Information

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Number 96

Summer 2007

Biodiversity Heritage Library

All images in this issue are from the Biodiversity Heritage 

Library online collections, www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007

from the director

Summer can be a lazy time in Washington. As I write this, the heat index is soaring 

above 100°F, and the world seems to slow 

down in a humid haze. Smithsonian Libraries staff are busier than ever, however. Our 

customer base swells with the arrival of 

hundreds of interns, graduate students, and 

research fellows using the summer to work 

and gain experience. The annual development of budget requests and justifi cations intensifi es, and 

deadlines are set for annual spending toward the September 

30 fi scal year end.

The news that the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) 

would receive an initial $3,000,000 ensured that we would 

have a very busy summer. In June, the Internet Archive 

installed a high-production Scribe scanning station in the 

Libraries, just in time for presentations to attendees at the 

American Library Association’s annual meeting in Washington. The plan is for at least ten such machines to be in 

operation at a regional scanning center to handle the digitizing of the Libraries’ collection, as well as other projects. 

Consequently, I’ve appointed Martin Kalfatovic, Head of 

our New Media Offi ce, to lead a task force to plan the Libraries’ part of the program, and they are hard at work, with 

the intent of beginning in the fall.

It is not just a matter of pulling books off of shelves and 

running them under a camera (because of the broad dispersion of collections in the Libraries system, even this isn’t 

easy!) These books are valuable and will be kept, so we 

must ensure that they won’t be damaged in the process. 

There must be good metadata describing the books so they 

can be found successfully once they are mounted on the 

Internet. Naming and keeping track of digitized fi les and 

quality control are all issues that must be worked out. Rare 

materials require special handling. Our staff is already 

fully occupied with their normal duties, of course, so I am 

particularly grateful to the Undersecretary for Science who 

has provided a grant of $200,000 to support the Libraries’ 

increased workload. Smithsonian Libraries and the other 

BHL partners have already mounted 1.3 milllion pages of 

biodiversity materials on the Internet. We are heartened by 

the positive responses to our enterprise and fueled by the 

knowledge of the good that will be served to the biodiversity community. Our thanks to the John D. and Catherine T. 

MacArthur Foundation and the Arther P. Sloan Foundation 

for their contribution and support of the BHL enterprise.

Nancy E. Gwinn

2

Encyclopedia of Life

The Smithsonian Institution, Field 

Museum of Natural History, Harvard 

University, Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Biodiversity Heritage 

Library announced in May a joint initiative called the Encyclopedia of Life 

(EOL). It is an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named 

species of animals, plants, and other 

forms of life on Earth. The project will 

create Internet pages for all species, 

providing for each written information 

and, when available, photographs, 

video, sound, location maps, and other 

multimedia information. Built on the 

scientific integrity of thousands of experts around the globe, the Encyclopedia will be a moderated wiki-style environment, freely available to all users 

everywhere.

Renowned biologist Edward O. 

Wilson helped to spur the establishment of the 

Encyclopedia, when he 

discussed his 

“wish” at the 

March 2007 

Technology, 

Entertainment, Design 

Conference. 

“I wish that 

we will work 

together to 

help create 

the key tool 

that we need 

to inspire 

preservation 

of Earth’s biodiversity: the 

Encyclopedia 

of Life,” Wilson said. The John D. and Catherine T. 

MacArthur Foundation and the Alfred 

P. Sloan Foundation have provided 

$12.5 million to support the enterprise. The EOL Secretariat is housed at 

the Smithsonian Institution, with Dr. 

James Edwards as executive director. 

See www.eol.org for more information.

John Cassin. Mammalogy and Ornithology. Charles 

Wilkes. Narrative of the United States exploring expedition. During the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. 5 

volumes, atlas, 1844.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007 3

biodiversity heritage library

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 

have granted $3,000,000 to the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) part of a total 

of $12.5 million as starter funding for the Encyclopedia of Life project. The BHL is 

an essential component of the Encyclopedia. The Smithsonian Libraries will house 

the secretariat and administer the BHL on behalf of the ten major museum, botanical 

and research libraries with extensive biodiversity collections that form the partnership. The BHL Council selected Tom Garnett, SIL’s Associate Director for the Digital 

Library and Information Systems, as its founding Director. Garnett has over 27 years 

experience in the library fi eld, the last 23 at the Smithsonian Libraries, where he 

served as a system analyst and Head of the Systems Offi ce, before promotion to Assistant, then Associate, Director. He has coordinated the BHL enterprise from its earliest inception in 2004. In addition to a portion of the foundation funds, the Libraries 

received $200,000 from the Smithsonian’s Atherton Seidell Endowment to support 

SIL’s participation in the program.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library will enable a research scientist or student located 

anywhere in the world, to search the Internet for specifi c information in all of the 

literature relevant to biodiversity and transparently link the text to relevant taxonomic, geographic, or 

other useful databases. Such a tool would erase much of the expensive, labor-intensive work of 

library research and speed the production of research results many times over.

Why digitize this literature? The ten partner libraries collectively hold a substantial part of the world’s published knowledge on biological diversity. Yet, this 

wealth of knowledge is available only to those 

few who can gain direct access to these collections. This body of biodiversity knowledge is thus 

effectively withheld from wide use for a broad 

range of applications, including research, education, taxonomic study, biodiversity conservation, 

protected area management, disease control, and 

maintenance of diverse ecosystems services.

Much of this published literature is rare or has 

limited global distribution and is available in only 

a few select libraries. From a scholarly perspective, 

these collections are of exceptional value because 

the domain of systematic biology depends—more 

than any other science—upon historic literature. 

To positively identify a rare specimen, a working 

Aloha. I live on The Big Island of Hawai’i, a $300.00 plane ride away from Honolulu and 

the Bishop Museum. Even when I can make it to the Museum (where I study the Hawaiian 

Bird Skins), they do not have every single bird (moho apicalis, the Oahu moho is missing)...I 

have been looking for this text for over TWENTY YEARS. Mahalo nui loa for all your hard work. Reading 

these pages mean so much to me and many others...Thank you for putting these items on the web, and in 

such a findable manner. Aloha. Gwendolyn O’Connor

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber. Die Saugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen / 

von Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber ... fortgesetzt von August Goldfutz. Erlangen : in der Expedition 

des Schreber’schen Saugthier- und des Esper’schen Schmetterlingswerkes, 1826.

$3,000,000 to Kick Off Biodiversity Heritage Library; Garnett Tapped as Director

continued on page 4 

Thomas Garnett
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007

biodiversity heritage library

American Museum of Natural History 

 (New York, NY)

The Field Museum (Chicago, IL)

Harvard University Botany Libraries 

 (Cambridge, MA)

Harvard University, Ernst Mayr 

 Library of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, MA)

Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institution 

 (Woods Hole, MA)

Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, 

 MO)

Natural History Museum (London, 

 UK)

The New York Botanical Garden 

 (New York, NY)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 

 (Richmond, UK)

Smithsonian Institution Libraries 

 (Washington, DC)

biologist may have to consult a 100-year-old text because that was the last time the organism was found, recorded, and described. Mass digitization projects at large 

research libraries lacking the discipline-specifi c focus of 

these partner institutions may fail to capture signifi cant elements 

of this biodiversity legacy.

The BHL will be of value to scientists but also to many others. Citizen scientists who lack affi liation with major research institutions will 

now be able to search, read, download, and print collections that were 

previously unavailable to them. Artists can use the detailed illustrations 

in many taxonomic works as motifs or design concepts in their work, 

whether on canvas, paper, or digital. Educators guiding students in how to 

do biological research will have a wealth of examples to incorporate into 

lesson plans and assignments.

The greatest diversity of the biota exists in tropical and developing 

countries, yet the literature documenting that biodiversity is primarily 

held in a few North American and European libraries. Digitizing this literature and making it available freely on the Internet will be an act of 

signifi cant intellectual repatriation. At the Smithsonian’s Natural History 

Library, every year, visitors from remote foreign lands form lines at the 

copying machines to bring needed material back to their home countries.

The BHL partners’ collections represent a uniquely comprehensive assemblage of biodiversity literature. Within two years of the start of this 

project, the BHL will provide approximately 15 million digitized pages 

of literature to support multiple bioinformatics initiatives and research. 

For the fi rst time in history, the core of our natural history museum and 

botanical garden libraries will be available to a truly global audience.

The participating institutions are:

4

BHL Portal: A Dynamic 

Research Space

The digitized literature will 

be served to users from the 

Biodiversity Heritage Library 

Portal, which will provide an 

innovative research environment that will vastly accelerate research in life sciences 

and conservation: a freely accessible, service-based Web 

Service formed through coupling existing databases with 

digitized, searchable images 

and text of heritage literature.

Users today expect sophisticated presentation and collaborative, interactive Web 

resources. To make this Web 

portal operative, BHL will program an intelligent, customizable interface into all parts of 

the repository. The interface 

will enable users to conduct 

a search for particular terms 

My deepest gratitude for allowing me access to the digital version of the very rare “Bulletin des Séances de la 

Société Entomologique de France”. It has been very important for my work on the database of the names of the 

butterflies of the world to be able to consult at leisure this series, which is held by extremely few libraries in the 

world. I cannot stress enough the importance of having access to electronic versions of the literature, especially to 

us researchers who cannot benefit from well-endowed institutional libraries. The Smithsonian Libraries are doing 

a great service to science...Dr Gerardo Lamas, Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Walter Rothschild. The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighbouring islands with a complete history to date of the birds of the 

Hawaiian possession, 1893-1900.

continued from page 3 
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007 5

outreach

On May 11, the Libraries and National Museum of Natural History staff 

welcomed thirty visitors from Catholic 

University of America’s 29th Annual 

Institute for Federal Library Resources. The Libraries has participated for 

nearly two decades. Librarian David 

Steere organized the program on the 

theme “Art in a Science Museum.” 

The heart of the program was two halfhour presentations on art and science 

by Marilyn Schotte, biologist and illustrator in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, and Marcia Bakry, 

scientifi c illustrator in the Department 

of Anthropology. Schotte brought isopod and other invertebrate specimens, 

drawings, photographs, and her special microscope for looking at a specimen with one eye while drawing the 

specimen with the other. Bakry discussed her years of illustration work 

for the Anthropology Department, and 

discussed the evolution of technique 

from pencil and paper to computer illustration. Steere and Martha Rosen 

then led attendees on an art/science tour consisting of a walk 

through the Life in Ancient Seas Hall in the museum, Transitions, an exhibit of artistic scans by Robert Creamer, and 

a presentation 

in the Joseph 

F. Cullman 

3rd Library 

of Natural 

History by 

Leslie Overstreet on the 

history of art 

illustration in 

rare books. F 

David Steere

Libraries Host Catholic University 

Library Science Students

in the BHL repository and find pages 

where these terms occur throughout 

the entire collection of digitized literature. Users will be able to obtain 

a bibliography of the literature containing the keyword(s) or view the 

individual scanned pages (or the indexed text if they prefer) and see 

all of the keywords that appear on 

the page. 

In addition to the internal search capabilities and outward external links, 

the BHL Portal will provide the mechanism necessary to accept queries from 

external databases, libraries, or individual web users, and return appropriate images or bibliographic references. Additional content available on 

the Internet will be linked via the incorporation of state-of-the-art tools, 

which will create dynamic hyperlinks 

to authoritative web sites and enable 

access to recently published knowledge (e.g., literature, scientific news, 

blogs, pictures of the day, distribution 

data, and specimen collections). 

The Smithsonian Libraries has already 

begun to scan most of the scientific 

publications of 

the Smithsonian, which will 

be contributed 

to the BHL. Using the Internet 

Archive, a nonprofit partner, 

the Libraries and 

other BHL members will scan 

other volumes 

from their collections that are 

not covered by 

copyright or for 

which permissions have been 

obtained to 

quickly add large 

segments of literature to the corpus. 

Negotiations with commercial publishers and learned society publishers 

are promising: newer literature may 

be made available with permissions.

www.biodiversitylibrary.org

Marilyn Schotte

Marcia Bakry

Leslie Overstreet exhibits rare natural 

history volumes to the group. 

Photographs by Chip Clark.

Hartmann Schedel. Illustrated by Michael 

Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Liber 

Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles), Nuremberg, 1493.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007

With the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park 

situated on 650 acres of hilly terrain in 

Washington, D.C., and the Smithsonian 

Environmental Research Center located 

75 miles away in Front Royal, Virginia, 

the Zoo’s scientists and veterinarians have 

often found it diffi cult to get their hands 

on actual research texts. With the help of 

the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, new 

scanned and digitized scientifi c journals are 

delivered to their computer desktops daily. 

Doctors at the Zoo’s two veterinary hospitals in Rock Creek Park in Washington and in 

Front Royal, Virginia, depend heavily on Libraries staff to provide crucial information in a 

timely and expeditious fashion. With digital delivery, lengthy medical articles can be forwarded 

in a matter of minutes. Additionally, because the Libraries has a relationship with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and can borrow 

books at no cost, fertility specialists and researchers at both the Zoo and 

the Front Royal 

facility have 

access to even 

more resources. 

The NLM delivers the information electronically to Libraries 

staff, who then 

pass it on to their 

colleagues at the 

National Zoo. 

So while at fi rst 

glance it might 

appear there is 

not a connection 

between animals 

and libraries, 

in fact animal 

health and welfare depend on 

library resources. F Alvin 

Hutchinson 

& Catherine 

Fraser

6

What do the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries 

Have in Common?—Healthy Animals!

Each year, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries partner with 

one of the Institution’s museums or research centers to 

host the Spencer Baird Society 

Dinner, a gala designed to increase awareness and financial 

support for the Libraries. Last 

year, the Libraries partnered 

with the National Museum of 

the American Indian and raised 

over $50,000, which was used 

to establish an endowment for 

the museum’s library.

This year, the Libraries are 

joining with the National Zoo 

in an Escape to the Wild Side, 

which will feature Jeff Corwin 

of television’s Animal Planet, 

and showcase the animals of 

the zoo’s Asia Trail. Guests will 

be invited to enjoy cocktails 

and al fresco dining as they 

stroll down the footpath and 

learn more about the red pandas, clouded leopards, sloth 

bears, and fishing cats that are 

a part of the trail. The event is 

scheduled for Friday, September 28th, at 7pm.For more information log onto www.escapetothewildside.org.

Funds raised will be used to 

acquire wildlife conservation 

materials that support the 

work of the zoo.

Libraries’ 2007 Zoo 

Dinner Guaranteed 

to be Wild...

giving to the libraries

François-Nicolas Martinet. “Paille-en-queue,” Ornithologie [=Histoire des Oiseaux Peints dans 

Tous Leurs Aspects Apparents et Sensibles] [Ornithology], 1773-1792.

Belle Vue Gardens Official Guide, 

Manchester & London: G.Falkner & 

Sons, 1895.
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Information Summer 2007 7

Ruth Schallert’s retirement party 

was organized 

jointly by the 

Department 

of Botany and 

the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 

mirroring her 

commitment 

to fostering 

the interdependence of 

science and library science. 

Notable gifts 

were a framed 

portrait of her, 

to be hung 

on the walls 

of the Botany Library; 

a picture of 

the species 

of plant that 

was named 

after her, and 

a botanically 

themed platter 

created by one of her favorite ceramicists. 

Perhaps the most meaningful gift of all 

was the fact that donations were directed 

towards an acquisitions fund to buy new 

books for the Botany Library’s collection, 

rather than to her directly. She has become so iconic of the library itself that its 

enrichment is her own reward.

A Fond Farewell

Though best known as the sole 

librarian at the Botany Library at the 

Smithsonian National Museum of 

Natural History for the past 41 years, 

Ruth Schallert’s entire career demonstrates the versatility and expertise 

required of a good reference librarian. Born in Whitehall, Wisconsin, 

she graduated from Luther College 

in 1942—a time when opportunities 

for female employment were limited. 

However, her facility with languages 

(she majored in English and minored 

in Latin and German), coupled with 

her experience as a student assistant in her school library, suggested a possible affi nity for library work.

Completion of library school at the University of 

Michigan cemented Schallert’s preference for work in 

a specialized collection as a reference librarian rather 

than as a cataloger, because the former would allow her 

to gain knowledge of a fi eld through direct contact with 

people. Though the content of the collections she has 

worked with has varied widely (art 

at the library of the University of 

Iowa, fi shery biology in the Pacifi c Salmon Investigations library 

in Seattle, oceanography in the 

U.S. Naval Oceanographic offi ce 

in Washington D.C., and fi nally, 

botany in the Libraries), she has had 

the satisfaction of meeting the challenge undertaken by every reference 

librarian in a specialized collection: 

“fi tting what the scholars and scientists want with what I know is in the collection.”

Schallert’s familiarity with the books in the collection 

is personal as well as professional, since some of them 

contain dedications to her by the very scientists she has 

helped. To watch her navigate the botany library—now 

as a volunteer—identifying books from vague subject 

headings or even incomplete physical descriptions, is 

to understand her pride in considering herself “part of a 

research team,” whose unseen efforts are indispensable 

to the functioning of a larger scientifi c community. F 

Kannan Mahadevan

Over 40 Years at the Libraries

Ruth Schallert 

today. Photograph 

by Chip Clark.

service

More than one hundred 

guests attended to celebrate Schallert’s long career, including her daughter Lisa and niece Elsbeth 

(Top, from left. Photographs 

by Chip Clark).

Ruth Schallert in 1986.

Image credits:

Cover:

Henry Walter Bates. The Naturalist on the River 

 Amazons [sic], 1863.

James D. Dana. Zoophytes. Charles Wilkes. 

Narrative of the United States exploring 

 expedition. During the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 

 1841, 1842. 5 volumes, atlas, 1844.

William Botting Hemsley. Biologia Centrali 

 Americana. Botany, Volume V, (1879-1888).

Cover, Pages 3, 5, 6 & Back Cover:

Jakob Sturm. Verzeichniss meiner Insecten- 

 Sammlung, (1796).
new, ongoing & upcoming in this issue

2 From the Director

2-5 Biodiversity 

 Heritage Library 

5 Outreach

6 Giving to the 

 Libraries

7 Service

To be added to the INFORMATION 

mailing list, or to request this 

publication in a digital format, 

please contact:

Smithsonian Institution Libraries 

Development Office

NHB, 24mz - MRC 154

P.O. Box 37012

Washington DC, 20013-7012

Telephone 202.633.2875

SAVE THE DATE!

8th Annual Spencer Baird Society Dinner, Escape to the Wild Side

 Smithsonian National Zoological Park, September 28, 2007

 www.escapetothewildside.org/

Exhibitions & Programs

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration

 Libraries panel exhibition at the D.C. Public Library, 

 Washington, D.C., September 6—October 4, 2007

From the Digital Library

By Aeroplane to Pygmyland: Revisiting the 1926 

 Dutch and American Expedition to New Guinea

 www.sil.si.edu/expeditions/1926/

Smithsonian Contributions and Studies Series

 www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/

INFORMATION is published quarterly to inform users and benefactors about 

services, programs and issues affecting the Libraries.

Designer/Editor: Elizabeth Periale

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

PO Box 37012 MRC 154

10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW

Washington DC 20013-7012

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

Presorted 

Standard

U.S. Postage

And Fees

PAID

Washington, DC

Permit No. G94

Happy Anniversary Smithsonian Institution Libraries...

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries will celebrate 40 years of service to researchers and the public in 2008. A year 

of special activities is being planned in conjunction with the Libraries’ 40th anniversary. Stay tuned for details!