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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.

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 1 January 2026, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) will take flight, becoming fully independent after nearly two decades hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. This transition marks an historic milestone for BHL and for the global biodiversity and open-science communities we serve. It also brings an urgent challenge: ensuring that the infrastructure, staffing, and partnerships that keep over 500 years of biodiversity knowledge open to the world remain secure and sustainable.

This month, members of the biodiversity community from across the globe gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, for two major meetings: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Governing Board Meeting (19–20 October) and Living Data 2025 (21–24 October).

For the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), these back-to-back events were a timely opportunity to share progress on the BHL Transition and to connect directly with the global community that relies on BHL every day.