Abstract
The advancement of knowledge about life on the planet—its origins, preservation, and loss of species and environments—is dependent on access and reference to library collections. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a global digital library that serves the biodiversity research community, as well as a widening circle of those interested in learning more about life. Through an international consortium of natural history and botanical libraries and in close collaboration with researchers, bioinformaticians, publishers, and information technology professionals, BHL has democratized access to biodiversity information and revolutionized research worldwide, allowing everyone, everywhere to study and explore life on Earth.
Highlights
Writing in support of the natural history collections at the British Museum, Charles Darwin and his colleagues from the British Society for the Advancement of Science noted that ‘the cultivation of natural science cannot be efficiently carried on without reference to an extensive library’ (Darwin et al 1847)
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is not just a legacy collection; it truly represents our biodiversity heritage with publications from the fifteenth century through to the present day, the latter volumes obtained with the permission of the intellectual property holders
From its early use of crowd-sourcing for tagging illustrations to its innovative design of digitization workflows and implementation of new online descriptive standards, BHL is a key contributor to the world of global digital library development
Summary
Writing in support of the natural history collections at the British Museum, Charles Darwin and his colleagues from the British Society for the Advancement of Science (and of various other scientific societies) noted that ‘the cultivation of natural science cannot be efficiently carried on without reference to an extensive library’ (Darwin et al 1847). The global nature of biodiversity research, the expansion of natural history research into new areas such as genomics, and the digitization of specimen collections and ancillary data call not just for an extensive library, but for a library that researchers and citizen scientists can use anytime, anywhere. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), established in 2006, is a global digital library that serves the biodiversity research community, as well as a widening circle of those interested in learning more about life.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
