The Biodiversity Heritage Library is organizing a conference, Life and Literature, that will convene librarians, biologists, computer scientists, publishers, students, and other stakeholders to set the agenda for biodiversity literature digitizing and its networked environment for the next four to five years.
The language of the conference will be English.
The purposes of the Life and Literature Conference are:
Engagement of current and future constituencies concerned with biodiversity literature.
Integration and interoperability with major biodiversity and digital library programs.
Further innovative integration of digitized literature with biodiversity databases.
Publishing models and legacy scientific literature.
Setting the agenda for the BHL for the next 4 – 5 years.
The conference will be held at the Field Museum, a leading biodiversity research and education center, in Chicago from November 14 to November 15. Though the exact program schedule is being worked out, in addition to plenary sessions with noted speakers, there will be split concurrent tracks covering such themes as biodiversity informatics, publishing models, digital libraries, and humanistic and artistic intersections with biodiversity literature. Please keep your calendars open for this important conference. We will be updating this site regularly.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is now a consortium of 12 natural history and botanical libraries that have worked together to digitize the legacy literature of biodiversity in support of research and science. Today the BHL Portal serves approximately 86,375 volumes consisting of more than 32,228,000 pages. BHL has become an accepted tool for serious taxonomists, zoologists, botanists, naturalists, educators, and artists. The BHL has also grown into a global enterprise with BHL-Europe, BHL-China, BHL-South America, the Atlas of Living Australia, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
The Field Museum is one of the world's great museums of science, environment, and culture and is a focus of public learning and scholarly research. It's a treasury of more than 23 million artifacts including ancient mummies, endangered plants and animals, and Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Above all, The Field Museum is an unforgettable experience for visitors of all ages. Named for its founding donor, department store magnate Marshall Field I, the Museum first opened its doors in 1894. Today, it presides proudly over Chicago's lakefront Museum Campus, its majestic halls and exciting exhibitions welcoming visitors from around the world. The Museum is increasingly taking to the internet with its mission to increase public understanding of science and is a proud member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Encyclopedia of Life.