Publication: The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Advancing Metadata Practices in a Collaborative Digital Library (Journal of Library Metadata, April 2010)

Along with a number of BHL colleague, I was a co-author of Suzanne Pilsk's article on BHL metadata that was published in late April in the Journal of Library Metadata.

Pilsk, S. C., Person, M. A., Deveer, J. M., Furfey, J. F., & Kalfatovic, M. R. (2010). The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Advancing Metadata Practices in a Collaborative Digital Library. Journal of Library Metadata, 10(2–3), 136–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/19386389.2010.506400 | Handle Open Access

Meeting: Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning (20-21 April 2008, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia)

In 2008, Harvard University Botany Libraries and the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology led an IMLS National Leadership Grant ($40,000), "Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning", to look at new ways to increase digitization output, especially for special collections:

• The Harvard University Botany Libraries and the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, along with the partner institution libraries of the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, The New York Botanical Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Internet Archive, will plan a cost-effective and efficient large-scale digitization workflow with enhanced metadata for biodiversity library materials designated as “special collections.” The partners propose to identify solutions for digitization of special collections materials by developing and comparing various technological, economic, and process models. -- IMLS Grant: LG-50-08-0058-08

On 20-21 April 2008, a meeting was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia) to work on deliverables for the grant. See article cited below for outcomes.

As with all BHL meetings, there was also an opportunity to visit library and museum collections.

Participants in the meeting included:

• Constance Rinaldo (Harvard, MCZ and project lead)
• Judith Warnement (Harvard Botany Library)
• Tom Baione (American Museum of Natural History)
• Martin R. Kalfatovic (Smithsonian/BHL)
• Susan Fraser (New York Botanical Garden)
• Doug Holland (Missouri Botanical Garden)
• Robert Miller (Internet Archive)
• Eileen Matthias (Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia)d

See also the related publication:

• "Retooling Special Collections Digitisation in the Age of Mass Scanning," with Constance Rinaldo, Judith Warnement, Tom Baione, and Susan Fraser. Ariadne. Issue 67, July 2011. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue67/rinaldo-et-al/ 

Publication: Geocoding LCSH in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Code4Lib Journal Issue 2 (March 24, 2008)

One of the first publications on BHL was initiated by Chris Freeland (BHL Technical Director) and the tech team at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) and published in the then still pretty new online journal, Code4Lib Journal. I also contributed enough for author credit.

The map, created using the methodology outlined in the article, was a feature of the BHL website for a number of years. 

Figure 3: Google Map with geocoded LCSH from the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Abstract: Reusing metadata generated through years of cataloging practice is a natural and pragmatic way of leveraging an institution’s investment in describing its resources. Using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Biodiversity Heritage Library generates new interfaces for browsing and navigating books in a digital library. LCSH are grouped into tag clouds and plotted on interactive maps using methods available within the Google Maps Application Programming Interface (API). Code examples are included, and issues related to these interfaces and the underlying LCSH data are examined.

"Geocoding LCSH in the Biodiversity Heritage Library," with Chris Freeland, Jay Paige, Martin R. Kalfatovic, and Marc Crozier. Code4Lib Journal Issue 2 (March 24, 2008). URL.

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.