Presentation from the evening reception at the 2018 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Presentation shared user stories highlighting how BHL is supporting research in global science, conservation, and museum work.

1. EMPOWERING GLOBAL
RESEARCH
Grace Costantino
BHL Outreach and Communication Manager
User Stories from the
Biodiversity Heritage Library

2. Natural history literature and archives contain
information that is critical to studying life on Earth.
SPECIES
DESCRIPTIONS
DISTRIBUTION
RECORDS
HISTORY OF
SCIENTIFIC
DISCOVERY
CLIMATE
RECORDS
INFORMATION
ON EXTINCT
SPECIES
SCIENTIFIC
OBSERVATIONS
ECOSYSTEM
PROFILES
SCIENTIFIC
ILLUSTRATIONS

3. Before BHL…
Much of this literature was available
in only a few select libraries in the
developed world. Lack of literature is
a major impediment to the efficiency
of scientific research.

4. BHL EMPOWERS GLOBAL RESEARCH

5. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…

6. Photo credit: Varad Giri
Hardwicke’s Bloodsucker

7. Hardwicke’s Bloodsucker
Photo credit: Varad Giri

8. What’s my
name?
Hardwicke’s Bloodsucker
Photo credit: Varad Giri

10. By researching the published history of this
species using BHL, in combination with
molecular and morphological data, Dr. Giri and
his coauthors provided a new species name
(Calotes minor) and placement for the
Hardwicke’s bloodsucker in a 2015 Vertebrate
Zoology paper.
Published Online at:
www.senckenberg.de /vertebrate-zoology

11. EMPOWERING GLOBAL SCIENCE
Dr. Varad B. Giri
HERPETOLOGIST
National Centre for Biological Sciences (Bangalore, India)
“BHL is doing a wonderful service for
researchers like me, who work with
limited resources in developing
countries like India. I strongly feel that if
BHL was not available, I would not
have performed good scientific work
with such ease due to a lack of
historical literature.”

12. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…

13. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…
Fiji Reefs
Image sources top to bottom: www.nanukufiji.com | seafijireefs.com | www.pri.org

14. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…
Fiji Reefs
Image sources top to bottom: www.nanukufiji.com | seafijireefs.com | www.pri.org
Marine Protected Areas
Vanua Levu, Fiji
Image Source: dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/940765

16. The Fishes of Samoa (1906) has had a greater impact on Dr. Drew’s research
than any other book in BHL. Why?
It tells us “what these reefs looked like before widespread development”
and it “describes for perhaps the first time” the unique patterns of species
distribution in the Southwest Pacific.

17. EMPOWERING CONSERVATION
Dr. Joshua Drew
MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST
Columbia University
“BHL is a very important part of my
research. Having access to historical
literature is essential to characterizing
what ecosystems used to look like, what
species were present and what peoples'
opinions of the health of the ecosystem
were like throughout time. This provides
baselines to evaluate how current
conservation measures are succeeding.”

18. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…

19. REAL-WORLD STORIES
ABOUT BHL IMPACT ON…
Image: Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum. v. 41 (1912)
In 1911, the Smithsonian debuted
the world's first large mounted
Camptosaurus skeleton.
Image Source: newsdesk.si.edu

20. Mark Lay with Camptosaurus cast at the
National Museum of Natural History

21. The Camptosaurus mounts are detailed
in a 1912 article by Charles W. Gilmore
published in Proceedings of the United
States National Museum. v. 41.

22. Camptosaurus fossils were
uncovered at a quarry near
Como Bluff, Wyoming.
Article in Proceedings of the United
States National Museum provides diagram
of the position of the larger Camptosaurus
specimen in the rocks before excavation.

23. EMPOWERING MUSEUM WORK
Mark Lay
“BHL has greatly sped up my research
process and enables me to access
documents that otherwise would be
extremely difficult for me to obtain. The
fact that I can access these documents
via BHL means that I can also work from
home – greatly increasing the amount of
time that I can devote to my volunteer
research.”
VOLUNTEER | VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY PREPARATION LAB
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

25. BHL is a Global Consortium
20MEMBERS
AS OF MARCH 2018
20AFFILIATES
80+ WORLDWIDE PARTNERS

26. “SBG Library believes that BHL, with its rich
digital repository of biological information, will
continue to play an important role in botanical
research and has indirectly also become a
platform for long-term preservation of historical
and legacy biodiversity literatures.”

27. “Over time, the SBG Library has amassed
a good collection of rare and scholarly
printed literature, housed in a climate-
controlled archive room, which were
accessible to, and utilised by, only a
handful of privileged in-house researchers.
Access via BHL will allow far greater
access to academics, researchers,
students, and the global public than was
ever possible before.”
EXPANDING LIBRARY IMPACT
Dr. Nura Abdul Karim
DEPUTY DIRECTOR | Library, Training & External Relations.
Singapore Botanic Gardens

28. Inspiring Discovery through
Free Access to Biodiversity Knowledge
Vision
The Biodiversity Heritage Library
improves research methodology
by collaboratively making biodiversity
literature openly available to the world
as part of a global biodiversity
community.
Mission

29. Thank You!
Questions?
Grace Costantino (CostantinoG@si.edu)
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