Biodiversity Heritage Library, digital library, online database and large-scale digitization project for biodiversity literature
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a digital library and open-access archive of scientific books, journal articles, and natural history collections contributed by museums and research institutions from around the world. The materials are freely available online and cover a broad range of works on animals, plants, and the natural world, many illustrated with detailed drawings and prints.
The library was founded as a joint project by a group of natural history museums and botanical gardens that wanted to digitize rare and hard-to-access scientific works and make them freely available to anyone. In 2014 it formally became a global consortium, bringing together many more institutions from different countries.
The collection draws from contributions by many museums and research institutions across different countries and time periods. It reflects how the study of living things has evolved across centuries and different parts of the world.
The website can be searched by author, scientific name, or keyword, and an advanced search option helps when you are looking for something specific. Found materials can be downloaded or saved with a direct link, making it easy to return to a particular page or item later.
Many of the digitized works have never been reprinted and exist in only a handful of physical copies worldwide, kept in museum storage rooms or private archives. Some volumes still carry handwritten notes in the margins left by earlier researchers, which are visible in the scanned pages.
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