If you’re new here, feel free to introduce yourself. We’d love to get to know the people who make up the global BHL community.
You might like to share:
where you’re based
your institution or area of work
how you use BHL
a favorite discovery from BHL
something you’re currently working on
BHL brings together a diverse community of researchers, librarians, developers, biodiversity informaticians, creators, and enthusiasts. Introductions are a great way to connect with others who share your interests.
I’m passionate about sharing BHL’s incredible collections with the world, and making biodiversity knowledge accessible, discoverable, and connected.
I love travel, exploring new places, hiking, camping, recording wildlife observations on iNaturalist, propagating indoor plants, and (of course) anything book-related.
Hi I’m Siobhan Leachman. I’m a Wikimedian (that is I edit Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons) and I’m currently the Chair of the BHL-Wiki Working group.
I’m keen on sharing BHL content in the Wiki ecosystem and ensuring all can access and reuse BHL’s data. The relevant project on Wiki can be found on the BHL meta page.
If you want to know more about what I’m up to see either my Wiki page.
My main BHL activity is locating articles (AKA “parts”, AKA “segments”) in BHL, and adding them to my website BioStor. Articles I add to BioStor are regularly harvested by BHL. The ultimate goal is to identify every article and chapter in BHL, so that they are easier for readers to find.
I also have more general interests in persistent identifiers, databases, and user interfaces.
My other (self-assigned role) is to nudge and/or cajole BHL into being more open, transparent, and embracing new technologies.
Hi, I’m Joel Richard. Longtime lurker, first time poster. I’ve been involved in BHL for … 13 years, maybe more. I wrote and maintain the Macaw software that we use to get content into BHL.
I’m also the BHL Technical Coordinator helping support the Tech Team in whatever way needed. I am also the head of Web and IT for Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.
In my spare time, I help my beloved spouse curate our native garden that replaced our monoculture grass lawn yard. A yarden, as one might say. (56 native species and counting!) I will happily share photos and talk your ear off about it if you let me.
@cajunjoel Discourse has a nice automatic grid layout for images, e.g. Favourite journal covers so this is perhaps your chance to share a few photos of the “yarden”…
I’m Holly Hubenschmidt, director of the Peter H. Raven Library at the Missouri Botanical Garden in Saint Louis (USA).
I’m new to both this role and BHL in the past year, but I love both. I am amazed at the number of people contacting us about permissions to use the materials we uploaded to BHL for films, children’s books, and other creative endeavors.
It’s spring in the US Midwest (although some days are more summer and some days are more winter,) so I’m thinking about my yard. Gardening is such a joy until mid-July when the bugs and humidity become unbearable.
Hiya, I’m Kelli Trei. I’m Transition Director of the BHL (through June) and Biosciences Librarian @University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and have been there since 2013. Soon after becoming a librarian, Illinois became a BHL member and it has been a highlight of my career. In a previous life I worked as a research scientist for a large ag company for 14 years (which is why I would love to capture all the microbes someday in the BHL: justice for ~95% of biodiversity of the living world )!
I’m into reading horror, and listening to records, and dogs.
Hi! I’m Colleen Funkhouser, Managing Director for BHL. I’ve been with BHL since 2020, though I learned about it as a library intern at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives back in 2015. I helped catalog and digitize field books that were eventually ingested into BHL. I thought it was the coolest project back then, and I’m still amazed by it today.
I initially studied wildlife and fisheries biology and planned to become a park ranger but ended up in environmental nonprofits and eventually in a second career as a science librarian. I’ve worked in public, academic, and government libraries. The community of BHL contributors and users is by far one of the best communities I’ve been fortunate to work with.
@cajunjoel Discourse did not like that link and flagged your reply as spam! It has some pretty aggressive antibot and spam rules, probably based on experience gained over the years.
The pic thumbnails look great, but OMG is PostImages an ad-filled nightmare
Hi everyone! I’m Elizabeth McKinley, Library Director at the Field Museum in Chicago and Co-Chair of BHL’s Cataloging and Metadata Committee. I’ve been involved with BHL since 2023 and continue to learn so much from this wonderful community.
Most of my career has been spent in special libraries, although I did spend 4 years as a high school librarian. I started at the Field Museum as the Cataloging and Metadata Librarian and find metadata cleanup extremely satisfying, so I’m glad BHL provides me with opportunities to scratch that itch.
Outside of work, I enjoy any opportunity to be outdoors, whether it’s cycling, hiking, canoeing, walking my dog, or spending time in the garden (although my small, native yard pales in comparison to Joel’s)! I also love learning new crafts and have recently taken up crocheting and stained glass.
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