What is the current operating status of BHL?

Q: What is the current operating status of BHL?

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

What is the current operating status of BHL?

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

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Empowering Global Research

BHL supports research across the globe and in a variety of disciplines. Explore more BHL user testimonials.

Slide 5

Having access to this literature through BHL is a treasure. Being able to show the students the original publications...speaks volumes.

Dr. Tracey Hunter-Doniger

College of Charleston

Slide 4

BHL is a wonderful resource. I use a lot of old and obscure resources in my line of work, and BHL makes getting access to these sources a lot easier.

Dr. Paul D. Brinkman

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Slide 4 - copy

As a free, mobile archive for natural history literature, BHL is ideal for 21st century research, which can happen on the field, in a museum, or at a coffee shop, as long as there’s internet connectivity.

Dr. Nicholas Pyenson

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Slide 1

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is an amazing resource for visual artists! Any artist interested in learning about natural history and science would consider these rare resources invaluable.

Emily Williams, MFA

Troy University

Slide 2

BHL is doing a wonderful service for researchers like me, who work with limited resources in developing countries like India. BHL has had a big, positive impact on my research.

Dr. Varad B. Giri

National Centre for Biological Sciences

Slide 3

BHL is an incredible resource. It provides access to material that is otherwise hard to get and enables me to undertake detailed searches of these sources.

Dr. Karen Sayer

Leeds Trinity University