Meetings: DPLA West and other meetings | CAS / CDL / Apple (April 2012, San Francisco & Oakland)

22-28 April 2012 was a busy week in the Bay Area with Chris Freeland (BHL Technical Director). The main purpose of the trip was to attend the DPLA West meeting held at the Internet Archive:

• On April 26, 2012, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, in conjunction with the San Francisco Public Library and the Internet Archive, convened a series of meetings of the six DPLA workstreams at the San Francisco Public Library to discuss key issues pertaining to the DPLA and its core objectives. The goal of these meetings was to chart out agenda items for the next six months of work, as well as to provide a forum for workstreams to share updates and ideas with one another. -- DPLA West Workstream Meetings Press Release (26 April 2012)

While in the Bay Area, we also paid a visit to our BHL colleagues at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS). We also headed down to Cupertino to visit with the Apple iTunes U team. iTunes U had worked with BHL to create a series free BHL-centric resources for users of iTunes. While at Apple HQ (on Infinite Loop), I bought my first iPad at the Apple staff store.

Wikimedia (and the entire Wiki community) was a long time proponent of BHL. We were able to schedule some time with senior Wikimedia staff at their San Francisco headquarters to discuss common goals and projects.

A key portion of the Bay Area visit was a stop on the East Bay where Chris and I took the BART across the Bay to Oakland for meetings and presentations for the staff of the California Digital Library (CDL). At the time, BHL had been working with CDL (as they had content in the Internet Archive harvested by BHL). A few years earlier, in June 2009, BHL signed agreement for CDL content and at the time, CDL was the 3rd largest provider of items after Smithsonian and MBLWHOI Library (9,796 titles).

  

Here's my presentation for the meeting.

• Kalfatovic, M. (2012, April 24). The Biodiversity Heritage Library: A Vast Library of Life. Information Meeting: California Digital Library (CDL), Oakland, CA. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19710064.

As a bonus, Chris and I headed over to Berkeley after the meeting and went to Chez Panisse for dinner.

Meeting: 2011 WebWise (10-11 March 2011, Baltimore, MD)

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was a key financial supporter for a number of BHL projects. The WebWise conferences, annually hosted by IMLS from 2000-2013 were important venues for meetings of BHL participants, and WebWise 2004 (Chicago) of particular importance for the after-hours session that saw a draft of BHL planned on a napkin.

WebWise 2011 was in nearby (for me), Baltimore, 10-11 March 2011. As per usual, it was an excellent program. There were a number of BHL partner staff in attendance. Featured on a panel was Rebecca Morin, from the California Academy of Sciences (CAS)

The Biodiversity Heritage Library, the world's largest repository of full-text digitized legacy biodiversity literature, has added more than 14,000 records of digitized materials brought together from 12 prestigious institutions to WorldCat. Rebecca A. Morin, User Services Librarian at the California Academy of Sciences will discuss this exciting project as well as a recent IMLS National Leadership grant that CAS has received to develop a system for integrating biological researchers' field and specimen notes, with museum specimens and related electronically published literature. The enhanced and integrated access to biological data will serve a wide variety of users, and will connect to other ongoing projects such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library. -- Rebecca Morin | BHL Partner: California Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Danielle Castronovo (also from The California Academy of Sciences), presents on the project in the open session.

Representatives from a number of BHL partners were also presenting updates on previously funded IMLS projects. This included Connie Rinaldo (MCZ, Harvard) and Judy Warnement (Harvard Botany). Doug Holland and Chris Freeland also presented updates on funded projects.

Resources

• WebWise 2011 Webcasts

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.