Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL), with the assistance of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) botany librarians, the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT), and staff from the Smithsonian’s Botany Department have begun work on transforming Taxonomic Literature, 2^nd edition (Stafleu, et al.), into a fully machine-readable resource with linked data capabilities. The complete publication provides treatments to more than 5,000 authors of plant and fungal names and provided bibliographic details for more than 35,000 books and “independent” reprints. This new online version of TL-2, created with the cooperation of the IAPT, will be freely available on the web in open access form with associated web services. A next phase will offer deeper linkages to the literature available via the BHL. This paper will explore the challenges of converting the print-version of TL-2 and the complexities of creating an XML structure for the data.

The paper will discuss the process of the conversion including: Digitization of the paper volumes via the Internet Archives (standards and derivative files); development of the schema for markup of the volumes (collaboration with botanists, librarians, and technical experts); process of quality assurance of the conversion to achieve the desired level of accuracy. Also, the plans for the web version prototype (with the first 50 converted pages for launch in October) as well as planned iterative development will be covered. There will also be a discussion of how best to implement connections with the BHL and other taxonomic services.