rbhl is an R interface to the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Stable version from CRAN
install.packages("rbhl")
Or, development version from GitHub
devtools::install_github("ropensci/rbhl")
Then load library
library("rbhl")
You can output various formats using the as parameter, setting to 'json', 'xml', 'list', or 'table'. Note that not all options are available in all functions due to varying returned data objects.
Raw output, in xml format
bhl_authorsearch(name='dimmock', as='xml')
json format
bhl_authorsearch(name='dimmock', as='json')
#> [1] "{\"Status\":\"ok\",\"ErrorMessage\":null,\"Result\":[{\"CreatorID\":189035,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, Anna Katherina\",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/189035\"},{\"CreatorID\":59023,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, G\",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/59023\"},{\"CreatorID\":189042,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, Geo \",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/189042\"},{\"CreatorID\":189021,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, George\",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/189021\"},{\"CreatorID\":1970,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, George,\",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"1852-\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/1970\"},{\"CreatorID\":8126,\"Name\":\"Dimmock, George,\",\"Role\":null,\"Numeration\":\"\",\"Unit\":\"\",\"Title\":\"\",\"Location\":\"\",\"FullerForm\":\"\",\"Relationship\":null,\"TitleOfWork\":null,\"Dates\":\"1852-1930\",\"CreatorUrl\":\"http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/creator/8126\"}]}"
Or get a list
bhl_authorsearch(name='dimmock', as='list')
#> $Status
#> [1] "ok"
#>
#> $ErrorMessage
#> NULL
#>
#> $Result
#> $Result[[1]]
#> $Result[[1]]$CreatorID
#> [1] 189035
...
The default option in most functions is to parse to a data.frame
bhl_authorsearch(name='dimmock')
#> # A tibble: 6 × 12
#> CreatorID Name Role Numeration Unit Title Location
#> * <int> <chr> <lgl> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 189035 Dimmock, Anna Katherina NA
#> 2 59023 Dimmock, G NA
#> 3 189042 Dimmock, Geo NA
#> 4 189021 Dimmock, George NA
#> 5 1970 Dimmock, George, NA
#> 6 8126 Dimmock, George, NA
#> # ... with 5 more variables: FullerForm <chr>, Relationship <lgl>,
#> # TitleOfWork <lgl>, Dates <chr>, CreatorUrl <chr>
bhl_gettitlemetadata(1726, items = TRUE)
#> $Status
#> [1] "ok"
#>
#> $ErrorMessage
#> NULL
#>
#> $Result
#> $Result$TitleID
#> [1] 1726
#>
...
bhl_booksearch(title='Selborne', lname='White', volume=2, edition='new', year=1825, collectionid=4, language='eng')
#> # A tibble: 1 × 22
#> TitleID BibliographicLevel
#> * <int> <chr>
#> 1 32868
#> # ... with 20 more variables: FullTitle <chr>, ShortTitle <lgl>,
#> # SortTitle <lgl>, PartNumber <chr>, PartName <chr>, CallNumber <lgl>,
#> # Edition <chr>, PublisherPlace <chr>, PublisherName <chr>,
#> # PublicationDate <chr>, PublicationFrequency <lgl>, Doi <lgl>,
#> # TitleUrl <chr>, Authors <list>, Subjects <lgl>, Identifiers <lgl>,
#> # Collections <lgl>, Variants <lgl>, Items <list>, Notes <lgl>
bhl_titlesearchsimple('husbandry')
#> # A tibble: 153 × 22
#> TitleID BibliographicLevel
#> * <int> <chr>
#> 1 25997 Monograph/Item
#> 2 44403 Monograph/Item
#> 3 27062 Monograph/Item
#> 4 41956 Monograph/Item
#> 5 44462 Monograph/Item
#> 6 28081 Monograph/Item
#> 7 56265 Monograph/Item
#> 8 58205 Monograph/Item
#> 9 51946 Monograph/Item
#> 10 55665 Monograph/Item
#> # ... with 143 more rows, and 20 more variables: FullTitle <chr>,
#> # ShortTitle <chr>, SortTitle <chr>, PartNumber <chr>, PartName <chr>,
#> # CallNumber <lgl>, Edition <chr>, PublisherPlace <chr>,
#> # PublisherName <chr>, PublicationDate <chr>,
#> # PublicationFrequency <chr>, Doi <lgl>, TitleUrl <lgl>, Authors <lgl>,
#> # Subjects <lgl>, Identifiers <lgl>, Collections <lgl>, Variants <lgl>,
#> # Items <lgl>, Notes <lgl>
This function gets a list of languages in which materials in BHL have been written.
bhl_getlanguages()
#> # A tibble: 69 × 2
#> LanguageCode LanguageName
#> * <chr> <chr>
#> 1 AFR Afrikaans
#> 2 ARA Arabic
#> 3 ARC Aramaic
#> 4 MAP Austronesian (Other)
#> 5 BUL Bulgarian
#> 6 BUR Burmese
#> 7 CAR Carib
#> 8 CAT Catalan
#> 9 CEL Celtic (Other)
#> 10 CHI Chinese
#> # ... with 59 more rows
Here, we'll xxx, then plot the data using ggplot2
res <- bhl_booksearch(title = 'Selborne', lname = 'White', volume = 2, edition = 'new', year = 1825, collectionid = 4, language = 'eng')
pages <- getpages(res$data$Items[[1]]$ItemID)
Remove NULL's
pages <- Filter(function(x) !is.null(x), pages)
Cleanup text
pages_clean <- lapply(pages, function(x) gsub("\n", "", x))
Examine pages
pages_clean[10:12]
#> [[1]]
#> [1] "OF SELBORNE. 3, The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably short, between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and, imme- diately behind that, the bowels against the back-bone. It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop placed just upon the bowels must, especially when full, be in a very uneasy situation during the business of incubation ; yet the test will be, to examine whether birds that are actually known to sit for certain are not formed in a similar manner. This inquiry I proposed to my- self to make with di fern-owl, or goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity offered : because if their formation proves the same, the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed to have been taken up somewhat hastily. Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habit and shape, we sus- pected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal construction. Nor were our sus- picions ill-grounded ; for, upon the dissec- tion, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, immediately on the viscera, be- . b2 "
#>
#> [[2]]
#> [1] "4 NATURAL HISTORY tween them and the skin ©f the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard with large phalcBTKB, moths of several sorts, and their eggs, which, no doubt, had been forced out of those insects by the action of swal- lowing. Now, as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos^ Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuc- koos are incapable of incubation from the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall to the ground : and we are still at a loss for the cause of that strange and singular peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus canorus. We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in respect to formation ; and, as far as I can recollect, with the swift; and probably it is so with many more sorts of birds that are not grani- vorous. I am, &c. "
#>
#> [[3]]
#> [1] "OF SELBORNE. ,5 Letter xxxl TO THE SAME, • DEAR SIR; Selborne, April 29, 1776. On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which seemed very heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking in the sun. When we came to cut it up, we found that the abdomen was crowded with young, fifteen in number ; the shortest of which measured full seven inches, and were about the size of full-grown earth- worms. This little fry issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them, showing great alertness as soon as disen- gaged from the belly of the dam : they twisted and riggled about, and set them- selves up, and gaped very wide when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and defiance, though as "
With this text data, you can do text mining of the content to answer cool questions you have.