All posts by geoffrey.harder@ualberta.ca

With the Biodiversity Heritage Library now officially operating in its new chapter following its transition away from the Smithsonian Institution, we are delighted to announce that the Field Museum of Natural History, one of BHL’s longest-standing and most respected partners, will host BHL’s servers and core technical infrastructure.

This hosting arrangement ensures the continued stability, security, and reliability of the BHL website and the 63+ million pages of open biodiversity knowledge it makes freely available worldwide.

As the Biodiversity Heritage Library enters its new chapter following the completion of its transition to a new fiscal sponsor, it is important to acknowledge that BHL’s biggest strength lies not in its platform, nor in its 63 million pages, but in its people.

For nearly two decades, a small, deeply committed team has carried the responsibility of keeping BHL online, stable, and accessible to a global community. Much of that work happens behind the scenes, often invisible to the users who rely on BHL every day. Securing that expertise and institutional knowledge has been a central goal of the BHL transition.

That goal has been achieved: this week marks the completion of staff transitions from the Smithsonian Institution to BHL’s fiscal sponsor, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). All of BHL’s existing staff positions have been secured, preserving the leadership, institutional knowledge, and operational continuity that underpin BHL’s work.

Together, the BHL staff are responsible for implementing the Consortium’s vision, mission, and strategic goals, under the direction of the Members Council and Executive Committee. As BHL moves forward, the people who know the organization best remain at its core. BHL is in excellent hands.

On 1 January 2026, the Biodiversity Heritage Library officially entered a new chapter.

Since its founding in 2006, BHL has been hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. We are profoundly grateful for the administrative, staffing, and operational support provided for nearly two decades. However, in April 2025, BHL announced that the Smithsonian would no longer host BHL beyond the end of 2025. That announcement marked the beginning of a carefully planned transition that would help define a new independent future for BHL.

A wave of support is building behind BHL. As we advance through our transition from long-term hosting by the Smithsonian Institution to a new independent governance and hosting model, one message has become increasingly clear: our global community is stepping forward to strengthen and sustain the world’s largest open-access library of biodiversity literature.

In response to BHL’s Call for Support, we have received a range of commitments from institutions in multiple countries. These include significant institutional donations, major in-kind technical support and expertise, technical hosting, and new organisations joining the BHL Member Council. Today, we are delighted to announce the first of these new Members: the University of South Florida Libraries (USF).

On August 31, we reached the soft-close of the Biodiversity Heritage Library’s Call for Support.

First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who has reached out with offers – large and small – and to all who shared our call across their networks. We’ve received some very promising proposals, and we’ll be reviewing these in detail over the coming weeks.

As we review these offers, we want to be clear about what will guide our decisions. Over the past month, the BHL community has agreed on a set of Guiding Principles for the Transition (2025–2026). These principles reflect our shared values and priorities, and will guide our decision-making as we shape BHL’s future.

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news: 🎉 The Biodiversity Heritage Library has a new fiscal sponsor – the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)!

This is a major step forward in securing a sustainable future for BHL.

As many of you know, the Smithsonian Institution will conclude its hosting role at the end of 2025. Since this announcement, BHL has been working diligently behind the scenes to establish new homes for its core functions. With CLIR now on board as our fiscal sponsor, the legal and financial infrastructure for BHL are firmly in place.

In November 2024, I embarked on a dream job as the Wikimedian-in-Residence at the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), aiming to enrich Wikimedia’s platforms with BHL’s incredible biodiversity collections. This crucial role was shaped by community-driven recommendations outlined along with the dedicated efforts of the BHL-Wiki Working Group, including key figures such as JJ Dearborn, Jake Orlowitz, Giovanna Fontenelle, and Siobhan Leachman, who continuously support the integration of BHL content with the Wikimedia ecosystem.