LEIDEN, Netherlands, 7 July 2023—OCLC and LIBER announced today the launch of a multi-year engagement program based on LIBER's 2023-2027 strategy, which presents a vision for the future of research libraries. The series of discussions will collectively examine, explore, and ideate around rapidly evolving technologies, a drive for open content, and the imperative of supporting rights and values.

The 2023-2024 edition of the series, Building for the future: Opportunities and responsibilities for state-of-the-art services, will focus on the second component of LIBER's strategy: "By 2027, research libraries will provide forward-looking, state-of-the-art services for collections, publishing, and curation of information and (meta-)data. These services will be relevant to and tailored for user groups inside and outside academia."

"Research libraries worldwide are taking a leading role in developing innovative services to enable the open and equitable sharing of scholarly knowledge and information. At the same time, we are all facing similar challenges. After the success of previous programs, LIBER is very pleased to once again be collaborating with OCLC on a multi-year engagement program that will help strengthen the library community," said Martine Pronk, LIBER Executive Director.

Open to LIBER Members and OCLC Research Library Partnership affiliates—along with the broader research library community—the first discussion series will run from October 2023 through June 2024. The conversations will focus on the opportunities for strategic library collaboration around three topical areas: research data management; data-driven decision making; and AI, machine learning, and data science.

"We are thrilled to be working with LIBER again on this multi-year engagement program in which library staff can learn from and connect with their peers in both Europe and North America who are facing similar challenges and opportunities when considering these forward-looking state-of-the-art services," said Rachel Frick, Executive Director, Research Partnerships and Engagement, OCLC.

Participants are expected to gain a clearer understanding of the leadership role the library can play in exploring and providing these services, increased insights around collaboration and its role in developing and offering innovative services, and more confidence in discussing the opportunities and responsibilities around these types of services. It is expected that participants will leave with ideas for how to build capacity on state-of-the-art offerings at their libraries through staff upskilling and cross-institutional collaboration.

For more information or to register, visit the series page.