Biodiversity Heritage Library

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries with the slogan "Global access to biodiversity literature for research and education." It aims to digitize and provide open access to biodiversity literature, forming a global "biodiversity commons." The library has digitized millions of pages of taxonomic literature and has partnered with the Internet Archive and local digitization efforts. It collaborates with the international taxonomic community, rights holders, and other interested parties to make valuable heritage accessible worldwide. Members of the Biodiversity Heritage Library digitize public domain books and journals from their holdings, expanding content and ensuring free access to information. The library's portal allows users to search through the literature, read texts online, or download pages or entire volumes as PDF files. It provides information on over 150 million species names and integrates with tools like Global Names Recognition and Discovery and UBio’s taxonomic name finding tools. Since 2009, the library has grown internationally, with funding from the European Commission’s eContentPlus program aiding its European efforts. It has established national and regional nodes in collaboration with institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Atlas of Living Australia, Brazil, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. In 2014, the National Library Board of Singapore joined as the first institution to be both a member and a global node. The Missouri Botanical Garden manages the main portal. The Biodiversity Heritage Library is committed to open access and offers a suite of services and APIs to facilitate data harvesting and content reuse for research. It plays a crucial role in connecting species-related publications with content in the Encyclopedia of Life.

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