The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has joined the global observance of International Open Access Week, taking place October 20–26, to emphasize equitable access to knowledge and community control over research.
CARL has framed this year’s theme, which asks Who Owns Our Knowledge and how knowledge is created, shared, and managed, as a call to ensure that communities maintain agency over their scholarly outputs. The organization has outlined initiatives that support Canadian open access infrastructure and community-led knowledge sharing.
CARL supports Scholaris, the shared institutional repository service developed with the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and Scholars Portal, through three Expert Groups that provide guidance and practical recommendations: the Scholaris Metadata and Discovery Expert Group (S-MDEG), the Scholaris Electronic Theses and Dissertations Expert Group (S-ETEG), and the Scholaris Digital Preservation Expert Group (S-DPEG). These groups draw on the expertise of library professionals across Canada to strengthen open repositories and help authors and institutions retain control over their research outputs.
CARL has also hosted and supported several Communities of Practice that advance open access, including the Bibliometrics & Research Impact Community of Practice, the Library Publishing Community of Practice, and the Canadian Repositories Community of Practice, which have facilitated knowledge sharing and collaboration through activities such as Flipping to Diamond open access, an Open Repositories 2025 recap, and discussions on implementing the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
In the past year, CARL created two Visiting Program Officer roles to advance Open Science and artificial intelligence initiatives that support community ownership of knowledge, with the Open Science Visiting Program Officer leading efforts on diamond and green open access and an integrated approach to research data management, and the Visiting Program Officer for artificial intelligence and library services guiding responsible, community-centered AI adoption by developing best practices and monitoring policy and technology to help communities retain control over research outputs affected by AI.
Through these efforts, CARL has underscored that open access involves removing access barriers and ensuring that scholars, institutions, and communities retain control over their research contributions, with the aim of building a sustainable and equitable research ecosystem.
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