The CRKN Member Summit and AGM is an opportunity to bring together members and other CRKN partners to engage on current and future projects. This year’s event was held in Vancouver, BC from October 4-6 and had 100 attendees. The three-day program consisted of updates on CRKN’s activities in the past year, discussion panels, receptions, and concluded with the annual meeting of the members.
Member Summit Sessions
First we heard about the status of persistent identifiers (PIDs) in Canada including an update on the ORCID-CA and Datacite Canada consortia and the progress towards a National PID strategy. Speakers presented their experiences with PIDs, initiating a conversation about some of the shared challenges and successes with PIDs across the member institutions. This session emphasized how PIDs can positively impact research systems and reduce administrative burden noting that in order to ensure they are as effective as possible, we need to collaborate across sectors.
The licensing program update informed members on activities undertaken by the Content Strategy Committee (CSC) as well as the status of the 2023 licence renewal negotiations. This session included an overview of the previous year’s successes, plans for future negotiations, and strategies to leverage partnerships. In addition to asking questions, members provided feedback and input, all of which inform the work of the CSC.
Next we dove into a conversation about the open access landscape in Canada. Panelists, including two university librarians, an associate VP of research, and a representative from the tri-agencies, brought a range of perspectives on the topic. They offered insights in response to members who asked questions and they shared feedback on how CRKN and the library community can collaborate with researchers and academic institutions to drive the future of open scholarship.
The Canadiana update provided us with an overview of the evolving collections, new and upcoming infrastructure plans, and metadata improvements. Among these updates was a description of the RG10 ICR Transcription Pilot Project. We also heard about the Canadiana Content Sub-Committee’s (CCSC) collection strategy and heard about some of the wider impacts of the collection for researchers.
The infrastructure partners panel explored how we might build partnerships amongst humanities and social sciences digital research infrastructure providers to strengthen this infrastructure for researchers. Panelists provided updates from their organizations and responded to questions and feedback from members about how community and coordinated efforts could help us reach a sustainable future.
Building on the discussions from last year’s event in Montreal, this year we discussed the evolution of CRKN’s Canada Foundation for Innovation, Innovation Fund grant application as well as providing an update on the plans and timeline for the application. Talia Chung, University Librarian and Vice-Provost (Knowledge Systems) at the University of Ottawa moderated the conversation, which included members of the CRKN team and Dr. Constance Crompton, Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities, who is serving as principal investigator from the application’s administrative institution University of Ottawa. Members indicated their ongoing support of CRKN’s goal of transforming Canadiana into cutting edge research infrastructure.
CRKN’s current 2019-2024 Strategic Plan has been driving our mission to advance interconnected, sustainable access to the world's research and to Canada's documentary heritage content. On the final day of the event, we launched the member engagement process for the 2025-2029 plan. Members had the chance to workshop new and creative ideas that will help form CRKN’s future priorities. Member insights will be captured and included in the next stages of planning development as we envision our transformative future together.
Receptions
In addition to the Member Summit sessions, we also held two celebratory receptions. Along with members and special guests, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the CRKN and Canadiana merger. It was an opportunity to reflect on the impressive work that led to the merger in 2018 and to congratulate those who have been a part of the many accomplishments since. We continue to see the benefits of combining these two organizations and how it has leveraged their strengths, making strides towards transforming Canadiana into cutting-edge infrastructure and positioning CRKN as a vital part of the Canadian research ecosystem.
We congratulated this year’s Ron MacDonald Distinguished Service Award recipient, Dana McFarland, at the annual award ceremony. Melissa Just, CRKN Board of Directors Vice-Chair, presented the award and we heard more about the impact Dana has had on the Canadian academic library community from her colleague Jean Blackburn. We were so pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate Dana’s wonderful accomplishments.
Annual Meeting of the Members
The event concluded with the annual meeting of the members. In addition to administrative votes and electing our 2023-2024 Board of Directors, the members voted to approve Yukon University as an Associate Member. We are very pleased to welcome Yukon University to our membership!
Thank you to our members and all attendees for participating in the 2023 CRKN Member Summit and AGM.
