Leadership, Fiscal Sponsorship, and Hosting Opportunities

In April 2025, the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) released a public statement announcing that the Smithsonian Institution, our administrative and technical host since 2006, will step back from this role as of January 1, 2026. That announcement marked the beginning of a new chapter for BHL: one filled with both challenges and possibilities.

Today, we’re pleased to share the first in a series of monthly blog posts that will provide open updates on the progress of our transition. We know uncertainty can be unsettling, and we want to assure our global users, partners, and supporters that the transition is well underway, and that we are actively building a stronger and more sustainable future for BHL.

From April 7–11, 2025, the global Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) community gathered at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin for the BHL Annual Meeting. Hosted at one of Europe’s premier natural history museums, this year’s event brought together BHL Members, Affiliates and stakeholders for a week of strategic planning and collaboration.

Navigating Transition Amidst Change

BHL Annual Meetings are usually a time for joyous reunions and celebration of shared successes. This year, however, the meeting was shadowed by the recent announcement that BHL must secure alternative funding and find a new institutional host. In the weeks leading up to the Annual Meeting, the original agenda pivoted swifty towards solution-building. While core elements like committee reports and the ever-popular #BHLDay remained, much of the program was reshaped to focus on navigating the transition.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. A global consortium of over 660 contributors, BHL has made more than 63 million pages of biodiversity knowledge freely accessible online. As a cornerstone of biodiversity data infrastructure, it contains the foundation of our understanding of the natural world.

For the past 20 years, the Smithsonian Institution – one of BHL’s 10 founding members – has played the vital role of hosting both the administrative and technical components of BHL. On January 1, 2026, the Smithsonian will no longer host the administrative functions of BHL. This change presents both a new challenge and a new opportunity.