Removing Taxonomic Impediments: How the Encyclopedia of Life and Biodiversity Heritage Library projects can help
Graham Higley
Abstract
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a collaborative scientific effort led by the Atlas of Living Australia, Field Museum, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole), Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a consortium of natural history libraries(1). Ultimately, the Encyclopedia of Life will provide an online database for all 1.8 million species known to live on Earth. When completed, www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policy-makers, students, and citizens the information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation. An Advisory Board of 12 distinguished individuals from 5 countries will help guide the Encyclopedia.
The BHL has developed a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available at www.biodiversitylibrary.org. The partner libraries collectively hold a substantial part of the world’s published knowledge on biological diversity. This body of biodiversity knowledge, in its current form, is largely unavailable to a broad range of applications including: research, education, taxonomic study, biodiversity conservation, protected area management, disease control, and maintenance of diverse ecosystems services.
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. The so-called “decay-rate” of this literature is much slower than in other fields such as biotechnology. Ongoing mass digitization projects lack the discipline-specific focus of the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. These other projects will fail to capture significant elements of legacy taxonomic literature. The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project will actively seek to incorporate data and content from other digitization projects.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project will immediately provide content for multiple bioinformatics initiatives and research, including EOL. For the first time in history, the core of natural history library collections will be available to a global audience. Web-based access to these collections will provide a substantial benefit to all researchers, especially those living and working in the developing world.
Up-to-date information can be found on the 2 Web sites www.eol.org/ and www.biodiversitylibrary.org/. An EOL Newsletter will be produced shortly. Any who wishes may register to get regular email updates at www.eol.org/registration.php.
1 Including the Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Botanical Garden, American Museum of Natural History (New York), Natural History Museum (London), New York Botanical Garden, Royal Botanic Garden (Kew), Marine Biological Laboratory and others.
The BHL has developed a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available at www.biodiversitylibrary.org. The partner libraries collectively hold a substantial part of the world’s published knowledge on biological diversity. This body of biodiversity knowledge, in its current form, is largely unavailable to a broad range of applications including: research, education, taxonomic study, biodiversity conservation, protected area management, disease control, and maintenance of diverse ecosystems services.
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. The so-called “decay-rate” of this literature is much slower than in other fields such as biotechnology. Ongoing mass digitization projects lack the discipline-specific focus of the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. These other projects will fail to capture significant elements of legacy taxonomic literature. The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project will actively seek to incorporate data and content from other digitization projects.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library Project will immediately provide content for multiple bioinformatics initiatives and research, including EOL. For the first time in history, the core of natural history library collections will be available to a global audience. Web-based access to these collections will provide a substantial benefit to all researchers, especially those living and working in the developing world.
Up-to-date information can be found on the 2 Web sites www.eol.org/ and www.biodiversitylibrary.org/. An EOL Newsletter will be produced shortly. Any who wishes may register to get regular email updates at www.eol.org/registration.php.
1 Including the Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Botanical Garden, American Museum of Natural History (New York), Natural History Museum (London), New York Botanical Garden, Royal Botanic Garden (Kew), Marine Biological Laboratory and others.