This is a wonderful project mashing images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) with data from Wikidata and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
BHL Image Explorer: https://bhl-gallery.toolforge.org/
It enables us to explore the figure plates present in BHL’s catalog (also on Flickr and Wikimedia Commons), links with other databases, and keeps track of their use in Wikipedia pages. It’s a nice way to expose these images and encourage their use on Wikipedia.
The project was created by Tiago Lubiana who was BHL’s Wikimedian-in-Residence during last semester. He finished his term a couple of months ago are wrote some closing thoughts in BHL’s blog. I enjoyed the quote below.
In an age of cheap, AI-generated illustrations, there is something grand in seeing these human-made pieces of scientific art, tales of the biodiversity-loving nature of humankind across the centuries.
Seeds for the Future: Closing Thoughts from BHL’s Wikimedian-in-Residence at https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/07/seeds-for-future-closing-thoughts-from-bhls-wikimedian-in-residence.html
Via Siobhan Leachman.
Reply by Email
or