CBHL 的成立背景：1969 年波士顿会议
1969 年 11 月，美国马萨诸塞州园艺学会 (Massachusetts Horticultural Society) 在波士顿发出邀请，召集美国东部 20 多家机构的 40 位代表，出席首次”园艺与植物图书馆会议”，这便是 CBHL (Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries，国际植物和园艺图书馆理事会) 的起点。四位发起讲者分别来自纽约植物园图书馆、亨特植物学图书馆 (Hunt Botanical Library)、哈佛大学阿诺德树木园与美国兰花学会，他们在会上强调图书馆作为”研究资源宝库”的角色，主张各机构应把馆藏视为国家资源而非私产。CBHL 此后一直保持非营利的国际学会定位，会员资格向图书馆员之外的研究者、书商、印刷商、收藏家与历史学者同步开放。
年度会议与轮值主办：每年春天的同行交流
CBHL 每年 5 月前后由会员机构主办一次年会，过去主办过的城市包括纽约市、亚特兰大、渥太华、芝加哥、菲尼克斯、洛杉矶、哥伦布、西雅图、圣巴巴拉与蒙特利尔。第 58 届年会 (2026 年 5 月 12-15 日) 在宾夕法尼亚州 Longwood Gardens 主办，主题”Books | Blooms | Brandywine Valley”——Longwood 占地 1100 多英亩，是美国园艺首都 (America’s Garden Capital) 费城 30 英里范围内 30 多座花园之一，会议还配套走访费城艺术博物馆、独立战争遗址与 Brandywine 河谷。年会议程包含馆藏保护讲座、计算机系统服务交流、园艺文学与植物艺术专题，以及邻近花园与历史名胜的实地参访。
Charles Robert Long 特别优异奖：CBHL 的最高个人荣誉
Charles Robert Long 奖是 CBHL 授予个人的最高荣誉，设立于 1986 年，以纪念当年辞世的纽约植物园图书馆原馆长、原 CBHL 主席 Bob Long，他生前主编了《CBHL 植物文献》系列。该奖旨在表彰对 CBHL 或对植物/园艺图书馆与文献领域做出持续卓越贡献的会员，自 1988 年首次颁发以来，获奖人包括植物书商 Elisabeth Woodburn (1988)、Morton Arboretum 图书馆 Ian MacPhail (1990)、纽约植物园 John F. Reed (1995) 等。从 2000 年开始，CBHL 还另设面向植物或园艺文献的”年度杰出著作奖 (Annual Literature Award)”，每年在年会上同时颁发给作者与出版方，表彰对学科文献做出重大贡献的年度作品。
委员会与跨机构协作：日常运转的网络
CBHL 的日常工作通过若干委员会开展，包括 Annual Literature Award Committee (年度著作奖评选)、Charles Robert Long Award Committee (五人投票，含现任主席、秘书与三名历任理事，任期 5 年)、Communications Committee (出版物、网站、邮件列表、社交媒体与会员通讯)、Financial Advisory Committee (年度财务审计) 等，会员可自愿加入。季度出版的《CBHL Newsletter》与会员专属邮件列表 (listserv) 让分布在各地的植物图书馆之间可以快速互通馆际互借 (ILL) 请求，这也是 CBHL 长期以来被会员形容为”非正式的馆际互借系统”的实际意义——遇到难找的园艺或植物学文献，往往一条邮件就能找到愿意扫描或复印的同行。
植物图书馆名录与会员服务
CBHL 在其官方网站维护一份按字母排序的植物图书馆名录，覆盖北美、欧洲、大洋洲的大学树木园、植物园与独立园艺图书馆，从 Arnold Arboretum (Harvard University)、New York Botanical Garden、Chicago Botanic Garden、Lenhardt Library，到 Adelaide Botanic Gardens、Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève 等 80 多家机构都在内，每家注明在线目录与馆藏特色。出版商与书商可通过 Publishers & Booksellers 子页找到 CBHL 推荐的合作机构，会员则在 Member Info Center 内部目录中获得完整地址、联系人与服务范围。加入 CBHL 可通过CBHL网站”Become a Member”页提交申请，秘书与司库是仅设的两个常任理事职位，董事由全体会员选举产生，任期四年。
A 1969 Boston Meeting and the Founding of CBHL
In November 1969 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society convened the first “conference of horticultural and botanical libraries” in Boston, drawing 40 delegates from more than 20 institutions across the eastern United States. This gathering was the seed of the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL). Four founding speakers — from the New York Botanical Garden Library, the Hunt Botanical Library, the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, and the American Orchid Society — set the tone of the conference as a deeply professional one, stressing the role of libraries as repositories of valuable historic and archival material. CBHL has since functioned as a non-profit international learned society whose membership is open not only to librarians but also to botanists, horticulturists, book collectors, dealers, printers and historians.
The Annual Meeting and Its Rotating Host Institutions
Each spring, usually in May, CBHL holds its annual meeting at a member institution, offering attendees an insider view of the host’s collections and grounds. Past host cities include New York City, Atlanta, Ottawa, Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Columbus, Seattle, Santa Barbara and Montreal. The 58th annual meeting (May 12-15, 2026) is hosted by Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania under the theme “Books | Blooms | Brandywine Valley” — Longwood spans more than 1,100 acres and sits in America’s Garden Capital, the cluster of more than 30 gardens within 30 miles of Philadelphia. The programme includes lectures on collection care and preservation, computer systems and services, garden literature and botanical art, complemented by site visits to neighbouring gardens, art museums and revolutionary-war-era sites along the Brandywine Valley.
The Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary Merit
The Charles Robert Long Award is CBHL’s highest individual honour, established in 1986 in memory of Bob Long, then Assistant Vice President and Director of Library and Plant Information Services at The New York Botanical Garden, who also served as a former CBHL president and editor of the CBHL Plant Bibliography series. Recipients are recognised for outstanding contribution or meritorious service to CBHL or to the field of botanical and horticultural libraries and literature. Awardees since the first conferral in 1988 include botanical bookseller Elisabeth Woodburn (1988), Morton Arboretum librarian Ian MacPhail (1990) and New York Botanical Garden Director John F. Reed (1995). Since 2000 CBHL has also conferred a separate Annual Literature Award on both author and publisher of a work judged to make a significant contribution to the literature of botany or horticulture, presented each year at the annual meeting.
Committees and Day-to-Day Cross-Institutional Work
CBHL’s day-to-day work is carried out through standing committees, including the Annual Literature Award Committee, the Charles Robert Long Award Committee (five voting members: the current president, secretary and three appointed past officers serving five-year terms), the Communications Committee (overseeing publications, the public website, the members-only intranet, the email listserv, social media and the press releases) and the Financial Advisory Committee (conducting the annual audit of the treasurer’s books). Members are encouraged to volunteer. A quarterly CBHL Newsletter and the members-only email list together keep librarians at scattered institutions in touch, and the listserv in particular functions as an informal interlibrary loan channel — a quick message often turns up a willing partner library to scan or photocopy an elusive botanical or horticultural reference.
The Plant Libraries Directory and Member Services
CBHL maintains an alphabetised directory of plant and horticultural libraries on its website, covering more than 80 institutions across North America, Europe and Oceania — from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the New York Botanical Garden, the Lenhardt Library at the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Helen Fowler Library at Denver Botanic Gardens and the Schilling Library at Desert Botanical Garden, to the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève Library and the Australian National Botanic Gardens Library in Canberra. Each entry notes the institution’s online catalogue and any special collections. Publishers and booksellers can locate recommended partner institutions via the Publishers & Booksellers page; members access full addresses, contacts and service scopes through the password-protected Member Info Center. Applications for new membership are accepted through the “Become a Member” form on the website. The Secretary and Treasurer are the only permanent members of the Board of Directors; all other directors are elected by the full membership for four-year terms.
发表回复