CRL’s Partnership with Coherent Digital Drives Widespread Adoption of Key Digital Resources
Chicago, IL and Alexandria, VA – July 2, 2025
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and Coherent Digital today announced the success of a collaborative effort that has resulted in over 40 academic and research institutions acquiring one or more digital collections from Coherent Digital and realizing significant savings.
The promotion, launched in May this year, was designed to make high-value digital collections more accessible to libraries through coordinated outreach, special pricing, and trial access. The partnership reflects CRL’s mission to support advanced research and teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, and Coherent Digital’s commitment to preserving difficult-to-access content and making it discoverable and usable.
"We're thrilled by the response from the CRL community," said Lenny Rogers, Vice President of Sales and University Partnerships at Coherent Digital. "This collaboration has helped institutions build meaningful collections in critical areas like social justice, policy, the Global South, grey literature, and applied science — areas traditionally underserved by commercial aggregators. We look forward to working closely with the community to build out the collections further and ensure they’re heavily used."
Institutions participating in the promotion represent a diverse cross-section of CRL members, including public and private universities, research-intensive institutions, and liberal arts colleges. Many cited the alignment of Coherent’s mission with their institutional priorities, as well as the unique and curated nature of the content, as key factors in their decision to participate.
"This initiative demonstrates how strategic partnerships can expand access to essential scholarly content while strengthening community-wide resource sharing," said Lanette Garza, Director, Licensing & Acquisitions at CRL. "We look forward to continued collaboration with Coherent Digital to support our members' evolving needs."
Among the most adopted products were Social Justice and Culture, Policy Commons, Africa Commons, and Applied Science Commons. The promotion is expected to continue generating interest throughout the coming year.
For more information about the promotion or to inquire about future initiatives, please contact:
Lenny Rogers, Vice President, Sales and University Partnerships, North America (lenny@coherentdigital.com)
Melanie Kowalski, Open Knowledge Licensing Coordinator, Center for Research Libraries (mkowalski@crl.edu)