Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the result of the efforts of these natural history museum and research libraries to digitize over two million volumes of published literature held in their collections:

• American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY)
• Field Museum (Chicago, IL)
• Harvard University Botany Libraries (Cambridge, MA)
• Harvard University, Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, MA)
• Marine Biological Laboratory / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA)
• Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO)
• Natural History Museum (London, UK)
• New York Botanical Garden (New York, NY)
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Richmond, UK)
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries (Washington, DC)
• University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, IL)

As of today 30,808 volumes have been scanned, dating from the year 1480 to 2006. Subjects currently with strong representation in include:

• Agriculture
• Biology
• Botany
• Classification
• Entomology
• Insects
• Natural history
• North America
• Periodicals
• Pictorial works
• Plants
• Scientific expeditions, societies, etc.
• United States
• Zoology

A few books of interest to Wisconsin researchers:

• Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society (1909-1911)
• Phytoplankton of the inland lakes of Wisconsin (1920)
• Polyporaceae of Wisconsin (1914)
• Provisional list of the parasitic fungi of Wisconsin (1914)
• Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (1870+)
• Transactions of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1852+)
• Transactions of the State Horticultural Society (1871+)

See also, UW Digital Collections.

New: American National Biography online

American National Biography by Oxford University Press offers biographies of more than 17,400 people whose lives have shaped the nation. Originally published in 24 volumes in 1999, the online version is updated with hundreds of new entries and revisions each year to enhance accuracy and currency.

Occupations represented include:

• Agriculturists
• Apiarists
• Biologists
• Botanists
• Ecologists
• Entomologists
• Farmers
• Foresters
• Horticulturists
• Insect Pathologists
• Landscape architects
• Mycologists
• Naturalists
• Plant collectors
• Plant geneticists
• Plant pathologists
• Plant physiologists
• Science educators
• Scientific illustrators
• Scientific organization administrators
• Secretaries of Agriculture
• Seedsmen
• Soil scientists

The ANB Online also includes 900 articles from The Oxford Companion to United States History, including:

• Agricultural Education and Extension
• Agricultural Experiment Stations
• Agriculture
• Bioethics
• Biological Sciences
• Biotechnology Industry
• Dust Bowl
• Environmentalism
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Evolution, Theory of
• Farmers' Alliance Movement
• Food and Diet
• Landscape Design
• Parks, Urban
• Science
• Subsidies, Agricultural
  

Plant + insect movie archive

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that preserves public access to websites, out-of-copyright book texts, audio (including live music), and video in digital format. Over 158,000 movies can be watched online, or downloaded as files, including:

• Andy Leigh: Terrestrial Plant Ecophysiology (2008) - "Biologist Andrea Leigh speaks to Shannon Jones about her research into how leaves deal with heat." University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.


• Gardening (1940) - "Follows a boy and a girl through a garden-raising project from the selection of seeds to the harvesting of the crops. Includes radishes, carrots, tomatoes and potatoes. Emphasizes aspects of soils, growth, role of the sun, insect pests and the various parts of plants used for food--leaves, stems, buds and roots."


• Goodbye, Mr. Roach (ca.1959) - "Detailed film about cockroaches, their habits and methods of extermination, with a harrowing sequence of roach nymphs hatching." Clemson College Extension Service.


• Goodbye, Mrs. Ant (1959) - "The life cycle and habits of the ant, and how to control and exterminate them with insecticides. Begins with a wonderful sequence in which we hear ants screaming "We're hungry! We're hungry!"" University of Georgia, Agricultural Extension Service.


• Hemp for Victory (1942) - "U.S. government propaganda film made during WWII touting the virtues of hemp. The film was aimed at farmers at a time when the miltary was facing a shortage of hemp, it shows how hemp is grown and processed into rope and other products."
  


• The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) - "Classic drama which details the Great Plains during the Depression. With Cinematography by Leo Hurwitz, Ralph Steiner, Paul Ivano and Paul Strand. Selected for the 1999 National Film Registry of "artistically, culturally, and socially significant" films."


• The Southerner (1945) - "Jean Renoir's classic tale of a cotton picker (Zachary Scott) who moves his wife (Betty Field) and children to a run down farm in hopes that they can grow their own cotton and make for a better future."


• Weed Ecology: Competition (2008) - "[Powerpoint] lecture about crop/weed competition for resources." Andrew Kniss, University of Wyoming.
  


• Who Shall Reap? (1969) - "Insects or humans? Weeds, diseases, and other pestilence that confound farmers and threaten the worlds food supply."


• Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project: Northern Michigan teens and KBIC tribal youth protecting pollinators (2008) - "Northern Michigan teens are on a mission to protect pollinators by helping butterflies and restoring native plants to areas of the Upper Peninsula."