TabbedOverviewThe Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to address this challenge by digitizing the natural history literature held in their collections and making it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.” Provider: Biodiversity Heritage LibraryPosted: Sep 19, 2018 12:49pmUpdated: Jun 13, 2019 11:50amSourceCRL reviews are based on independent research. Information is researched by CRL staff and other specialists at CRL libraries. See CRL Review for additional source notes. DetailsCollection ContentSubject Areas: Health and Life SciencesResource Types: Open Access - Denotes data sourced directly from publisherTerms and Provider DetailsProvider: Biodiversity Heritage Library Website: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.orgMain Address: United States CRL ReviewCollection Content: The BHL portal provides free access to thousands of biodiversity literature and archival volumes, comprising over 55 million pages, from the 15th-21st centuries. The BHL operates as a consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries that work together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and making it freely available for open access. The core of the BHL collection is focused on the subject matter relevant to the work of zoologists, botanists, evolutionary biologists, taxonomists, systematists, ecologists, natural history collections managers, scientific illustrators, biological science historiographers, and amateur scientists & hobbyists. In selecting materials for digitization, the consortium tries to maximize scanning dollars by prioritizing the core literature from partner's collections, especially those titles that have a high concentration of taxonomic names. The types of materials in the BHL collection include: Books and Journals, Article Metadata (not Articles), Archival Materials, Book-like objects, and links to materials on third-party websites. The consortium works with the international taxonomic community, publishers, bioinformaticians, and information technology professionals to develop tools and services to facilitate greater access, interoperability, and reuse of content and data. BHL provides a range of services, data exports, and APIs to allow users to download content, harvest source data files, and reuse materials for research purposes. Through the Global Names Recognition and Discovery (GNRD) service, BHL indexes the taxonomic names throughout the collection, allowing researchers to locate publications about specific taxa. Delivery: The BHL portal provides free access to digitized volumes, comprising over 55 million pages, from the 15th-21st centuries. In addition to public domain content, BHL works with rights holders to obtain permission to make in-copyright materials openly available under Creative Commons licenses. Search and advanced search capabilities are available to users. Additionally, collection content can be browsed by: title, author, date, colleciton or contributor. Strengths and Weaknesses: See 2015 ITHAKA S+R report, on challenges to BHL growth, sustainability. SourcesSources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher; data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries; and examination of the digital collection when possible. Other sources are noted where cited. CRL continues to gather additional information on this resource and to solicit critical assessment. CRL Offers & Status StatusCurrentDescription CRL FlaggednoPotential interest to CRL community Offer PendingnoCurrently a candidate for CRL offer Active OffernoCurrently offered for purchase or new subscription Trial AccessnoAvailable for trial Renewal OffernoCurrently offered for renewal Expired OffernoPast offers Inactive / DeclinednoNo longer under consideration by CRL Reviewed by CRLyesEvaluation available by CRL and community Special AccessnoMember-only access available for a limited time Community RatingsPlatform and user interface: 0 Your rating: None 0 No votes yet Content scope and completeness: 0 Your rating: None 0 No votes yet Cost and price-structure: 0 Your rating: None 0 No votes yet Print