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Our Year in Review

2025–2026 was a year of collaboration, innovation, and growth for CRKN and our programs. We are proud of our collective work this year to empower Canada by creating pathways to trusted knowledge. This section provides a quick look at CRKN and key accomplishments of our programs over the past year.

131 volunteer Board, committee, and task group members.

Supporting 88 members across the country including academic libraries and research institutions.

Managing licensing expenditures of $163,634,902.

Providing access to 69 million pages of digital documentary heritage.

Leading 2 national consortia to drive the advancement of PIDs.

Our Programs

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Licensing and Open Access

By negotiating more than $150 million in national licensing agreements and open-access initiatives, CRKN ensures that Canadian institutions have affordable access to cutting-edge research while working with our members to make that content openly available to all. Currently, CRKN negotiates and manages 42 agreements on behalf of our members.

Guided by our members and the Content Strategy Committee, CRKN pursues multiple pathways to open access to drive the evolution of open knowledge and facilitate seamless scholarly communication.

Partnership for Open Access

4,091

diamond open access articles published through the Partnership for Open Access between CRKN and Érudit

208

Canadian diamond open access journals supported by CRKN members through the Partnership for Open Access

Read and Publish Agreements

Funded by CRKN member libraries, with $0 in costs for researchers at participating CRKN member institutions.

journals in which researchers can publish open access APC-free thanks to CRKN members

journals that researchers can access to read thanks to CRKN members

published open access by authors affiliated with CRKN member institutions through our read and publish agreements in 2025

8,528 with Elsevier

5,276 with Wiley

2,839 with Sage

1,142 with Cambridge University Press

828 with Institute of Physics

537 with Royal Society of Chemistry

415 with Oxford University Press

188 with Canadian Science Publishing

Committees and task groups involved in Licensing and Open Access:

Content Strategy Committee

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Canadiana Collections and Infrastructure

The Canadiana Collections and Infrastructure is one of the largest openly accessible online resources of digitized Canadian documentary heritage, with more than 69 million pages of publications and archival records spanning from the 1500s to the present day. More than a collection, it is a Canadian library-owned digital platform and research infrastructure that enables the preservation, discovery, and research of Canada’s documentary record at scale. Composed of two distinct collections—Canadiana and Héritage—and the digital infrastructure that supports them, this resource provides open access to diverse materials that reflect Canada’s history and the experiences of its peoples. Canadiana is funded by CRKN member libraries.

Expanding the Collections

of content added to the Canadiana collections in 2025–2026:

8,023

newspaper issues were added

425

Periodical issues were added

57

Books were added

166

Héritage reels were added

of Héritage content processed with intelligent character recognition through the RG 10 Pilot Project, contributing to a total of nearly two million images

User Engagement

visits to the Canadiana platform

visits to the Héritage platform

group interviews with Canadiana users:

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“The fact that we haven’t [let heritage content become paywalled] in Canada is something we should be proud of, and I think Canadiana is a big reason for that. So I thank you for that work, and let me know what I can do to support that growth of that model.”

— Canadiana Virtual Group Interview participant

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“There are some things that might not be available online [at my institution], but which are available on Canadiana, so it really fills a gap when we’re dealing with users as well. They’re very pleased to be able to access it online.”

— Canadiana Virtual Group Interview participant

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“It was a wonderful discovery on my part just to figure out that you exist. You made my research not only simpler, but possible.”

— Canadiana Virtual Group Interview participant

Committees involved in Canadiana Collections and Infrastructure:

Preservation and Access Committee

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Persistent Identifiers

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are durable digital links that uniquely identify research outputs, people, and institutions – and so much more. CRKN’s PID Program leads the ORCID Canada Consortium and co-manages the DataCite Canada Consortium with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada to promote and support PID adoption. As part of this goal, a collaborative National PID Strategy has been developed to support the widespread adoption of PIDs across the Canadian research ecosystem.

new ORCID-CA members recruited (bringing total from 54 to 61)

new ORCIDs registered in Canada (bringing total from 246,010 to 281,420)

ORCIDs connected to these integrations (bringing total from 25,870 to 45,160)

ORCID records updated by these integrations (bringing total from 9,790 to 13,820)

62,971

DOIs registered by DataCite Canada members in 2025

10

new DataCite Canada members (bringing total from 84 to 94)

Persistent identifiers governance:

Engagement

CRKN’s engagement activities are rooted in our belief that engaging our community strengthens collaboration and innovation. Over the past year, we have built opportunities for collaboration and visibility through our Member Summit, Virtual Conference, and CRKN staff speaking at national conferences. Our newsletter, website, and social media channels also play a vital role in highlighting and amplifying our mission and ensuring CRKN’s work reflects the priorities of our member community.