Chicago, IL, July 2026
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is pleased to announce $170,000 in new strategic investments in three community-led open scholarly infrastructure initiatives: the Open Journal Collective (OJC), OAPEN, and the LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP). These investments reflect members' commitment to sustainable, community-governed open scholarly infrastructure and content that ensure equitable access to research for our members and the broader research community without financial barriers.
For decades, CRL has partnered with research libraries to build, preserve, and provide access to shared collections. As scholarly communication continues to evolve, CRL is extending that collaborative model by investing in the community-owned infrastructure that enables research, publishing, and long-term access to scholarship.
By bringing libraries together around shared priorities, leveraging collective resources, and supporting trusted community-led initiatives, CRL is helping to strengthen the scholarly communication ecosystem while advancing equitable and sustainable access to knowledge.
“CRL is at its best when it helps libraries accomplish together what would be difficult to achieve individually. These investments build on that tradition and show how the CRL network puts collective investment to work, shaping the way libraries sustain and provide access to research materials.”— Jacob Nadal, President, Center for Research Libraries
FY2026 Strategic Initiatives
CRL will become an institutional supporter of the Open Journal Collective (OJC), a community-led initiative that sustains diamond open access journals through collective library investment and shared stewardship. CRL has already played a leadership role by facilitating member participation and serving as OJC's billing agent. This institutional investment builds on that partnership and reflects CRL's commitment to advancing sustainable, community-owned models of scholarly publishing.
CRL will support OAPEN, an internationally recognized organization dedicated to improving the discovery, dissemination, and long-term preservation of open access scholarly books. CRL’s contribution will help sustain the OAPEN infrastructure, which provides unrestricted access to more than 40,000 peer-reviewed scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences.
CRL will participate in the LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP), a collaborative framework that enables libraries to collectively sustain trusted open scholarly infrastructure and publishing initiatives. Through OACIP, CRL joins a growing community of organizations investing in shared services that support a healthy and resilient scholarly communications ecosystem. CRL’s support of the 2025-2026 OACIP cohort helps sustain three years of unrestricted access to nine Diamond OA journals across the humanities, social sciences, and STEM.
These investments reflect CRL's commitment to supporting sustainable, community-governed infrastructure programs that turn collective interest into practical action and publication venues that favor library interests in open knowledge.
“By supporting trusted open infrastructure alongside collaborative licensing and collections, CRL is ensuring that the services, platforms, and publishing models our community depends on remain sustainable while advancing equitable access to scholarship.”— Melanie Kowalski, Global Collections Program Officer and Open Knowledge Licensing Coordinator
These investments also reflects CRL's broader strategic direction as the organization continues to evolve with the changing needs of research libraries. By complementing collaborative licensing, collection development, and preservation with thoughtful investments in shared scholarly infrastructure, CRL is reinforcing the value of collective action and helping shape a more sustainable future for scholarly communication.
About the Center for Research Libraries
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is an international consortium of research libraries dedicated to advancing research, teaching, and learning through collaborative approaches to collections, licensing, preservation, and access. By leveraging the collective expertise and resources of its members, CRL strengthens the global scholarly record and supports sustainable models for research and scholarly communication.