CRKN frequently engages ad-hoc task groups to respond to new challenges. Task groups also support the work of the Board and/or standing committees, as required. Task groups are comprised of volunteers from member and stakeholder institutions and are supported by designated CRKN staff.
Current CRKN Task Groups
Platform Technical Task Group (PTTG)
The purpose of the Platform Technical Task Group (PTTG) is to evaluate and make recommendations on the development of the Canadiana access and preservation platforms (TDR).
Completed Task Groups
The Heritage Content Priorities Task Group (HCPTG) concluded its work in November 2020 and delivered a final report to the Preservation and Access Committee (PAC) and the Content Strategy Committee (CSC). The HCPTG was tasked with developing principles, criteria and recommendations to guide the development of the Canadiana collections and CRKN’s heritage services (digitization, hosting and preservation). The goal of these recommendations is to ensure that the Canadiana collections and CRKN’s heritage services remain vital and continue to meet member and stakeholder needs. For more information, please contact digitization@crkn.ca.
The Trusted Digital Repository Task Group (TDRTG) completed its work in June 2018 and delivered a final report to the Board. The TDRTG was tasked with exploring options for the adoption of the Scholars Portal (SP) Trusted Digital Repository (TDR), a service of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), as a national TDR service for CRKN. Their report concludes that this project represents an opportunity for CRKN to leverage existing digital infrastructure to build a national service in a way that will be affordable and will preserve the much larger investment already made by CRKN members in acquiring digital content in previous years.
The License Transition Task Group (LTTG) completed its work in February 2018 and delivered a final report to the Board. The LTTG was tasked with recommending how best CRKN could assist in supporting members who choose to exit Big Deal agreements and to propose alternative options for the Content Strategy Committee’s considerations in negotiations with vendors and submitted a number of recommendations on short- and long-term transitional steps to support new models.
The Institutional Mobilization Task Group (IMTG) completed its work in May 2016, delivering a final report to the Board. It has also developed a toolkit of documents with the goal of engaging faculty and students on member campuses regarding the challenges of the current scholarly communications ecosystem and maintaining consistent national access to library resources.
The Model License Task Group completed its work in May 2016, delivering a revised and modernized model license to the Content Strategy Committee which was then approved for use by the Board in future license agreements.
The Banding Task Group (BTG) concluded its work in February 2015, and delivered a final report recommending a system of categorizing the CRKN membership by bands of relative sizes as a basis of a more equitable pricing structure. Visit the Banding System section to learn more about the outcome of the BTG.
The Cost Sharing Advisory Group (CSAG) concluded its work in June 2013, and delivered a final report to the Board reviewing the historical methodology for sharing and allocating license costs for a specific sub-set of CRKN licenses and recommending that the methodology remained sound. It led to the formation of the Banding Task Group.