Welcome to the Biodiversity Heritage Library Blog

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, an accident of the calendar, which after all leaves us only 365 days to choose from.

Welcome to 2015! We’re excited for another year to see BHL continue to grow and improve. We have lots of great things planned, particularly in the global sphere. Stay Tuned on our blog, Twitter and Facebook to learn more! Today, we thought we’d take the opportunity to look back over 2014 and highlight some of the great things we’ve accomplished.

Each week, 10-690 species go extinct, according to reports published via Nature.

You’re probably familiar with the famous holiday song The 12 Days of Christmas, first published in England in 1780 as a rhyme. The song most people know today is based on a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by Frederic Austin. We decided to do our own take on the song, presenting instead “12 Species of Christmas” as portrayed within BHL books.

The staff of the BHL are saddened to announce the recent death of Cathy Norton. Cathy, former Library Director of the MBLWHOI Library, was a founding member and a guiding force during the early years of the BHL. Cathy served as the first Vice-Chair of the BHL Executive Committee and later as Chair. Nancy E. Gwinn, current Chair of the BHL Executive Committee said “Cathy was an indefatigable spirit whose enthusiasm buoyed the whole BHL group, members and staff, from the beginning. She will be sorely missed.” Constance Rinaldo, BHL Vice-Chair added “Cathy was an inspiration professionally and personally.

Thanks to a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), The New York Botanical Garden’s The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, the most comprehensive botanical and horticultural library in the Americas, has recently cataloged all 58,000 items in its Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection.