University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

[BioStor](http://biostor.org) now has 150,000 articles. When I wrote a
[paper describing how BioStor
worked](http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-12-187) it had 26,784
articles, so things have progressed somewhat!

I continue to tweak the interface to BioStor, trying different ways to
explore the articles.

### Spatial search

I\'ve tweaked spatial search in BioStor. As blogged about
[previously](http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2016/08/spatial-search-in-biostor.html)
I replaced the Google Maps interface with Leaflet.js, enabling you to
draw a search area on the map and see a set of articles that mention
that area. I\'ve changed the base map to the prettier \"terrain\" map
from [Stamen](http://maps.stamen.com/), and added back the layer showing
all the localities in BioStor. This gives you a much better sense of the
geographic coverage in BioStor. This search interface still needs work,
but is a fun way to discover content.

![Screenshot 2016 08 18 14 04
03](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IGEq8nV1tkI/V7WzH7QWSPI/AAAAAAAAEQM/Kiqf7quGp8I/Screenshot%2525202016-08-18%25252014.04.03.png?imgmax=1600 "Screenshot 2016-08-18 14.04.03.png"){style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
border="0" width="460" height="245"}

### Reference matching

In the [\"Labs\"](http://biostor.org/labs) section of the web site I\'ve
added a demonstration of BioStor\'s [reconciliation
service](http://biostor.org/match.html). This service is based on the
Freebase reconciliation service used by tools such as OpenRefine, see
[Reconciliation Service
API](https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/wiki/Reconciliation-Service-API).
The goal is to demonstrate a simple way to locate references in BioStor,
simply paste references, one per line, click **Match** and BioStor will
attempt to find those references for you.

This service is really intended to be used by tools like
[OpenRefine](http://openrefine.org), but this web page helps me debug
the service.

### Suggestions?

BioStor is part labour of love, part albatross around my neck. I\'m
always open to suggestions for improvements, or for articles to add (but
remember that all content must first have been scanned and in the
[Biodiversity Heritage Library](http://biodiversitylibrary.org)). If you
are involved in publishing a journal and are interested in getting it
into BHL, please get in touch.


BioStor now has 150,000 articles. When I wrote a paper describing how BioStor worked it had 26,784 articles, so things have progressed somewhat! I continue to tweak the interface to BioStor, trying different ways to explore the articles.
<strong>
 Spatial search
</strong>
I've tweaked spatial search in BioStor.

Messages de Rogue Scholar

BioStor updates: nicer map, reference matching service