2025 CRKN Member Summit and AGM in Review
The CRKN Member Summit and AGM brings together CRKN members and invited guests to engage on current and future priorities across licensing, open access, persistent identifiers, and digital heritage. This year’s event took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia from October 21–23, 2025. Over three days, participants engaged with each other and CRKN through presentations, facilitated discussions, and a celebratory reception, concluding with the Annual General Meeting.
Member Summit Sessions
Elder Ann LaBillois beautifully opened (and later closed) the Member Summit, welcoming us to the traditional and unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples. Her message, grounded in wisdom and care, set the stage for the thought-provoking and important conversations that followed.
Canadiana Collections and Infrastructure: Powering Research and Empowering Canadians
This two-part session highlighted a major year of content growth and infrastructure development across the Canadiana and Héritage collections. Speakers shared progress on collection development, access APIs, persistent identifiers, and end-user tools, along with live demos of the developments. The session emphasized Canadiana’s role as library-owned, open infrastructure stewarded by the community to preserve Canada’s documentary heritage and advance research and open, equitable access. Attendees also discussed long-term sustainability strategies for Canadiana and the value of member ownership.
CRKN and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, joint caretakers of a national persistent identifier (PID) strategy, provided an update on the national PID strategy, spotlighting rapid moves from groundwork to operationalization in 2025. Highlights included increased national uptake in ORCID and DataCite memberships, advances in research-data visualizations, and progress toward PID implementations with funders—emphasizing how PIDs underpin Canadian research outputs for improved discovery and usability.
Towards Operations: Expansion of the Scholars Portal Journals Platform
Members received an update from the Scholars Portal Journals Expansion Task Group on their work since 2023 to expand the platform into national-scale preservation infrastructure, including, negotiations with publishers, proposed governance (terms of reference), and a provisional budget for the operational phase to begin in fiscal year 2026–2027. The expansion of this platform will meet the need identified by CRKN members for a national preservation solution for perpetual access to licensed journal content.
Scholars Portal Journals Platform and the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy
Members expressed support for CRKN’s continued collaboration with stakeholders to ensure that open access publications hosted on the Scholars Portal Journals Platform be fully compliant with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy. There was also discussion about the possibility of renaming and rebranding the platform to better align with CRKN and member institutions, reflecting the new national scope of the platform.
License Negotiations: Assessing Results and Preparing Our Strategy (Parts 1–3)
As requested by members in 2024 , staff and the Content Strategy Committee shared analysis of read-and-publish agreements and broader open-access pathways. The session covered publication and usage data, trends from the library collections budget survey, comparative insights from the ESAC Registry, and evolving roles for CRKN in supporting policy compliance. Table breakouts created space for members to explore priorities ahead of the 2026 negotiations.
We also heard from guest speaker Monica Ward (Head, Collections Strategy at University of Ottawa), who conducted an exploratory study on whether library consortia involved in TAs have clear goals and if they assess the agreements they negotiate.
Director Day: Facilitated Discussions
This year, we introduced dedicated sessions for library directors to engage in in-depth discussions on Canadiana sustainability and our strategic direction for 2026 license negotiations. To ensure meaningful dialogue, member webinars were held in September ahead of the Summit, providing foundational information so directors could arrive well-prepared to dive directly into the key issues and bring forward their questions.
Ron MacDonald Award Reception
At the Ron MacDonald Distinguished Service Award reception, members, the Board, and guests gathered to celebrate this year’s recipient, Eugene Barsky, Research Data Management Librarian at the University of British Columbia. The award recognizes Eugene’s visionary leadership and national impact in advancing research data infrastructure and persistent identifiers, including his pivotal role in co-developing the DataCite Canada Consortium.
Pictured: Eugene Barsky - 2025 Ron MacDonald Award Recipient; Clare Appavoo - CRKN Executive Director
Annual General Meeting
The event concluded with the Annual General Meeting, where members were guided through CRKN’s formal business by the Board of Directors. The Chair, committee chairs, and the Executive Director provided a summary of the past fiscal year’s activities before members voted on governance and financial matters.
Thank you to all who joined us in Halifax and contributed insights that will guide CRKN’s work across Licensing and Open Access, PIDs, and Heritage Programs.
Members can access a more detailed summary of the event (login required).