CRKN and Canadiana.org have been exploring the opportunity to combine the two organizations with a vision for a stronger support of research content for the community. CRKN members have been the majority funders of Canadiana for more than a decade ensuring that heritage content was available in digital format to serve the research community.
A business proposal outlining a vision and organizational plan for a combined organization was developed by a working group made up of stakeholders from both organizations, in consultation with the Boards and members of both organizations. The Business Proposal was shared with CRKN members in early October 2017 in preparation for a discussion on the merits of the proposal which was held at the annual general meeting of the members on October 19th. The proposal calls for the continuation and expansion of Canadiana activities under the leadership of CRKN and for existing CRKN and Canadiana members to redirect their ECO subscription spend within a combined organization to continue to support digitization, access and preservation of Canadian heritage content.
On October 20th, the CRKN membership voted overwhelmingly to formally approach Canadiana.org about combining our respective organizations. On November 9th, the CRKN Board made a formal offer to the Canadiana.org board. The Canadiana membership will be meeting on January 12th, 2018 to formally consider the offer at a special meeting of their full membership. Should the Canadiana membership endorse the proposal, CRKN and Canadiana would work to consolidate the operations of both organizations by March 31, 2018.