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A new interactive release of the Encyclopedia of Life global initiative
September 5, 2011- Providing nearly 700,000 species, 35 million pages of scanned literature and over 600,000 photos of living creatures, the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) has launched today a new version of its free online system www.eol.org . The new version – referred to as EOLv2 – was developed in response to requests from the general public, citizen scientists, educators and professional biologists around the world for a site that was more engaging, accessible and personal. EOLv2 has been completely redesigned to enhance usability and encourage contributions and interactions among users.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) has been a close partner in the project, working collaboratively with EOL on the internationalization of the system, providing the current version for English, Arabic and Spanish speakers. Moreover, the BA is endeavoring to create EOL in Arabic as a rich biodiversity resource for Arab scientists in the region. The EOL in Arabic, not only comprises translated species from EOL into Arabic, but also entails adding species pertaining to the Arab world onto the EOL.
“Having EOL in Arabic significantly boosts up the scientific Arabic content on the Internet,” commented Dr Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria. “And with the interactive features of EOLv2, EOL will act as common grounds for Arab and non-Arab scientists worldwide for sharing knowledge on biodiversity.”
In the same context, Harvard biologist Dr Edward O. Wilson, one of the driving forces behind the creation of EOL remarked, “EOLv2 will effect an extraordinary expansion of the Encyclopedia of Life, opening its vast and growing storehouse of knowledge to a much larger range of users, including medicine, biotechnology, ecology, and now increasingly the general public.”
Founded in 2007, EOL seeks to increase awareness and understanding of living nature by gathering, generating and sharing knowledge in an open, freely accessible and trusted digital resource. It is based on creating a webpage for every species on the planet comprising all the information available on that specific species. Over the last three years since its first public launch, EOL has grown dramatically to now include trusted information on nearly 700,000 species sourced from over 160 content providers. EOL is supported by a community of over 700 curators responsible for reviewing and approving content, and by staff at contributing institutions around the world.
EOL represents a fertile resource of biodiversity material which can be put in several contexts to serve citizens, students, educators, conservationists and researchers from around the world. EOLv2 offers the ability to put life on earth into meaningful contexts, allowing users to put organisms into customized collections, such as the “invasive sea creatures” collection or “endangered birds in Africa” collection or to form communities of special interests such as the “mushroom-lovers community” or the “crocodile seekers community”, etc.
“The EOLv2 virtual collections feature is groundbreaking,” said Dr. Erick Mata, EOL Executive Director. “It gives our audiences a new way to learn by collaborative construction of knowledge. With this new capability we will be able to bring together citizens, students, educators, conservationists and researchers from around the world to explore the dynamic complexities of the biodiversity these communities care about in real time. This collaborative approach brings a human focus to science and begins to harness the vast creative potential of EOL’s users.”
The new version of EOL is accessible online for free at www.eol.org offering the overwhelming experience of interactively exploring the world’s known species.