Launched online today is the culmination of 16 years of tireless dedication: a compilation of over 1,700 contemporary book reviews of Darwin’s works, in 16 languages and spanning the years 1835 to the early 20th century. This collection of book reviews has been added to Darwin Online, the most comprehensive scholarly website on any historical scientist – and possibly for any single person in history.
Directed by Dr John van Wyhe from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences and Tembusu College, what is most impressive about Darwin Online is its comprehensiveness. It contains not only Darwin’s complete works, but also contemporary translations into 29 languages, tens of thousands of Darwin’s manuscripts, the most complete bibliography of Darwin publications, the most complete catalogue of his manuscripts around the world as well as works that he cited and promoted, obituaries of Darwin, publications of his specimens by others, the reconstructed library from the Beagle, and very many important works about Darwin and his time. In all, the site provides over 1 million pages of content. As a scholarly edition, the majority of Darwin’s writings have been edited and annotated for the first time, with more than 5,800 new editorial notes and introductions, making it even easier to navigate and understand. It is likely the most comprehensive scholarly website on any historical individual.
[Clip]
Commenting on the significance of this review project, Dr van Wyhe explained, “To round out the picture made possible by having Darwin’s complete work on a single website, one needs to know what his contemporaries thought and said about them. The unprecedented scale of Darwin’s scientific and cultural influence called for a comprehensive snapshot of book reviews. We have not excluded any opinions, whether positive or negative.”
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
From a Joint News Release (via National Endowment For the Humanities): President Joseph R. Biden issued a proclamation today designating October 2022 as National Arts and Humanities Month. In the proclamation, the ...
From a News Release: Aix-Marseille Université, cOAlition S, and Science Europe are pleased to announce that they are participating in a Horizon Europe project called ‘Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing ...
From a National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Newsletter: The National Archives Catalog is getting an upgrade! We are excited to announce a sneak preview of our fully redesigned and modernized online ...
From LC: The Giant Bible of Mainz, one of the last handwritten giant bibles in Europe, has now been digitized by the Library of Congress, ensuring online access to an ...
From a NOAA Post: On September 29, the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) began collecting aerial damage assessment images in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Imagery is being collected in specific ...
From the OpenAire Website: OpenAIRE has been operating as an e-Infrastructure provider for Open Scholarly Communication since 2009 and was established as a non-profit organisation in 2018. This first strategy ...
The book mentioned below is available for purchase from the ALA Store. An open access edition (323 pages; PDF) is also available online. From ACRL Insider: ACRL announces the publication ...
From an EBSCO Announcement: EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has published the 2023 Serials Price Projection Report. This year’s report projects that the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic medical ...
EDGI Releases Report: How Data Gaps and Disparities in EPA Data Undermine Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tools How Nature Contributed to Science’s Discriminatory Legacy (via Nature) Libraries Play Important Role ...
From an ALA Statement: During the Summer and Fall of 2022, threats directed to public and school libraries and library workers escalated, including the forced temporary closure of five public ...
From a Plan S / cOAlition S Announcement: cOAlition S releases today the end-user portal of the Journal Comparison Service (JCS). This secure, free, online service aims to shed light on publishing ...
