Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) provides free & open access to 63+ million pages of biodiversity literature online.

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🎉 To celebrate BHL’s 20th anniversary, we’re inviting our community to help sustain and strengthen it.

If BHL supports your work or curiosity, please consider supporting it in return.

👉 Support BHL’s next chapter: https://t.co/xq9NGmdvXR

#BHLat20 #ILoveBHL 🧪 🌏 📖 🌱

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

It's #OwlAwarenessDay! These #owls are from Atlante Ornitologico (1902). Contributed to BHL by the Research Library of @AMNH : https://t.co/bDCDQVJVtV 🧪🦉

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

Last chance to help shape the future of BHL: the BHL User Survey closes today, July 27.

Take 3–5 minutes to tell us what would make BHL more useful to you. Your feedback will directly guide our priorities and improvements as we modernize the BHL platform.
https://t.co/l30WX3u2yB

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

What would make BHL better for you?

As work begins to modernize the BHL platform, we’re inviting users to take a 3–5-minute survey. Your feedback will directly inform our priorities and shape a better BHL experience. 🧪 🌱

Take the survey: https://t.co/l30WX3u2yB

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

BHL’s latest newsletter is out!

Catch up on BHL in @guardian, our server move to the @FieldMuseum, the new BHL Community Forum, Annual Meeting highlights, new member news, and more from our 20th anniversary year.

Read it here: https://t.co/B82jDkaRnO 🧪

[Internet Archive @internetarchive]

🌿📚 More than 64 million pages of biodiversity knowledge are freely available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library, a global digital archive built by hundreds of museums, libraries, and research institutions.

Now its future faces financial uncertainty after the loss of key support. The Internet Archive is proud to be one of BHL’s longtime preservation and digitization partners, helping ensure this extraordinary record of life on Earth remains accessible. 🌎🦋

Learn more 👇
https://t.co/6fVem6B86U

@BioDivLibrary

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🚚 The BHL server move has reached its biggest milestone! From 25–30 June, BHL’s web traffic will switch from the Smithsonian to the Field Museum. BHL will remain online, but full-text search, filters & on-demand PDFs will be unavailable. Learn more: https://t.co/7Y1pmQkbnJ 🧪

[Bernadette Arnaud @NarudaaArnaud]

C’est la plus grande archive numérique open-access au monde consacrée à la #biodiversité! La Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) et ses 64 millions de pages vous attendent! Depuis 20 ans, plus de 680 institutions (musées, universités, bibliothèques du monde entier ont numérisé et mis en ligne gratuitement des millions de documents historiques sur la vie sur Terre : (livres scientifiques, journaux de terrain, illustrations, lettres, manuscrits, catalogues, etc.). De quoi vous émerveiller sans vous déplacer. Son lien direct : https://t.co/sAcEsYLa4x
Article du @Guardian de Donna Ferguson ; https://t.co/gtT6I3OTiO

[Ticia Verveer @ticiaverveer]

The Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary is an irreplaceable cornerstone of global science, housing millions of digitized pages. Yet, this vital archive of our planet’s natural heritage stands at a critical turning point. https://t.co/thA4XrsLNO

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

Did you see BHL in @theguardian.com?🌱

It’s a powerful reminder of why biodiversity knowledge matters.

If BHL has fuelled your research, teaching, art, writing, conservation work, or curiosity, please consider a monthly gift to support its future. 🧪

https://t.co/yEcUd7youk

[Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva]

A bonanza for fans of the natural world: the digital library sharing 64m pages of scientific knowledge with everyone https://t.co/QHSd8vsF05

Biodiversity Heritage Library https://t.co/GfbXb4hPQV @BioDivLibrary

Public domain imgs https://t.co/1qzdobdj6D

#biodiversity #opendata

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

BHL is featured in the @guardian's Age of Extinction series. The article highlights the extraordinary value of BHL and the urgent need to ensure it remains free and open into the future.

Please read and share: https://t.co/yEcUd7youk 🧪 🌎 📖 🔗 🐟 💚

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🚚 BHL’s servers are on the move! Over the next 3 weeks, BHL’s technical infrastructure will journey from the Smithsonian in Washington DC to the Field Museum in Chicago. BHL will remain online, with only #FullTextSearch affected while in transit. More: https://t.co/rLbX8YRybM🧪

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

BHL celebrated 20 years at our 2026 Annual Meeting in London, hosted by @NHM_London and #KewGardens. Partners gathered to reflect on two decades of collaboration and plan the next chapter for open biodiversity knowledge.

Read more: https://t.co/TXITEaHCmj #BHLat20

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

📢 If you haven’t discovered it already, check out the BHL Community Forum on Discourse 🌿 📚

Connect with the global BHL community to ask/answer questions, share projects and ideas, discuss tools and data, and explore biodiversity literature. 🧪 🌏

➡️ https://t.co/8rR3dUjK6l

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

This #BiodiversityDay, BHL needs your help.

Since transitioning from the Smithsonian, we are reliant on public donations to keep BHL's 64 million pages freely accessible and discoverable online. 🧪🌱 🌏

Please consider a one-time or recurring donation: https://t.co/OCZBGcXwES

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

Missed #BHLDay2026? Or want to relive it? The recordings and slides are now available!

Thank you @NHM_London for hosting this fabulous event, and to all the wonderful speakers for sharing their work, stories, and ideas for BHL's future: https://t.co/uQDxCZiKoA 🧪

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

This beautiful illustration is from Alfred Moquin-Tandon's "The world of the sea" (1869) digitized for BHL by @SILibraries : https://t.co/HnAZc44060

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🌏 We think every day is #EarthDay. To take a deep dive into the incredible biodiversity of our precious planet, peruse the 63+ million pages (800+ years) of biodiversity knowledge on BHL. https://t.co/FQEOPkSrFw #EarthDay2026 #ILoveBHL 🧪 📖 🌱

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🦇 Happy #BatAppreciationDay! The ghost bat (Macroderma gigas), native to Australia, gets its name from its extremely thin wing membrane, which gives it a ghostly appearance at night. #SciArt: Proc Zool Soc London (1880) on BHL via
@NHM_London @NHM_Library https://t.co/RpzL5JnDqD

[Biodiversity Heritage Library @BioDivLibrary]

🌻 Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere!
To celebrate, we present this spectacular collection of watercolour & pencil illustrations of "British Flowers" by Elizabeth Wharton and Margaret Wharton [1793-1811] on BHL via @oak_spring: https://t.co/xnqU0YzXh1 🧪