The Smithsonian Libraries and Smithsonian Gardens present The Lost Bird Project, an exhibit by artist Todd McGrain, March 27 through March 15, 2015. This project recognizes the tragedy of modern extinction by immortalizing North American birds that have been driven to extinction. It features large-scale bronze sculptures of the Carolina parakeet, the Labrador duck, the great auk, the heath hen and the passenger pigeon.
As part of my duties in wrangling data for Smithsonian Research Online, I worked on a project to collect and ingest the historic legacy of published scholarship produced by Smithsonian researchers since the Institution’s inception in 1846. The main focus of my participation is cleaning and preparing the data, but I find it hard to resist not paying attention to its historic significance. I’ll admit occasionally getting lost thinking about what it was like to be on the front lines of natural history research, identifying and describing new species.
This post was written by Monique Politowski, Digital Library Technician. After yesterday’s look at sleds on the blog, today we take a trip to sunny Panama!
“Snow, snow, snow, snow everywhere, piled up as high as the tops of street cars.” I think we can relate to the words of the late G. Frank Lydston M.D. from p.23 of his travel book, Panama and the Sierras: A Doctor’s Wander Days. Written over one hundred years ago, Dr. Lydston’s book was able to capture a timeless sentiment and fulfill every winter warrior’s fantasy of escaping bitter cold by fleeing to the tropics.
This post was contributed by Kristen Bullard, librarian for the National Zoological Park.
Have you ever wondered why Rusty the red panda was paired with the female, Shama? Or been curious about how the black-footed ferret was saved from extinction in the wild? If so, then this Valentines’ themed post is for you!
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is profiled in Searching for Sustainability: Strategies from Eight Digitized Special Collections, a major study funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and conducted by Ithaka S+R in partnership with the Association of Research Libraries. The study shares good practices for teams planning for and managing digitized resources.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library has launched its first iBook, Every Week is Shark Week.
This post was written by Dave Opkins, Smithsonian Libraries’ Administrative Projects Specialist.
In a remote corner on the third floor of the National Museum of Natural History lies the Mammals Library. This medium-sized room houses roughly 10,000 volumes on mammalian subjects such as systematics, distribution, evolution, morphology, ecology, and evolution. There are also a number of related study aids such as dictionaries, atlases, and other resources. This impressive collection exists for the use of the Mammals division staff and visiting researchers, and is maintained by Smithsonian Libraries. The room was just closed for six weeks to undergo its first major renovation in over 30 years. Subsequently, on November 6th, the room played host to an exciting grand reopening celebration that was attended by nearly 100 Smithsonian colleagues.