The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is the national voice of Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries and two federal institutions. A bilingual not-for-profit organization, CARL coordinates national initiatives across its member institutions and promotes their causes to achieve excellence in research and higher education.
In 2019, CARL identified open education leadership as an important area for capacity building within its institutions, and outlined a number of activities and programs designed to bolster this emerging area of practice and support the development of national leadership in this arena. In its first year, the Visiting Program Officer for Open Education (VPO for OE) and Open Education Working Group (OEWG) successfully created high-quality opportunities for librarians to develop capacity and leadership skills in open education, and providing expert input to CARL in this area. We look forward to the OEWG continuing its efforts in this area and supporting the burgeoning open education community within libraries and beyond.
CARL is currently in the process of membership renewal for this working group. We are therefore seeking expressions of interest from those involved in open education at Canadian institutions interested in serving on the committee. Terms will begin in May 2020 and end in May 2022. Draft Terms of Reference for the second mandate are available here.
CARL encourages equitable participation in all of our working groups. Members will be selected based on geographic, linguistic, expertise, and equity and inclusion considerations. Ability to understand both French and English will be deemed an asset. The working group will be chaired by a member of CARL’s Advancing Research Committee.
Please send nominations/expressions of interest to Lise Brin no later than Friday, May 22, 2020.These should detail prior experience and expertise with OER and why this working group interests you, while also clearly expressing how your perspective would benefit CARL’s OER program. Please attach a letter of endorsement from your library director (or equivalent) along with your expression of interest.
If you have any questions about this working group, please feel free to contact me at or 902-318-4485.
