June presentations: 5 presentations, 4 cities, 3 countries, death by PowerPoint!

June was a busy month for presentations. Final tally ended up being 5 presentations (at least one a pinch hit for the sidelined Chris Freeland); 4 different cities (Berlin, Pretoria, Cape Town, Anaheim); 3 continents (Europe, Africa, Asia); 3 countries (Germany, South Africa, USA); 2 time zones (Central Europe, Pacific); and 1 ... uh, can't think of the one!

• Thinking of Linking: A random series of ideas, concepts, Platonic ideals, a yeoman's miscellany, and nonesuch guide to Linked Data, especially as it relates to libraries, archives, and museums. Martin R. Kalfatovic. American Library Association Annual Meeting. Anaheim, CA. 23 June 2012.
• The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Origin | Growth | Partnerships. Martin R. Kalfatovic. Biodiversity Heritage Library Organization and Planning Meeting. Kirstenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa. 14 June 2012.
• A Vast Library of Life: The Biodiversity Heritage Library as a window to the living world. Martin R. Kalfatovic. Mae Jemison Science Reading Room. Pretoria, South Africa. 11 June 2012.
• The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Since we last met in November 2011. Martin R. Kalfatovic. 3rd Global BHL Meeting. Museum für Naturkunde. Berlin, Germany. 7 June 02012.
• The Biodiversity Heritage Library: From Local to Global. Martin R. Kalfatovic. BHL Europe Final Events and Review. Berlin, Germany. 5 June 2012.

Presentation: 3rd Global BHL Meeting, Berlin, German #BHLib

The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Since we last met in November 2011. Martin R. Kalfatovic. 3rd Global BHL Meeting. Museum für Naturkunde. Berlin, Germany. 7 June 02012.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library: Since we last met in November 2011

View more presentations from Martin Kalfatovic

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Part one, Europe, of my global BHL tour done, off to Africa

Had a very good series of meeting in Berlin (3-9 June 2012):

• BHL Europe Final Events
• 3rd Global BHL Governance and Technical Meeting (informational blog posts not yet done)

We had a group of seven US members of the BHL attend the Global meeting and five attend the BHL Europe events. From the global BHL membership, Europe, Brasil, Egypt, and Australia were all represented. Our colleagues from China were unable to attend.

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June 2-3

I flew out of Dulles Airport, travelling with Grace and Nancy, and had a nice flight on British Airways 216 to Heathrow. London was amazingly rainy, so you couldn't see anything when landing. Hung out at LHR (after an amazingly long transfer) and had some flat white and porridge. Boarded another BA flight (982) to Berlin. Joined in London by our Missouri colleagues (Mike and William) A packed flight but not unpleasant. Split off from Mike and William and the rest of us took a cab (after finding one big enough for three of us and lots of luggage!).

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June 3

I had a few moments of free time. On the first day (Sunday, which was quite rainy), we checked into our hotel, the Relexa Hotel Stuttgarter. It was still clear when we arrived, so I did a quick walk around the neighborhood to get a feel for the lay of the land. After a bit of a rest back at the hotel, we had a chance to zip down to the Brandenburg Gate and have a drink with colleagues at the Adlon Hotel and for dinner, ate at a restaurant on Unter der Linden.

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June 4

Monday started our meetings at the Jerusalem Church, but I got up earlier for a quick walk around, back to the Brandenburg Gate and the Spee River. Following the meeting, we had a fabulous reception at the Museum fur Naturkunde in the hall of dinosaurs (and I got to see the "Berlin specimen" of the Archaeopteryx and a tour of the wet collections (in the dark).

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June 5

Tuesday, I was up early again and took a walk around, highlights included the Topography of Terror (including a large section of the Berlin Wall) and some neat music posterss. Then, another full day of meetings. I gave my presentation on Global BHL and also displayed a poster. That night, the whole group did a dinner cruise "Bridge Tour" of Berlin. The three hour cruise went on the Spee River and the miles and miles of canals of Berlin (I was told Berlin has more miles of canals than Venice).

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June 6
Wednesday, for my morning walk, I headed down via Potsdamer Platz to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. The main part of the afternoon was taken up with the BHL Europe review meeting. Since we did end a bit early, I headed out for a little bit of sight seeing. Hung around Checkpoint Charlie for a while, then walked over to Museum Island, but it was too late to go into any of the museums. Hopped on the U6 to meet up with Team BHL US and then we all got back on the U6 to the Brachvogel Beer Garden for dinner with about 20 or so BHL Europe folk. Since it's spargel (asparagus) season, that was the main course. And, since there was a minigolf course, how could I miss that? It was an odd course, no "grass" just concrete, and pretty challenging obstacles. Played mostly a practice round and called the match on account of darkness.

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June 7
Thursday I slept in late and just grabbed a quick breakfast in the hotel before catching the U6 back up to the Museum fur Naturkunde for the Global BHL meeting. After the meeting, since the Pergamon Museum was open late, a group of us went there. Filled with amazing things in a great setting. The Ishtar Gate was by far my favorite. After a stop and the hotel and a pick up of some more of the BHL-ers, we headed to Potsdamer Platz for dinner. Found a nice German restaurant. Long day, so back to the hotel.

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June 8
Friday was the last full day in Germany and another day of meetings. Slept in late again and grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel. Off to a very full day of meetings and farewells to many of the group. Of course a group photo was taken. We also had a chance to take a quick walk through the Museum fur Naturkunde one last time and I found the dodo collection. After a stop back at the hotel, off to meet most of those remaining at a new restaurant in another part of town that involves both the U2 and the U9. A very good dinner and company, and then a quick cab ride through the Tiergarten and back to the hotel.

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June 9
Saturday
A short German day. Started out with a walk that ended up having a Berlin Wall focus; then, back to the hotel for a quick change and then a walk around for some last minute shopping. Returned for a final freshening up and finishing of packing before heading to the airport. Got a cab and threw in our luggage and before you knew it we were at Schonefeld (SXF). Ran into a collegue checking in for her flight home to Egpyt, whereas we were just stopping off in Cairo before heading to South Africa. Had a small snack at an "Irish" pub (consisting of a "big sausage" and beer). Checked out the duty free shops and then boarded Egypt Air Flight 732 to Cairo.

Farewell Berlin!

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Presentation for BHL Europe: BHL, from Local to Global #BHLib

The Biodiversity Heritage Library: From Local to Global
Here's my presentation for the BHL Europe meeting. The Biodiversity Heritage Library: From Local to Global. Martin R. Kalfatovic. BHL Europe Final Events and Review. Berlin, Germany. 5 June 2012.

View more presentations from Martin Kalfatovic

@ElyW of BHL Australia on sharing biodivlit

The Global BHL: A Global Picture of Taxonomic Literature, Berlin, Germany

Poster for the "The Global BHL: A Global Picture of Taxonomic Literature" Poster for the BHL Europe Final Events Symposium. Berlin, Germany, 5 June 2012.

BHL Europe symposium underway in Berlin

Katrin Vohland welcoming the group

Money, ticket, passports, yellowbook, but this BHL global will lack @ChrisFreeland

Heading off shortly for BHL Europe (Berlin) then a Global BHL meeting (also in Berlin). Then, via EgyptAir to Cairo and Jo'Burg. Stopping in Pretoria to talk at the US Embassy and then to Cape Town for BHL's first African organizational meeting.

Spinning the BHL globe again this summer, where will it stop?

Round and round it goes ... Last summer it was whacky back and forth from Europe to the West Coast and back to Europe.

2010, the year before it was a true globe spinner from Washington to Vienna to Washington (via Australia). With some side trips to China and Brasil.

2009 was Taiwan.

And so where will it be? One thing I know is that there will be a new travelling crew. Chris is laid up in STL after a bike mishap.

Stay tuned!

BHL / BHL Europe poster at the Digital Library Federation forum

DLF Poster_final, a photo by martin_kalfatovic on Flickr.

In Baltimore, poster by Boris Jacob (see left) with some input from me.

Meeting with staff from the Europeana project in Den Haag

2011.05.17-IMG_2847, a photo by martin_kalfatovic on Flickr.

17 May 2011
DPLA meets Europeana

Europeana staff Attending:

• Harry Verwayen, Business Development
• Jan Molendijk, Technical Director
• Annette Friberg, Aggregation and projects
• Valentine Charles, Ingest and harvesting
• Alyssa Ackermann, Ingest and projects

Harry Verwayen, Business Development
Overview of how Europeana was formed and some of the background and initial plans
18.7 million objects
1,500+ partner institutions

Value propositions of Europeana:
Users: trusted source
Providers: Visibility (bit of a battle here, is visibility use or is it clickbacks?)
Policy: Inclusion
Market: Growth

Moving more and more from portal development to APIs and linked open data.

Jan Molendijk, Technical Director
What is Europeana from a technical point of view?

- portal
- search engine
- metadata repository
- metadata aggregation factory
- metadata and software lab
- network organization
- great fun

Tech challenges include the fact they include library, archives and museums, and a/v formats

Annette Friberg, Aggregation and projects
Contend and Data Aggregation in Europeana

Working with about 21 projects across Europe (including BHL-Europe).

Created a Council of Content Providers and Aggregators, these have working groups (around user engagement, finiancia, eithical, tehcnical, and legal).

Valentine Charles, Ingest and harvesting
Overview of how the ingest and harvesting occurs from the various content providers and aggregators of Europeana.

At the Gate: 10 Airports from IAD to IAD

Here are my ten gates and ten flights from IAD to VIE to LHR to SIN to MEL to CBR to MEL to SYD to SFO to IAD

IAD to VIE
Austrian Air 94
Boeing 767-300



VIE to LHR
Austrian Air 455
Boeing 737-400



LHR to SIN
Qantas 10
Airbus 388


SIN to MEL
Qantas 10
Airbus 388


MEL to CBR
Qantas 814
Boeing 737-400


CBR to MEL
Qantas 785
Boeing 737-400


MEL to SYD
United 840
Boeing 747-400


SYD to SFO
United 870
Boeing 747-400



SFO to IAD
United 873
Boeing 757-200


and back to IAD