Creating Digital Access to Natural History Illustrations

FAIN: PW-51041-12

Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO 63110-3420)
Christopher Freeland (Project Director: July 2011 to November 2012)
Trish Rose-Sandler (Project Director: November 2012 to August 2015)

The development of software tools to identify and describe natural history illustrations in digitized books and journals in the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

The Art of Life project seeks to liberate natural history illustrations from the 90,000 digitized books and journals (34 million pages) in the online Biodiversity Heritage Library through development of software tools for automated identification and description of visual resources. Missouri Botanical Garden and Indianapolis Museum of Art will build a new research environment for humanities scholars through development of new software tools for algorithmic assessment (data mining) and new interfaces for community enhancement of digital resources (crowdsourcing). The project will deliver: New software components for the identification and description of visual resources that can be reused by any digital repository; Preservation management techniques for visual resources contained within a digital library of scanned literature; and Enhanced access to millions of natural history illustrations, many never before made available for advanced inquiry and inspection.

Associated Products

Blog post called "Interested in improving access to millions of digital images? " (Blog Post)
Title: Blog post called "Interested in improving access to millions of digital images? "
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: post related to goals of Art of Life, schema samples and survey
Date: 8/30/12
Primary URL: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2012/08/interested-in-improving-access-to.html
Blog Title: BHL Notes & News from the BHL staff
Website: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org

Poster called "The Art of Life Schema: describing and providing access to natural history illustrations form the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Poster called "The Art of Life Schema: describing and providing access to natural history illustrations form the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)"
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler, William Ulate, Gaurav Vaidya, and Robert Guralnick
Abstract: Poster given at annual Taxonomic Database Working Group (TDWG) meeting
Date: 10/31/12
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/tdw-gposter-artoflife
Conference Name: TDWG

Conference presentation called "All creatures great and small: metadata for biodiversity illustrations" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Conference presentation called "All creatures great and small: metadata for biodiversity illustrations"
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler, William Ulate, Gaurav Vaidya, and Robert Guralnick
Abstract: Talk given at the Digital Library Federation Forum on the Art of Life Project and our approach to the metadata schema
Date: 11/5/12
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/art-of-life-15055706
Conference Name: Digital Library Federation Forum

Conference presentation called "The Art of Life project" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Conference presentation called "The Art of Life project"
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: A general overview of the Art of Life Project and BHL
Date: 3/14/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/the-art-of-life-project
Conference Name: St Louis Regional Library Network Tech Expo

Conference presentation on "The Art of Life project: a case study" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Conference presentation on "The Art of Life project: a case study"
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler, William Ulate, Gaurav Vaidya, and Robert Guralnick
Abstract: The Art of Life Project and Biodiversity Heritage Library were featured in this session on Visual Resource Centers and how institutions are reaching new audiences for their content through collaboration and outreach
Date: 4/4/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/vra-2013-reachoutrosesandler
Conference Name: Visual Resources Association

Demo on "More than just a pretty picture: improving the discoverability of illustrations in the Biodiversity Heritage Library" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Demo on "More than just a pretty picture: improving the discoverability of illustrations in the Biodiversity Heritage Library"
Author: Gilbert Borrego, Grace Costantino, Bianca Crowley, Kyle Jaebker, Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: This was a 1 hr demo at Museums and the Web conference about how BHL has been providing access to natural history illustrations via Flickr and how the Art of Life project allows us to scale access to images to a much greater degree.
Date: 4/25/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/more-than-just-a-pretty-picture-improving-the-discoverability-of-illustrations-in-the-biodiversity-heritage-library
Conference Name: Museums and the Web

Public website for Art of Life project (Web Resource)
Title: Public website for Art of Life project
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: This website contains the overview of the project, project team members, the original proposal, meeting minutes and list of presentations about project.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://biodivlib.wikispaces.com/Art+of+Life

, Revealing and Contextualizing the treasures of the Biodiversity Heritage Library: the Art of Life and Engelmann projects, (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: , Revealing and Contextualizing the treasures of the Biodiversity Heritage Library: the Art of Life and Engelmann projects,
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler, Daron Dierkes
Abstract: Talk given at Digital History and Philosophy of Science meeting, Bloomington IN
Date: 09/01/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/revealing-and-contextualizing-the-treasures-of-the-biodiversity-heritage-library-the-art-of-life-and-engelmann-projects
Conference Name: Digital History and Philosophy of Science meeting

Breathing new life into old data - How opening your collection can spark imagination and inspire creative re-use, (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Breathing new life into old data - How opening your collection can spark imagination and inspire creative re-use,
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler, Doug Holland
Abstract: This presentation was given by Doug Holland and Trish Rose-Sandler at the Missouri Libraries Association conference held in St Louis MO in Oct 2013. There is a significant online literature and image repository called the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). Content from this repository has inspired a range of users to re-contextualize the BHL data in new, previously unimagined roles including: scientists creating visualizations of species names publishing; citizen scientists blogging about fascinating creatures; designers incorporating marine life into wedding invitations, artists creating collages of animal illustrations and nature photography ; and home decorators adding punch and wit to the walls of their kids bedrooms. Using the example of BHL and its open data principles, the presentation will discuss what open data is and how libraries can expand the impact and reach of their collections through open data methods.
Date: 10/04/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/breathing-new-life-into-old-data-how-opening-your-collection-can-spark-imagination-and-inspire-creative-reuse
Conference Name: Missouri Library Assocation

Finding a goldmine of natural history illustrations within BHL texts: the Art of Life Project (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Finding a goldmine of natural history illustrations within BHL texts: the Art of Life Project
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) has now achieved a critical mass of digitized historic texts – over 41 million pages and counting. The BHL portal can be searched by several access points including title, author, subject, and scientific name. But, what is largely hidden and entirely unsearchable are the millions of natural history illustrations found with the BHL books and journals. These visual resources which include drawings, paintings, photographs, maps and diagrams represent work by some of the finest botanical and zoological illustrators in the world, including the likes of John James Audubon, Georg Dionysus Ehret, and Pierre Redouté. Many of the illustrations are the first recorded descriptions of much of the world’s biota, providing the scientific foundation for contemporary taxonomic research and conservation assessments. Some of them are the only verifiable resource about an organism and their existence on Earth due to changes in global climate patterns and rapid loss of natural habitat for many species. Audiences for these illustrations also cross a variety of disciplines and include: biologists, artists, historians, illustrators, graphic designers, archivists, educators, students, and citizen scientists. In 2012, the Missouri Botanical Garden was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support a project called The Art of Life: Data Mining and Crowdsourcing the Identification and Description of Natural History Illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This talk will discuss the Art of Life objectives and current status. It will go into detail about the algorithms and schema designed for finding which pages contain illustrations and describing the subsequent output. Finally the talk will discuss the project’s benefits for the scientific community such as improving access to a significant collection of public domain images related to biodiversity.
Date: 10/29/13
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/finding-a-goldmine-of-natural-history-illustrations-within-bhl-texts-the-art-of-life-project
Conference Name: TDWG conference

Developing an application profile for the Art of Life: the mixing and matching of art and biodiversity data (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Developing an application profile for the Art of Life: the mixing and matching of art and biodiversity data
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: This talk was part of a session at the Visual Resources Association conference March 2014 called "VRA Core 4 Unbound: Expanding Core capabilities through embedded metadata, APIs, and editors" The talk described how to develop an application profile using the Art of Life schema as a case study.
Date: 03/13/2014
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/vra-core-unbound-rose-sandler
Conference Name: Visual Resources Association

The Art of Life: merging the worlds of art and science (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Art of Life: merging the worlds of art and science
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Author: Constance Rinalso
Author: Nancy Gwinn
Abstract: This talk is about the Art of Life project and was part of session 149 - SCIENCE+ART=CREATIVITY: Libraries and the New Collaborative Thinking at the IFLA conference in Lyon France in August 2014.
Date: 08/01/2014
Primary URL: http://www.slideshare.net/trosesandler/ifla-art-of-life-presentation-final
Conference Name: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference

Paper from The Art of Life: Merging the Worlds of Art and Science (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Paper from The Art of Life: Merging the Worlds of Art and Science
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Author: Connie Rinaldo
Author: Nancy Gwinn
Abstract: This is the accompanying paper to the talk called The Art of Life: Merging the Worlds of Art and Science, part of session 149 - Science + Art=Creativity: Libraries and the New Collaborative Thinking IFLA conference, Lyon, France, August 2014,
Date: 08/01/14
Primary URL: http://library.ifla.org/681/
Conference Name: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference

Crowdsourcing and BHL: Current Projects that Allow Users to Help Us Improve Our Library! (Blog Post)
Title: Crowdsourcing and BHL: Current Projects that Allow Users to Help Us Improve Our Library!
Author: Trish Rose-Sandler
Abstract: Blog post which gives an update on all the crowdsourcing activities BHL engages it through various projects
Date: 11/06/14
Primary URL: http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2014/11/crowdsourcing-and-bhl-current-projects.html

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