In April 2025, BHL announced that the Smithsonian Institution would no longer host the administrative functions of the BHL consortium as of 1 January 2026. This announcement kicked off a transition period that would help define a new future for BHL. Having relied on the Smithsonian as its host since BHL’s inception in 2006, this change presents many challenges and opportunities. This transition opens the door to a reimagined and more sustainable future for BHL. The consortium is currently exploring a range of options, including identifying new administrative hosts, refining potential organizational models, and broadening funding sources.
Major Milestones to Date
Since announcing the transition away from the Smithsonian, BHL has been sharing major milestones with our dedicated community.
- April 2025 – BHL announces A New Future
- May 2025 – BHL appoints a Transition Director, Communications Director, and forms a Transition Team
- June 2025 – BHL releases an official Call for Support
- August 2025 – BHL welcomes the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) as its new fiscal sponsor
- September 2025 – BHL releases its Guiding Principles for the Transition
What’s Next
We are entering a critical phase of the transition. The coming months will focus on:
- Launching our public fundraising campaign (coming soon!) – an opportunity for our global community to directly support BHL’s future.
- Developing a sustainable governance and funding model that will safeguard BHL for decades to come.
- Pursuing new grant opportunities to strengthen infrastructure and services.
Visit our blog for the latest #BHLTransition Updates.
Guiding Principles for the Transition (2025–2026)
The following principles reflect BHL’s shared values and priorities, and will guide decision-making as we shape BHL’s future. Together with the BHL Strategic Plan (2020-2026), which outlines our vision for open access, open science, community engagement, and long-term sustainability, they provide a framework for this period of transition.
- 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.
Call for Support
The Call for Support soft-closed on August 31, 2025. The Transition Team and Executive Committee are reviewing the expressions of interest and formal offers to help define BHL’s future.
Additional expressions of interest are still welcome on a rolling basis. Please review the complete Call for Support for details. To express interest or start a conversation, please contact: Kelli Trei, BHL Transition Director, at TransitionDirector@biodiversitylibrary.org.
We are grateful to all who have contributed so far and look forward to continuing this conversation with our global community.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
BHL Transition
No. BHL is not going away. All of our digitized content, metadata, and persistent identifiers remain secure, discoverable, and freely accessible. This transition marks the beginning of a new phase in BHL’s evolution, not its end. For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
BHL is moving towards greater sustainability and increased independence. Key changes include:
- Appointing a Transition Director and Communications Director
- Forming a dedicated Transition Team
- Establishing a new fiscal sponsor to support financial and administrative operations
- Seeking new institutional hosts for core technical and operational functions
- Exploring new partnerships and funding models to ensure long-term stability
For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
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. For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
BHL is committed to transparency. In response to the Smithsonian’s decision to no longer host the administrative functions of BHL as of January 1, 2026, we will publish monthly updates on the BHL Blog as part of our #BHLTransition series. We will also share news regularly via our BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X accounts.
BHL’s new fiscal sponsor is the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. Learn more about what fiscal sponsorship is and what it means for BHL’s operational structure.
A fiscal sponsor is an organization that serves as a financial or administrative home for a group or project that does not have its own independent legal status. Establishing a fiscal sponsor is a key step in securing a stable administrative home by January 1, 2026. The fiscal sponsorship agreement is flexible, allowing BHL to pursue alternative hosting options for long term sustainability.
Fiscal sponsorship does not mean that the sponsor provides funding to BHL. Instead, the sponsor offers essential nonprofit infrastructure, such as financial administration, human resources and contracting services, so BHL can manage grants, receive tax-deductible donations, and employ staff. BHL remains responsible for securing its own funding. For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
No. BHL remains largely the same, maintaining its logo, branding, and operational structure as is. Since fiscal sponsorship does not mean that the sponsor provides funding to BHL, we will continue to depend on membership dues, grant funding, donations, and institutional and community support.
BHL’s global consortium of Partners will continue to work under a shared mission to collaboratively make biodiversity literature openly available to the world. We remain governed by our Bylaws and Members Council, with routine operations managed by the Executive Committee, Secretariat and Technical Team. BHL committees and working groups continue to be essential to the development of our collection and services.
Yes, for now the BHL website will remain operational and accessible. We are working to ensure a smooth transition, with minimal disruption to services. Any planned changes (such as server moves) will be clearly communicated in advance. Over time, new infrastructure may be implemented to ensure BHL remains scalable, resilient, and sustainable. For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
We are currently seeking one or more institutional partners to host BHL’s technical infrastructure and support key technical staff. This will allow us to continue platform operations, develop new features, and maintain interoperability with global biodiversity data networks. For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
There are many ways to support BHL during this critical transition:
- 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
For more information, please see our Transition Updates.
- Visit our blog for the latest #BHLTransition Updates
- Follow us on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and X
- Contact Kelli Trei, Transition Director, at TransitionDirector@biodiversitylibrary.org for inquiries about hosting or support
- For general questions, visit our Contact Us page