The Canadian Repositories Community of Practice unites professionals managing open repositories in Canadian libraries, academic institutions, and scholarly organizations. Its aim is to share best practices, identify collaboration opportunities, and network with colleagues nationwide. It is managed and organized by the Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Steering Committee (“Engagement Team”), which was formed to bring together committed individuals with a desire to stoke the fires of engagement within the Canadian repositories community and increase the flow of information between its participants.
Join the Community!
To join this community of practice and stay informed about the group’s upcoming events and ongoing activities, subscribe to REPOS-L, the repositories in libraries discussion list.
Repositories Knowledge Mentorship Program
Making sense of the repository landscape can be challenging. Let’s work together to change that!
The Canadian Repositories Community of Practice invites you to join its Repository Knowledge Mentorship Program. This program is designed to support learning, connection, and capacity building within the repository community. If you are new to working with repositories, the program offers an opportunity to connect with experienced colleagues and deepen your knowledge. If you have experience in repository work, we invite you to consider participating as a mentor and contributing to the growth of the community.
The steering committee has developed guidelines to help set clear expectations around roles, time commitments, and the overall mentorship experience. Mentor–mentee matches are made based on a range of factors, including language preference and areas of interest or focus, wherever possible. Participation is open to members of the CARL repository community.
Inventory of Canadian Repository Platforms
The Inventory of Canadian Repository Platforms is a community-updated inventory of Canadian repositories which supports discussions on repository infrastructure, software upgrades, and fosters connections among repository managers and developers. This inventory is currently overseen by the CARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Steering Committee. Canadian repository managers are asked to update their repository information annually. Data snapshots are taken in December and stored in the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR).
Steering Committee
Priscilla Carmini (Waterloo)- chair
Brianna Calomino (Calgary)
Robyn Hall (MacEwan)
Emily Hopkins (Saskatchewan)
Tim Ribaric (Brock)
Amber Saundry (British Columbia)
Sophie St-Cyr (Sherbrooke)
Carolyn Sullivan (Ottawa)
Taleen Aktorosian (CARL Support)
News – Repositories
Community Events
Past Events
Past event recordings (where applicable) can be viewed on the CARL YouTube Channel via the Repositories playlist.
Canadian Repositories CoP February Call: IRs are People Powered! Exploring Repository Staffing Models Across Canadian Institutions
February 24 @ 12:00 ESTCanadian Repositories Community of Practice December Call: Current Challenges and Future Directions for Institutional Repositories: Snapshots from the Literature
December 11, 2025 @ 12:00 ESTCanadian Repositories Community of Practice October Call – Repositories in the Age of AI: The Attack of the Bots
October 30, 2025 @ 13:00 EDTCanadian Repositories Community of Practice August Call – From Campus to Community Researchers: Evolving the Role of Institutional Repositories
August 27, 2025 @ 13:00 EDTCanadian Repositories Community of Practice July Call: Open Repositories 2025 Recap
July 9, 2025 @ 13:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice April Call – Being Trustworthy: CoreTrustSeal Certification and Repositories
April 15, 2025 @ 13:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice February Call – Repository Horror Stories, Episode I: My Repository Broke My Heart
February 13, 2025 @ 12:00 ESTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice November Call – Going to the Source: Contributing to a Healthy Open Infrastructure via Free and Open Source Software Projects
November 26, 2024 @ 13:00 ESTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice September Call – Ask-me-Anything with Mike Nason!
September 24, 2024 @ 12:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Summer Article Club
August 14, 2024 @ 12:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Summer Article Club
July 10, 2024 @ 12:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Summer Article Club
June 12, 2024 @ 12:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice May Call – A Practical Guide to Open Infrastructure for Institutional Repository Managers
May 1, 2024 @ 11:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice February Call – Metadata Misery
February 7, 2024 @ 12:00 ESTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice November Call – Going Beyond Articles: What Else Belongs in Institutional Repositories?
November 21, 2023 @ 13:00 ESTCanadian Repositories Community of Practice Event – DSpace 7: How’s it going?
September 27, 2023 @ 12:00 EDTCARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice June Call – Community Conversations: Shared Infrastructure for Repositories
June 29, 2023 @ 13:00 EDT