From November 8th to November 19th, BHL (Biological Diversity Historical Literature Library) China Project Team—Director Cui Jinzhong, Dr. Xu Zheping and Dr. Liu Fenghong of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences went to the United States for a 12-day event Survey. During the inspection, Cui Jinzhong and other three people visited the Smithsonian Institute in Washington and participated in the second BHL Global Technology Conference and the first International Conference on Life and Literature in Chicago. Finally, we exchanged and inspected the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

At the Smithsonian Institute, Cui Jinzhong and others successively discussed and discussed with Erick Mata, head of EOL (Encyclopedia of Life), Mary Augusta Thomas, deputy director of the Smithsonian Library, and Rusty Russell, head of the Smithsonian National Herbarium. Exchanges and visited the National Herbarium of the United States to learn more about the ongoing digital construction project of the Smithsonian Institute.

At the BHL Global Technology Conference and the International Conference on Life and Literature in Chicago, Cui Jinzhong and others introduced in detail the current construction progress of BHL China, and introduced the biodiversity information projects such as the China Digital Herbarium and the upcoming next steps. Basic information of China National Specimen Resource Sharing Platform and China Biodiversity Information Network Platform. At the same time, they exchanged experiences with BHL's countries or regions such as the United States, Australia, the European Union, Brazil, etc., which laid a good foundation for the next step of international cooperation.

During the Missouri Botanical Garden, accompanied by Chris Freeland, Director of the Biodiversity Informatics Research Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden, we had a meeting with Peter Wyse Jackson, Director of Missouri Botanical Garden, Nick Turland, Co-Director of the Flora of China Project, and Doug Holland, Director of the Peter Raven Library Exchanges and discussions, and learned about the ongoing digital construction project of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Finally, the discussion focused on BHL China's data sharing issues and the cooperation opportunities between the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Missouri Botanical Garden in the construction of information platforms.

Through this visit and exchange, the Institute of Botany has well presented to international colleagues our work in the field of literature information and biodiversity informatics, learned about international developments and various ongoing related projects, and actively Local exchanges and discussions on current problems laid a good foundation for better national exchanges and cooperation in the next stage, and successfully completed the scheduled visit mission.

For details of the first International Conference on Life and Literature, please click: http://www.lifeandliterature.org/p/about.html