Meise Botanic Garden joins Biodiversity Heritage Library

Meise Botanic Garden is delighted to be since 2023 one of the contributors to Biodiversity Heritage Library which is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives, and an invaluable resource for the scientific community in the field of natural sciences.  BHL stands as a consortium of the world's leading research libraries in the natural sciences and botany. Its mission is to establish a shared repository of biodiversity references through the digitisation of archives and scientific literature from across the globe, all made accessible to the public at no cost.

As an affiliate member, Meise Botanic Garden will enrich the BHL collection by contributing rare and unique materials from its own collections. The library at Meise Botanic Garden holds some 250,000 books and journals on various subjects ranging from botany to horticulture. It also houses archives, manuscripts, photographs and original natural history illustrations.

The primary objective of our library is to expand this unique collection, preserve this important scientific and cultural heritage, and make it available to researchers worldwide. Achieving this mission through our collaboration with BHL which is an essential tool for our researchers is a major asset.

Collaboration between libraries will also help to determine common strategies for developing the digital collections and services provided by BHL, as well as fostering partnerships with European institutions.