Thursday, April 30, 2020. – The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is pleased to announce the publication of the third report in a series by its Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG). This think piece presents a discussion of views expressed by participants during the Advancing Open workshop in May 2019.
Initiated by a group of repository managers and supported by CARL as part of its ongoing commitment to open scholarship in Canada, Advancing Open was envisioned as “a unique (and free) opportunity for the Canadian academic library scholarly communication practitioner community to convene and explore refreshed strategies to foster open scholarship (including open access, open data, and open education) in Canada.”
The report is authored by Lindsey MacCallum (Mount St. Vincent University), Ann Barrett (Dalhousie University), Leah Vanderjagt (University of Alberta), and Amy Buckland (University of Guelph) on behalf of the CARL Open Repositories Working Group’s Task Group on Community Building and Engagement. This report is a result of rich exchanges which took place among the workshop’s 70+ participants, made up of open scholarship and scholarly communications practitioners. The event’s discussions focused on the following five key themes: Open Policy (institutional, regional, national, and international policies), Open Workflow and Operations (e.g. day-to-day open scholarship work), Open Technology (software and/or infrastructure that supports open scholarship), The Human Element — Open People (diversity and inclusion, workload, and community support), and Open Education and Outreach (open scholarship advocacy).
CARL recognizes the expertise and important perspectives reflected in this work, and is certain to draw on these recommendations and views to support the work currently underway in Canada to strengthen services, supports, and incentives to further advance open scholarship. As CARL’s collaborative efforts in this area continue alongside the Canadian Research Knowledge Network and the many other stakeholders in Canada’s open scholarship space, those engaged with open scholarship are sure to see close alignment with a good number of recommendations outlined in the report, many of which have already been identified as areas of focus. In addition, the report offers useful context and insight which will continue to inform CARL’s Open Repository Working Group in defining their ongoing activities, especially as these relate to strengthening and supporting the Canadian network of repositories.
CARL wishes to thank the authors for their incredible work in both organizing this event and in documenting the participants’ contributions, and acknowledges the sponsors whose generous contributions made Advancing Open possible: the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), SPARC, University of Alberta Libraries, Dalhousie University, University of Guelph Library, Mount Saint Vincent University Library, University of Ottawa Library, and University of Saskatchewan Library.
> Full text of report – English (PDF)
> Full text of report – French (PDF)
More information about the CARL Open Repositories Working Group is available on the CARL website.
CARL members include Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries as well as two national libraries. Enhancing research and higher education are at the heart of its mission. CARL develops the capacity to support this mission, promotes effective and sustainable scholarly communication, and public policy that enables broad access to scholarly information.
For more information, and to provide feedback to the ORWG’s Task Group on Community Building and Engagement, please contact:
