The Board of Directors of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is delighted to announce that Clare Appavoo has been reappointed as Executive Director of CRKN. Ms. Appavoo’s appointment is for an additional five years, effective January 1, 2023.
Clare joined CRKN as Executive Director in 2012 and was reappointed in 2018. During this time, Clare has strengthened the value of the organization to CRKN’s 84 members and provided strong and collaborative leadership as the organization has continued to evolve to meet member needs. As we emerge from the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, under Clare’s direction, CRKN continues to provide value to members through collective negotiation for licensed content, support for Open Access initiatives, and enhanced infrastructure for access and preservation of digital Canadian heritage content. Through Clare’s long-term leadership, CRKN has become a strong voice for the Canadian academic library community, galvanizing support as we continue our mission to make the world’s knowledge accessible to all.
Under Clare’s leadership, CRKN’s licensing program has continued to ensure that our member institutions can leverage their collections budgets as effectively as possible while taking bold collective action to transform scholarly communication and to help build and support an open research ecosystem in Canada and internationally. From saving members substantial money on traditional licensing deals, to signing new transformative agreements enabling our members to support open access publishing in the journals chosen by their researchers, and developing ground-breaking partnerships with independent Canadian publishers, CRKN, under Clare’s direction, continues to champion open access to knowledge.
Collaborating with the Board and CRKN members, Clare was instrumental in the merger between Canadiana and CRKN in 2018, successfully integrating the Canadiana brand into CRKN’s identity and developing robust governance structures to ensure organizational sustainability. Reaffirming CRKN and our members’ commitment to open knowledge, in 2019, CRKN removed the paywall to access Canadiana content. Merging with Canadiana has positioned CRKN as crucial social sciences and humanities infrastructure and built our profile within the research and knowledge sector. Clare has been working with her team and the member community to develop a long-term vision for Canadiana as open scholarly research infrastructure and to build sustainable funding to bring this vision to fruition.
Through her service as Chair of the Governing Council of SCOAP3 and as Treasurer on the ORCID Board of Directors, Clare enhances CRKN’s participation in global open scholarship initiatives. Under her leadership, CRKN has built a persistent identifiers program, providing administrative leadership for ORCID-CA and Datacite Canada and advocating for an open and connected Canadian digital research landscape.
“We are so pleased to have Clare’s vision, leadership, and collaborative spirit guiding CRKN for the next five years,” stated Daniel Jutras, Chair of CRKN’s Board of Directors and Recteur of Université de Montréal, “especially as we move towards the early stages of our next strategic planning cycle and envisioning the future of CRKN.”
“Clare has proved to be an exceptional leader for CRKN,” commented Melissa Just, Vice-Chair of CRKN’s Board of Directors, and Dean, University Library at the University of Saskatchewan. “With her re-appointment, we are confident that CRKN will continue its essential work in building a vibrant and sustainable open scholarly ecosystem.”
Before her role as CRKN Executive Director, Clare had an established career working closely with the North American library sector as the Director, Sales and Strategic Support for Ingram, Coutts Information Services. Clare holds a BA in General Studies from Simon Fraser University, with minors in English, Women’s Studies, and Fine and Performing Arts. She champions professional development and continued education with the CRKN team and has pursued her own leadership enrichment through programs like those offer at the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University.
“I am delighted to be continuing my work at CRKN,” remarked Clare. “Working alongside our dedicated Board and committees, strong member community, innovative partners, and exceptional staff team is a pleasure. I look forward to further collaboration as we strengthen CRKN’s position as a crucial provider of research content and innovative digital research infrastructure in Canada.”
For more information, please contact:
Claire Duncan
Strategic Communications Advisor
cduncan@crkn.ca