Towards a Biodiversity Data Ecosystem Built on BHL Data
In coordination with the 2026 Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) Annual Meeting, BHL hosted a public symposium at the Natural History Museum, London on Wednesday 29 April.
Date and Time:
Wednesday 29 April 2026; 2:00 – 5:00 pm BST (UTC+1)
Location:
The Natural History Museum, London
Flett Theatre, Floor 1
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD
Recording
A recording of the event is available via the BHL YouTube channel.
Links to individual presentations are available in the program below.
Program Details
As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of BHL, we recognise the opportunity to both review our position within the field and to work towards BHL becoming ever more integrated into the wider bioinformatics data environment.
There is a need for more effective access to and use of biodiversity data with siloes significantly reduced, facilitating a more interconnected ecosystem of collections data to support research.
The symposium will be of interest to:
- Information professionals who provide the literature and metadata;
- Data professionals who extract, manage and integrate the data;
- Developers who build products; and
- The community that uses the products and data.
The symposium will consist of four 20-minute oral presentations and five 5-minute lightning talks.
| Time | Event | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 1:45-2:00 pm | Doors open | |
| 2:00-2:20 pm | Welcome to BHL Day 2026 | Doug Gurr, Natural History Museum, London |
| 2:20-2:30 pm | BHL at 20: A Milestone and a New Chapter Presentation | Nicole Kearney and Bianca Crowley, Biodiversity Heritage Library |
| 2:30-3:10 pm | Session 1: Oral Presentations | 20 minutes each |
| BHL and the Planetary Knowledge Base: Structuring Biodiversity Literature for the Next Generation Presentation | Qianqian Gu, Ben Hartley, Vincent Smith, Natural History Museum, London | |
| BHL: Where has it been, where is it now, where might it go? Presentation | Roderic D. M. Page, University of Glasgow | |
| 3:10-3:35 pm | Session 2: Lightning Talks | 5 minutes each |
| The potential of legacy data sets: challenges and ambitions from the legacy of the Darwin Correspondence Project Presentation | Liz Smith and Mike Hawkins, Cambridge University Library and Archives | |
| Mobilising information from German-language biodiversity literature - what can go wrong? Presentation | Gerwin Kasperek, University Library Johann Christan Senckenberg | |
| Activating the BHL for Storytelling and Teaching: The Plant Humanities Lab Presentation | Yota Batsaki, Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University | |
| World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and BHL Presentation | Lauren Hughes, Natural History Museum, London | |
| Wading Into BHL: How the USF Libraries’ is Preparing to Ingest its Archives Presentation | Amanda Boczar and Sydney Jordan, University of South Florida | |
| 3:35-3:45 pm | Q&A | Moderator |
| 3:45-4:05 pm | Break | |
| 4:05-4:45 pm | Session 3: Oral Presentations | 20 minutes each |
| The continuing saga of women, flowering plant genera and BHL Presentation | Siobhan Leachman, Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand Sabine von Mering, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin |
|
| Growing seeds from Salonika after the Great War: Linking RBG Kew digital datasets and BHL texts Presentation | Christopher Kreuzer, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | |
| 4:45-4:55 pm | Q&A | Moderator |
| 4:55-5:00 pm | Closing Remarks | David Iggulden, BHL Chair, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
BHL Code of Conduct
By participating in any activity associated with BHL, you agree voluntarily to abide by the BHL Code of Conduct. The goal of the BHL Code of Conduct is to foster an environment, whether virtual or in-person, of genuine and mutual respect among its community members.