The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) has entered a new chapter.
Following a year of careful planning, consultation, and community engagement, BHL has successfully transitioned to a more resilient, community-supported model designed to safeguard open access to biodiversity knowledge for the long term.
This transition builds on nearly two decades of global collaboration and reflects BHL’s shared commitment to openness, sustainability, and collective stewardship. With new fiscal sponsorship in place and strong engagement from partners around the world, BHL is now better positioned to pursue diversified funding, new partnerships, and long-term sustainability.
2025: A Year of Transition and Renewal
In April 2025, BHL announced that the Smithsonian Institution would no longer host the administrative functions of the consortium after 1 January 2026. This marked the beginning of a planned transition period focused on strengthening BHL’s governance, funding, and operational resilience.
Rather than signaling an end, this became an opportunity to re-examine how BHL is supported, governed, and sustained, and to ensure the infrastructure underpinning this global resource remains robust and adaptable.
Major Milestones
Since announcing the transition, BHL has shared regular updates with its global community. Key milestones include:
- April 2025 – BHL announces the transition and outlines a path forward
- May 2025 – Appointment of a Transition Director and Communications Director; formation of a dedicated Transition Team
- June 2025 – Release of BHL’s official Call for Support
- August 2025 – BHL welcomes the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) as its new fiscal sponsor
- September 2025 – Publication of BHL’s Guiding Principles for the Transition
- November 2025 – Launch of the public fundraising campaign to Give BHL Wings
- December 2025 – BHL welcomes the first of its new Members: the University of South Florida Libraries
- February 2026 – BHL announces the Field Museum as new host of technical infrastructure
Together, these milestones reflect the breadth of community engagement and institutional commitment shaping BHL’s next phase.
What Comes Next
With the core elements of the transition now in place, BHL’s focus is on consolidation and growth. The coming period will prioritise:
- Strengthening long-term governance and funding models
- Continuing philanthropic and institutional fundraising
- Advancing modern, open infrastructure and services
- Deepening partnerships across the global biodiversity and open-science communities
Updates on this work will continue to be shared via the BHL blog and social media channels.
Guiding Principles for the Transition (2025–2026)
BHL’s transition has been guided by a shared set of principles that reflect the consortium’s values and long-term vision. Together with the BHL Strategic Plan (2020–2026), these principles provide a framework for decision-making and future development.
- We are committed to open access and open infrastructure to ensure biodiversity knowledge is freely available, reusable, and sustainable.
- We are a community-led, openly governed global consortium, building capacity that is resilient to institutional change and funding cycles.
- We deliver inclusive collections and equitable services that advance open science, while respecting legal, cultural, and conservation considerations.
- We are committed to modernizing our infrastructure to create a flexible, secure, and sustainable platform – prioritizing accessibility and global participation through multilingual, mobile-responsive design and equitable access.
- We surface and structure the data in biodiversity literature, in alignment with FAIR principles, enabling its discovery, reuse, and integration across the biodiversity research ecosystem.
- We connect past, present, and future by transforming BHL’s 63 million pages of biodiversity literature – the world’s collective knowledge about biodiversity – into an indispensable open resource for research, conservation, and education worldwide.
BHL Call for Support
BHL’s Call for Support formally closed on 31 August 2025. The Transition Team and Executive Committee have reviewed expressions of interest and offers of support received during this period, which have directly informed the consortium’s future direction.
Additional expressions of interest and conversations about partnership or support are still welcome on a rolling basis. To learn more, please review the Call for Support or contact:
Kelli Trei
BHL Transition Director
TransitionDirector@biodiversitylibrary.org
BHL is deeply grateful to the many individuals and organisations who have contributed their time, expertise, resources, and advocacy during this transition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These FAQs address common questions about BHL’s recent transition, including its current status, governance, fiscal sponsorship, technical infrastructure, and ways to support BHL going forward. They reflect BHL’s position following the completion of its primary transition milestones and entry into a new operational phase.
BHL Transition
No. BHL is not going away. All digitized content, metadata, and persistent identifiers remain secure, discoverable, and freely accessible.
The transition BHL undertook in 2025 has strengthened the consortium’s long-term sustainability and resilience. BHL continues to operate as a global, open-access resource, supported by a broad international community of partners and contributors.
BHL’s transition is being implemented in stages, some of which are now complete and others that are continuing.
Completed stages include:
- Establishing Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) as BHL’s fiscal sponsor
- Transferring BHL’s financial administration to CLIR
- Confirming governance, oversight, and operational continuity
Stages currently underway or upcoming include:
- Completing the transition of existing BHL staff to CLIR
- Planning the move of BHL’s technical infrastructure to a new host institution
- Continuing to strengthen long-term funding, partnerships, and infrastructure resilience
With these foundations in place, BHL has entered a new operational phase focussed on sustainability, stability, and growth, while completing the remaining elements of the transition.
BHL has taken steps to strengthen its governance, sustainability, and operational resilience. These include:
- Establishing a dedicated Transition Team
- Appointing a Transition Director and Communications Director
- Engaging a new fiscal sponsor to support financial and administrative operations
- Broadening funding sources through institutional, philanthropic, and community support
- Advancing a more distributed and resilient approach to hosting and infrastructure
Together, these changes support BHL’s long-term stability while preserving its mission, values, and global reach.
BHL’s core technical infrastructure will be hosted by the Field Museum, one of BHL’s long-standing partner institutions.
As part of the transition, the Field Museum has taken on responsibility for hosting BHL’s infrastructure, ensuring the continued operation, security, and reliability of the BHL website, APIs, and associated services. This arrangement provides continuity for users while strengthening BHL’s long-term technical resilience.
This hosting model reflects BHL’s move toward a more distributed, partner-supported infrastructure, reducing reliance on any single institution and aligning with best practices for sustainability in global digital research infrastructure.
Yes. The BHL website remains fully operational and accessible.
Any changes to infrastructure or platform components are planned carefully to minimize disruption and demonstrate improved resilience, scalability, and sustainability. Significant updates will be communicated in advance via the BHL blog and social media channels.
BHL’s fiscal sponsor is the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).
CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that works with libraries, cultural institutions, and research communities to strengthen research, teaching, and learning environments. Fiscal sponsorship through CLIR provides BHL with a stable administrative and financial home while allowing the consortium to retain its mission, governance, and global partnerships.
Fiscal sponsorship is a formal arrangement in which an established nonprofit organization provides financial and administrative infrastructure for a project or consortium that does not have its own independent legal status.
For BHL, fiscal sponsorship enables:
- Financial administration and compliance
- Grant management and contracting
- Receipt of tax-deductible donations
- Employment and support of staff
Fiscal sponsorship does not mean that the sponsor funds BHL’s operations. BHL remains responsible for securing its own funding through memberships, grants, donations, and partnerships.
No. BHL retains its existing identity, mission, branding, and governance.
The BHL consortium continues to operate under its Bylaws and Members Council, with day-to-day operations managed by the Executive Committee, Secretariat, and Technical Team. Committees and working groups remain central to the development of BHL’s collections, services, and infrastructure.
Status Update: February 19, 2026
BHL has been experiencing intermittent disruptions to its website due to significant bot traffic surges. Bots are software programs that automate repetetive tasks at scale. Unfortunately these bots can generate so much traffic to BHL’s servers that the system gets overwhelmed. While mitigation strategies, like firewalls, are in place to block much of this activity, some legitimate users may be affected. Our Technical Team is actively working to reduce the impact.
Thank you for your patience.
Where can I get the latest updates?
For the latest status updates on BHL services, follow @biodivlibrary.bsky or @biodivlibrary
BHL is supported through a combination of:
- Membership contributions from partner institutions
- Grants from public and private funders
- Philanthropic donations from individuals and organizations
- In-kind support and expertise from the global BHL community
This diversified funding approach strengthens BHL’s resilience and reduces reliance on any single source of support.
BHL partners, content contributors, and collaborators continue to engage with BHL as they always have.
The transition reinforces BHL’s commitment to collaboration, open access, and shared stewardship of biodiversity knowledge. Partners remain central to shaping BHL’s collections, services, and future direction.
The transition is being led by Kelli Trei, BHL’s new Transition Director, supported by Nicole Kearney, BHL’s new Communications Director and a dedicated Transition Team composed of members of the BHL Executive Committee and Secretariat.
Oversight and decision-making continued in accordance with BHL’s established governance structures throughout the transition.
BHL is committed to transparency and open communication.
Throughout the transition, BHL shared regular updates via the BHL Blog as part of the #BHLTransition series, as well as through its Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X social media channels. Going forward, updates about governance, partnerships, infrastructure, and funding will continue to be shared through these established channels.
There are many ways to support BHL’s ongoing work and sustainability:
- Respond to our Call for Support to connect us with stakeholders, contribute ideas, or provide financial support
- Share our Call for Support widely across your networks
- Advocate for BHL within your institution or professional networks
- Spread the word: Share our blog updates and use #ILoveBHL on social media
- Support BHL directly: Make a Donation
Donations to BHL directly support the continued open availability of biodiversity knowledge worldwide.
- Visit the BHL Blog for updates and announcements
- Follow BHL on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X
- For partnership or support enquiries, contact Kelli Trei, BHL Transition Director, at TransitionDirector@biodiversitylibrary.org
For general enquiries, see the Contact Us page