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The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is launching a new public fundraising campaign to help us navigate our transition to independence. This is our first major campaign since the announcement that the Smithsonian Institution can no longer host BHL beyond 2025. Your support now is more critical than ever to secure BHL’s future.

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.

Since the release of our official Call for Support on 11 June 2025, the global response has been inspiring and heartwarming. We’re charting the course to a strong and sustainable future for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Behind the scenes, many exciting conversations are underway, including offers of technical hosting, funding support, and staffing partnerships. As we transition from Smithsonian hosting, we’re seeking ambitious ideas for BHL’s future. 

In the past several weeks, we’ve seen a large, disruptive increase in traffic to the BHL main website. This blog post is meant to summarize the event, the effect on BHL and its servers, our response, and what we have planned should it happen again.

The problems experienced on BHL’s website are not related in any way to the transition away from the Smithsonian. We believe the timing of this activity and the resulting downtime to be purely coincidental.

Help us shape the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is at a turning point. After nearly two decades of calling the Smithsonian Institution home, BHL must transition to a new hosting structure beginning in January 2026. Since receiving that news, we’ve been working steadily to secure a strong and sustainable future for BHL. In our last update, we shared the appointment of a Transition Director, the formation of a Transition Team, and a partnership with a fiscal sponsor.

Today, we release our official Call for Support. This is a pivotal moment in BHL’s journey, and we are counting on our community to help spread the word and contribute in whatever ways you can.