Last year, our community gave BHL wings.

In 2025, the Biodiversity Heritage Library faced a real threat to its existence: the sudden loss of the institutional support on which it had depended, with no guarantee that it could continue. After nearly two decades of support from the Smithsonian Institution, BHL needed to establish a new independent and globally governed future. Staff, services, technical systems, partnerships, governance and funding all had to be secured so that the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives could remain free and available to everyone.

Thank you for helping secure BHL’s future

Since BHL launched public fundraising for the transition on 17 October 2025, supporters from 46 countries have contributed more than USD $113,000 to help support BHL’s independent future.

USD $51,000 of that support was given during our #GiveBHLWings campaign, held during the final seven weeks before BHL’s transition to independence on 1 January 2026.

We are profoundly grateful.

Because our community rallied around BHL, staff were retained, services continued, and more than 64 million pages of biodiversity literature and archives remain freely accessible online.

At the end of June 2026, BHL’s formal transition period concluded. The final major piece of the transition was completed in July: moving BHL’s servers and core technical infrastructure from the Smithsonian Institution to the Field Museum in Chicago. BHL now operates through a distributed, partner-supported model, with a new administrative and technical foundation for the future.

Together, we saved BHL. Now we need to sustain it.

Why monthly support matters

Like these baby kingfishers, BHL needs dependable ongoing support to sustain staff and services, modernize our technical infrastructure, improve access and discoverability, grow and connect collections, and keep biodiversity knowledge open to everyone.

Kingfisher and young, from Pycraft, W. P., and Roland Green. Birds in Flight. London: Gay & Hancock Limited, 1922. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.14815. Contributed to BHL by Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

Monthly gifts are especially valuable because they provide predictable income that keeps BHL running month after month. A monthly gift does not need to be large to make a difference. Regular gifts of every size combine to create a stronger and more stable foundation for BHL.

Become a BHL Sustainer

This month, we are inviting our community to become BHL Sustainers by making a monthly gift.

Eggs, from Kearton, Richard. Birds’ Nests, Eggs and Egg-Collecting. London: Cassell, 1896. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.56067. Contributed to BHL by Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

Like the eggs illustrated in this historic plate from BHL’s own collections, monthly gifts come in many sizes, and every size matters.

• USD $5/month – Yellow Hammer-sized: small, but part of something that adds up fast.
• USD $10/month – Puffin-sized: steady, dependable support, month after month.
• USD $20/month – Chough-sized: a stronger, ongoing contribution.
• USD $50/month – Falcon-sized: substantial, sustaining support for the long haul.

These examples are shown in USD, but donations can be made in more than 135 currencies and in whatever amount works for you.

Every gift helps. Every month matters.

For 20 years, BHL has opened biodiversity literature to the world. It exists because of a global community committed to open access, shared infrastructure, and the belief that biodiversity knowledge should be available to everyone.

Last year, that community gave BHL wings. Now we’re asking you to help us keep flying.

If BHL matters to your work, your collections, your teaching, your research, your art, your writing, or your love of the natural world, please consider becoming a monthly donor today.

You can also support BHL through major gifts, wire transfers, bequests, or other legacy gifts: Ways to Give.

Donations are processed through BHL’s fiscal sponsor, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Tax deductibility depends on your country of residence and individual circumstances.