeavor.

Digital Libraries Across Continents provides a wide-ranging examination of issues in cross-border digital library contexts. It will be essential reading for library practitioners, as well as information scientists and educators.

Library and Laboratory: The Marriage of Research, Data, and Taxonomic Literature

Today is an important date for the Biodiversity Heritage Library as it marks the start of a key global gathering, “Library and Laboratory: The Marriage of Research, Data, and Taxonomic Literature”  (London, 5 Feb 2005). The meeting, attended by 80+ bioinformaticians, taxonomists, & librarians from around the world delineated many of the key deliverables later developed by the BHL.

[left] Constance Rinaldo (left, Harvard) & Tom Garnett (Smithsonian); Connie was later the first Secretary of the BHL's Executive Committee & later Vice-Chair & Chair; Tom was the inaugural BHL Program Manager.

People

Many of those attending continued in official and unofficial roles (as advisors) after BHL was formally organized in 2006 and then launched in May of 2007.

[right] Anna Weitzman (Smithsonian), Chris Lyal (NHM), Tom Garnett (Smithsonian) & Graham Higley (NHM). Anna and Chris were important to the informatics development of BHL and Graham was later the first Chair of the BHL Executive Committee.

Doug Holland (Missouri Botanical Garden, below left) was later Secretary of the BHL Executive Committee; in 2004’s “WebWise 2004: Sharing Digital Resources” in Chicago he, along with Chris Freeland (Missouri Botanical Garden), Suzanne Pilsk (Smithsonian), and I did a classic napkin sketch of a digital library for biodiversity in the lounge of the Hotel Intercontinental, Chicago (below right).

The Bioinformaticians

BHL was built on a tripod of libraries, technology and science. A number of these thinkers and theoreticians attended LibLab nad went on to contribute time, code, and administrative know-how to build BHL.

Above Left

Thomas Orrell (left, Smithsonian) & David Remsen (right, MBL WHOI Library); Tom provided bioinformatics guidance for BHL; Dave's innovative & groundbreaking work in taxonomic name finding (uBio) laid the groundwork for much of BHL’s taxonomic infrastructure via the Global Names Architecture. 

Above Center

Sandra Knapp (NHM), plant taxonomist, Fellow of the Royal Society, OBE and key thinker on the topic of organismal taxonomy & important contributor at many BHL meetings.

Above Right

Scott Miller (Smithsonian) & John Kress (Smithsonian); Scott was a key figure in securing millions in financial support for the Biodiversity Heritage Library; John, plant taxonomist & an expert in evolutionary biology is a long-time supporter of BHL

Values

Key values of collaboration, openness, transparency, globalization, & a user/data centric focus were all first elaborated at the conference (which brought together key figures in the origin of @biodivlibrary.bsky.social) & a working meeting at the NHM Librarian’s office the day before.

Pictured, NHM Librarian’s office where Tom Garnett (Smithsonian), Graham Higley (NHM), Bryan Heidorn (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and I sketched out governance of what was to become Biodiversity Heritage Library (4 Feb 2005) [photo from 2014] 

---

More People 

Tom Moritz (left, AMNH) & Robert Morris (University of Massachusetts Boston); Tom provided important guidance on BHL governance & technology; Robert, a computer scientist, provided tech guidance for BHL, particularly in his later role with the Encyclopedia of Life.

---

Missing from LibLab

I had the privilege to attend "LibLab" in 2005, but missed Chris Freeland (Missouri Botanical Garden, later BHL’s inaugural Technical Director) & Cathy Norton (MBL WHOI Library, later the 1st Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee) -- vital figures in the creation of BHL.

[Cathy Norton, left; Chris Freeland, right]

---

Anniversary Season!

In 2016, the Biodiversity Heritage Library celebrated 10 years in London with meetings at the Natural History Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ... looking forward to hearing what happens at the 20th anniversary gathering in 2026.

Natural History Museum, London (2016)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2016)