We are delighted to announce a new collaboration between the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries that will provide digital preservation support for the world’s largest open-access repository of natural history materials. Through the agreement, the Heard Libraries will contribute cloud infrastructure expertise and technical leadership for BHL, which serves as a foundational resource for biodiversity science, taxonomy and conservation research, with more than 63 million pages dating from the 15th to the 21st century.

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Central Library, which houses the Digital Lab and the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab (Source: Vanderbilt University)

The Heard Libraries are also the newest member of the BHL Consortium, an international collaboration of natural history museums, botanical gardens and agricultural, biological and university research libraries whose purpose is to make biodiversity literature free and openly available to the world.

“The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the most comprehensive archive of life on Earth ever assembled. The scale of this undertaking is difficult to overstate, as BHL reunites holdings that were once separated by geography, language and institutional silos. Because natural history has always been a global enterprise, with specimens crossing oceans and observations made in one hemisphere being debated in another, the library effectively restores that original interconnectedness in a digital form.”

– Jon Shaw, Vanderbilt University Librarian

The Heard Libraries are globally recognized for digital preservation and large-scale knowledge stewardship and will ensure the archive’s accessibility, integrity and durability through preservation architecture developed in partnership with Amazon Web Services. “Vanderbilt’s role secures a globally essential scientific resource while reinforcing the university’s commitments to research, education and long-term knowledge preservation,” Shaw said.

A Heard Libraries staff member will serve as Associate Cloud Engineer and be integrated into BHL’s Technical Team to work collaboratively with BHL leadership and partner institutions to strengthen the archive’s technical foundation. The role will contribute expertise in cloud computing, data management, modern application development, and digital collections infrastructure, enabling improvements in performance, scalability and long-term sustainability.

“Building a resilient, modern technical foundation is central to BHL’s next chapter, and Vanderbilt’s investment significantly advances this work. We are deeply grateful for Vanderbilt’s commitment and look forward to working closely with the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries on this important endeavor.”

– Colleen Funkhouser, BHL Managing Director

As a BHL Member, Vanderbilt joins the consortium’s governance structure and strategic planning processes. While Vanderbilt’s immediate focus within BHL is technical leadership, the university’s scholarly initiatives and collections are of strong interest to the BHL community.

Vanderbilt’s 330-acre Nashville campus is an accredited arboretum, with more than 6,000 identified and geolocated trees and shrubs representing nearly 200 species. The university’s community gardens and native meadow serve as living labs for collaborative research.

Evolutionary Studies at Vanderbilt comprise a transdisciplinary center of excellence engaging students, scholars and the broader community in evolutionary research and outreach. The Heard Libraries have supported this initiative through library exhibits, Biodiversity Day lectures, and events such as the Scopes “Monkey” Trial Centennial Symposium.

Vanderbilt Chancellor James H. Kirkland in his iris garden, 1928. Kirkland won the American Dykes Medal in 1938 for his iris “Copper Lustre.” (Source: James Hampton Kirkland Papers, Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives)

Among Vanderbilt’s distinctive collections are the papers of James Hampton Kirkland, Vanderbilt’s second chancellor and a Dykes Medal-winning iris breeder. BHL currently holds some of his titles, including The Iris Offerings of J.H. Kirkland, while Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives house additional materials.

“Dauntless” by Susan Wilkes. Vanderbilt alumnus and hospital administrator Clarence Connell won the 1929 American Dykes Medal for his iris “Dauntless.” (Source: History of Medicine Collections, Vanderbilt Special Collections and University Archives)

“BHL plays a critical role in supporting conservation and science, documenting biodiversity history, overcoming research barriers and enabling global collaboration. We welcome Vanderbilt’s membership in the consortium and value the deep expertise in digital stewardship the university brings to BHL’s mission.”

– Charles Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources, BHL’s new administrative host

At the heart of this capacity is the Heard Libraries’ Digital Lab, which supports digital projects and scholarship while identifying opportunities to bolster infrastructure and scale engagement. This work is complemented by the Vanderbilt Cloud Innovation Lab for Libraries and Applied Digital Preservation, powered by AWS, designed to support student learning experiences focused on using artificial intelligence and cloud technologies to develop advancements in digital preservation.

One example of success in this area is the Heard Libraries’ stewardship of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, one of the largest collections of U.S. television broadcast news in the world, containing more than 92,000 broadcasts, nearly 600,000 news segments, and some 55,700 hours of runtime to date. The Heard Libraries successfully migrated the TV News Archive to the AWS cloud and introduced capabilities such as transcription, translation and enhanced search capabilities.

“Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are a proven leader in digital preservation, infrastructure planning, research-oriented access and managing collections at scale. We look forward to continuing our successful collaborations with Vanderbilt and BHL to make the archive more modern, resilient and openly accessible to researchers and scholars around the world.”

– Greg Ritter, Strategy Lead for Research Data, Scholarly Communication and Libraries at Amazon Web Services

In 2026, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is celebrating twenty extraordinary years of global collaboration, discovery, and open biodiversity knowledge.

For two decades, BHL has united libraries, museums, herbaria, and research institutions worldwide to make biodiversity literature freely accessible to anyone, anywhere. What began as a collaborative digitisation initiative is now the world’s largest online library of biodiversity literature and an essential foundation for research, conservation, and data integration.

To mark this milestone, we are launching a special anniversary blog series – BHL at 20: Treasures from the Biodiversity Heritage Library – highlighting remarkable works from across BHL’s collection. These treasures will include rare and historic volumes, medieval manuscripts, richly illustrated monographs, handwritten field diaries, scientific notebooks, specimen registers, society newsletters, and modern journals. Together, they will reveal the depth, diversity, and enduring relevance of our biodiversity knowledge across time.

Australian lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life (1864), illustrated by Harriet Scott and Helena Scott, contributed to BHL by the Australian Museum: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35774497

Each featured work has been chosen by members of BHL’s contributing organisations: the librarians, archivists, curators, and researchers who know these materials best. Their selections showcase items that hold particular meaning within their collections: works of scientific or historical importance, publications associated with notable authors or illustrators, volumes with fascinating provenance, or materials that carry a special significance for the institutions and people who steward them. Among them is BHL’s newest “oldest” book, a manuscript that pushes the chronological boundaries of BHL’s collection back by centuries. This extraordinary manuscript will be revealed in its own spotlight post later in the series — one of many stories still to come.

Naturalis Historia (1469), compiled by Pliny the Elder. Until very recently this was the oldest book in BHL, contributed to BHL by Natural History Museum, London: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52290882

Each story will be told by a member of the BHL community: the experts who know these materials intimately and understand their scientific, historical, and cultural significance. Their posts will illuminate not only the publications themselves, but also the stewardship, scholarship, and care that brought them into the open and into BHL.

As BHL enters its third decade, newly independent and globally governed, this anniversary series celebrates both the literature and the community behind it. The works preserved in BHL continue to connect names, specimens, observations, people, and places across time, informing modern science and conservation around the world.

“BHL was founded as a global consortium because our founding members knew that no single institution could build it alone. Collaboration and coordination have always been at the heart of BHL’s success. Highlighting the treasures within BHL’s vast collection is a wonderful way to honor the past 20 years of shared effort and achievement.”
— Colleen Funkhouser, BHL Managing Director

We invite you to follow along throughout the year as we share treasures from our global collection and celebrate twenty years of democratizing biodiversity knowledge to all.

Industrial and Technological Museum economic botany fruit and vegetable specimen register (c.1870-1890), contributed to BHL by Museums Victoria Archives: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/62264001

As we celebrate twenty years of open biodiversity knowledge, we’re also looking ahead.

Thanks to our global community, BHL has entered its new chapter strong, independent, and growing. With your support, we can ensure that this work continues, expanding access, strengthening infrastructure, and connecting biodiversity knowledge for decades to come.

Support BHL’s next chapter