The BHL way to content

William UlateBHL Technical Director

Global BHL Coordinator

Leiden, NetherlandsFebruary 14, 2013

What is BHL?

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that

cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to

make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity

commons.”

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that

cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to

make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity

commons.”

Extensive

Global…

New Partners and Geographies

Dear Sir / Madam Can i just congratulate you on an absolutely brilliant online resource. I am compiling a report on an invasive hydromedusae and could not believe the ease and efficiency of this web page which genuinely saved me weeks of my life

Dear Sir / Madam Can i just congratulate you on an absolutely brilliant online resource. I am compiling a report on an invasive hydromedusae and could not believe the ease and efficiency of this web page which genuinely saved me weeks of my life

Research that previously took months now takes only a few hours

Research that previously took months now takes only a few hours

La plus grande #bibliotheque #botanique & #zoologique online The largest online botanical & zoological #library #BHL

La plus grande #bibliotheque #botanique & #zoologique online The largest online botanical & zoological #library #BHL

The freeing of knowledge may lead to new discoveries and changes in the way the natural world is perceived

The freeing of knowledge may lead to new discoveries and changes in the way the natural world is perceived

22.00

40.00

84.86

94.6

105.85

9.2 16.4

31.8 35.4

38.9

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20

40

60

80

100

120

Oct-08 Oct-09 Oct-10 Oct-11 Oct-12

Pages (Millions) and Volumes (in Thousands) included in BHL

Volumes (K)

Pages (M)

More Online Content

San Francisco

Woods Hole

London

Alexandria

Beijing

Global Replication & ServingReplicated Data Center Portal Application

> 390,000 views in 10 months

> 1200 sets

> 60,000+ images

The Art of Life project: describing and providing access to natural history illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

Title Stictospiza formosa

Type Illustrations

Date Publication: 1898

Agent Author: Arthur G. Butler (1844-1925)Illustrator: F.W. Frohawk (1861-1946)

Description A pair of finches with green and yellow bodies resting on reeds

Subjects Scientific name: Amandava formosa (Latham, 1790) Vernacular Name: Green Avadavat or Green MuniaAccepted Name: Amandava formosa (Latham, 1790) Birds, finches

Inscriptions bottom center: Green Amaduvade Waxbill (Stictospiza formosa)

SourceButler, Arthur Gardiner. Foreign finches in captivity. Hull and London: Brumby and Clarke, limited,1889 (2nd edition). This image comes from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and is available online at biodiversitylibrary.org/page/17195895

Rights Public domain

Element Definition Examples Repeat

Agents person or corporate entity involved in the creation, design, production, or publication of a visual resource.

<vra:agent> <vra:name type="personal" vocab="LCNAF" refid="89015596> Curtis,John</vra:name> <vra:dates type="life"> <vra:earliestDate>1791</vra:earliestDate> <vra:latestDate>1862</vra:latestDate> </vra:dates> <vra:role vocab="AAT" refid="300025574">publisher</vra:role></vra:agent>

Y

Copyright The copyright status of the visual resource. <vra:rights refid=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

deed.en”>Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)</vra:rights>

N

Date Date or range of dates associated with the creation or publication of the visual resource.

<vra:date type="creation"> <vra:earliestDate>1945</vra:earliestDate> <vra:latestDate>1955</vra:latestDate></vra:date>

Y

Description A free-text note about content of the image, including comments, description, or interpretation, that gives additional information not recorded in other categories.

<vra:description>This illustration shows a scale, coloured illustration of Sepsis annulipes (now known as Encita annulipes) beside the Trifolium ochroleucum plant. Several dissections from Sepsis cylindrica Fab. (all these details are provided on the next page of this book and the subsequent page).</vra:description>

Y

Inscriptions All marks, caption, or written words added to the object at the time of production or in its subsequent history, including signatures, dates, dedications, texts, and colophons, as well as marks, such as the stamps of silversmiths, publishers, or printers.

<vra:inscription> <vra:position>bottom</vra:position> <vra:text>Radula of L. souleyetianum on a more reduced scale</vra:text></vra:inscription>

Y

Source A citation for the book, journal or resource that hosts the visual resource

<vra:source><vra:name type=”book”>Butler, Arthur Gardiner. Foreign finches in captivity. HullBrumby and Clarke, limited,1889 (2nd edition). </vra:name> <vra:refid type=”URI”>http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/17195895</vra:refid> </vra:source>

N

Subject Terms or phrases that describe, identify, or interpret the visual resource.

<vra:subject><vra:term type=”personalName”>Carl Linnaeus</vra:term></vra:subject>

<dwc:scientificName>Plant: Picea abies</dwc:scientificName> <dwc:acceptedName>Plant: Picea abies</dwc:acceptedName> <dwc:vernacularName>Plant: Norway spruce<dwc:vernacularName>

Y

Title The title or identifying phrase given to an Image <vra:title xml:lang=”la”>Sepsis annulipes</vra:title>

<vra:title type=“alternate”>Orangutan</vra:title>Y

Type Identifies a general category for the visual resource

<vra:type>maps</vra:type><vra:type>forestry maps</vra:type>

Y

Example of illustration described using Art of Life schema

Art of Life schema elements required in Red

We welcome your feedback on the schema! http://tinyurl.com/9hm7nsb

Where are we?• Scientific Name Extraction

– Improved algorithm (Thanks uBio!)• Articles

– Extended BHL data model to store article metadata– Content and Process to harvest data from BioStor in place

• Create user interfaces for adding article metadata and associated files– Functional requirements defined– Process flow for adding article metadata and associated files– Implement UI changes

• Change BHL UI to accommodate article search• Change BHL UI to accommodate article display (TOC)

Scientific Name Extraction

• TaxonFinder algorithm in production since 2008– More than 100 million candidate name strings– More than 1.5 million unique, verified names– Available through UI, APIs, Data Exports & Internet

Archive• New collaboration with Global Names

– Improved algorithm, better precision & recall– More data with TaxonFinder and Neti Neti!

Taxon NamesBEFORE Name Instances 101,591,803 101,288,804Unique Names 7,498,554 7,464,924Verified Names 1,905,507 1,902,803EOL Names 63,130,350 62,963,582EOL Pages 13,579,868 13,532,684 AFTER Name Instances 151,222,182 150,066,425Unique Names 29,246,382 29,091,767Verified Names 10,153,165 10,109,540EOL Names 87,791,695 87,135,089EOL Pages 15,466,713 15,342,867

Part-level metadata

• Disambiguating and locating structural components in the corpus

• Done by automated and crowdsourced means– Thanks Rod Page! Welcome others!

• Greatly increases semantic value of the dataset• Addressing important – makes data addressable

and thus linkable

Articles in the BHL UI

Images

PDF Generator

Support citation reconciliation

.

.

.

.

.

.

.L. Sp. Pl. 2: 971. 1753

Linneaus, C. Species Plantarum, vol. 2 p. 971. 1753

Linné, Carl von. Sp. Pl. Vol. 2 Page 971. 1753

Caroli Linnaei, Species Plantarum exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum Differentis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus, Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, secundum SYSTEMA SEXUALE digestas.. 2:971. 1753

Zea mays

Citations Providers

What we’d like to dohttp://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/BHL+and+Gaming

• Improve OCR• Rekeying Tables of Contents• Researching candidate Scientific Names• Image identification & extraction

– http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Art+of+Life – Currently funded by NEH

^Challenges framed as games

2007 Name Finding Study

>35% OCR error rate for names only

1 Insert Space 8 n->v

2 Omit Space 9 l->i

3 e->c 10 r->i

4 u->I 11 u->ii

5 u->n 12 h->l

6 i->l 13 h->ii

7 c->e 14 e->o

Top OCR errors

35.16%

Of the 3,003 names, 1,056 were incorrectly transcribed by OCR.

Wei, et al. An Evaluation of Taxonomic Name Recognition (TNR) in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Proceedings of TDWG. 2008.http://www.tdwg.org/proceedings/article/view/380

Abbild ungen und Beschreibungen der

Fische Syriens, nebst

einer neuen Classification und Characteristik sämmtlicher Gattungen

der i

JOH. JAKOB HECKEL, Inipectoi am k. k. Hof-Natur.-iUenkabinete in

Wien, mehr, yelelirt. UeHtllMeii. MIfglivd.

STUTTGART. E. Schweizerbart' sehe Verlagshandlung,

1843.

Older material

• Great deal of material is pre-1923 • Irregular fonts – blackletter• Multiple languages on same page – English

text with Latin scientific names• Changes in geographic names• Changes in scientific names

*E.xvi c piteI von c. cXx.WptdvonfnrWmn � �bu fbe;bcn.5 am cix bIa S &3rn~ 41X � �a m cv(f b1air 'o et ert oiensr ; � � � �

', : hlrfc c wa ff 4am.diug bist a� � � �6aiw~s ff oJrJtwt nof bL4ecImt& blfafra mem b t wag `wr 4 cn wiu 4 e8t5m.ed bvUratflb ck wuo, ma144'*4I bttE5rmbebt =rt3'kn am4ra tif vrmr Waff C * t6rmnli an `tn ciblatGteaM �w ?ffoaifrn w4wmeu nu weib e , wpiteI voE5teiri ct c ober gtUcr cit cm` 91 cLi biar J ' >bSciatl Oiff ;Bruet wacfttc n qmcx b1a bl: �bt5c lttmtt bb9 lkr w.llr#e iti ncn xoa ff cu :r trtuft *e t B Rn " trv W1Rt' ?Cm c blas � �waIwutr Ober ci ti 1V Ces ' wt �gbtiemwwajfu tpctt, afferain 9 c: b titbfof �

r f eran m rs bra wlg auig4;f aer m *mc vrt � �blatcabtfm wfru an'deg~m rt blas Iaum bwWt run f ncmai b14ianf tJobrrfan �ebrut4net vnber Brwt Ober awawi*m.crriii btafwfm uww c on$ 'it ttu wttkc 5,10 $ m~C fca trc* cx u W e &mcyfbq4 Mabtt mmw � �rc a iiu bc Jcn ncI.end.*, blat s. a\ u: rprd3 �rw4ftf wm c ii,+ ttCC tn wa frr9fr orfab fcfbt enb c optiti bt -r9 ceDa ttDcn i34M sn Sem i

Expanding scope

• Manuscripts, field notebooks –mostly handwritten, often with drawings

• Global expansion means dealing with non-Western script systems and a whole new set of OCR problems – Arabic materials from Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt

Images

OCR Improvements

• Gaming• Transcription

OCR Improvements

• Transcription• Purposeful Gaming• Crowdsource Markup

Transcribe Bentham• A collaboration of the University of London Computer Centre,

UCL Library Services and UCL Learning and Media Services with consultation from the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

• Volunteer users can log-in and transcribe previously unstudied and unpublished manuscripts from the Bentham Papers collection in UCL Library's Special Collections in the Transcription Desk.

• Since launch, volunteers from around the world have transcribed several thousand Bentham manuscripts to an extremely high standard.

• Results and findings: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000125/000125.html

Transcribe Bentham• Who were the volunteers?

• http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000125/000125.html

Transcribe Bentham• Age ranges

• http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/6/2/000125/000125.html

http://blog.winepresspublishing.com/2011/05/pubtoons-23-angry-books/

Purposeful Gaming

Space Climate

Humanities

Nature Biology

Purposeful GamingDIGITALKOOT

• Joint project run by the National Library of Finland and Microtask to index the library's enormous archives so that they are searchable on the Internet for easier access to the Finnish cultural heritage.

• Launched on Feb 8 2011, nearly 110 000 participants completed over 8 million word fixing tasks by Nov 29 2012

• DigiTalkoot enabled volunteers to participate in this fixing work by playing games.

Purposeful GamingDIGITALKOOT

• Joint project run by the National Library of Finland and Microtask to index the library's enormous archives so that they are searchable on the Internet for easier access to the Finnish cultural heritage.

• Launched on Feb 8 2011, nearly 110 000 participants completed over 8 million word fixing tasks by Nov 29 2012

• DigiTalkoot enabled volunteers to participate in this fixing work by playing games.

Purposeful GamingDIGITALKOOT

• Joint project run by the National Library of Finland and Microtask to index the library's enormous archives so that they are searchable on the Internet for easier access to the Finnish cultural heritage.

• Launched on Feb 8 2011, nearly 110 000 participants completed over 8 million word fixing tasks by Nov 29 2012

• DigiTalkoot enabled volunteers to participate in this fixing work by playing games.

OCR Improvements

German text interpreted by the OCR process as: “unb auf ben ©elnrgen be6 fublic{)en”

OCR Improvements

Different resulting texts from parsing the phrase:“und auf den Gebirgen des südlichen Deutschlands”

(“and on the mountains of southern Germany”)

IA OCR OCR 2 Transcription 1

Transcription 2

1 unb und und und Ok

2 den ben den den Ok

3 ©elnrgen ©ebirgen Bebirgen Gebirgen X

4 be6 des de5 des Chk

5 fublic{)en fublichen Füdlichen Südlichen X

6 £)eittfc{)(anb6 Deutfchlanbs Deutfchlands Deutschlands X

Crowdsource Markup

Display text Species Profile Model category

General/summary TaxonBiology

Geographic range Distribution

Habitat Habitat

Food sources and feeding behavior TrophicStrategy

Physical description (general) Description

Physical description (detailed morphology) DiagnosticDescription

Thank youWilliam UlateGlobal BHL Project Manager / Technical DirectorMissouri Botanical Gardenwilliam.ulate@mobot.orgSkype: william_ulate_r