Video: Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC, Delivers Keynote Presentation “Sustaining Access to Knowledge in a Challenging Political Landscape” at the CRL 2025 Annual Meeting

From Center For Research Libraries (CRL) via YouTube:

Heather Joseph (SPARC) keynote presentation, “Sustaining Access to Knowledge in a Challenging Political Landscape” at the CRL 2025 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, May 20-21, 2025.

SPARC (https://sparcopen.org/) is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports open systems for research and education that enable everyone, everywhere to access, contribute to, and benefit from the knowledge that shapes our world.

Heather is introduced by CRL President Jacob Nadal.

Heather Joseph’s keynote presentation at the CRL 2025 Annual Meeting centered on the urgent need for resilience and strategic action in the face of political and institutional turmoil and the immense challenges facing libraries, higher education, and the research community.

SPARC’s mission is to promote open access as a means to uphold the human right to knowledge. Openness, Joseph argues, is not an end in itself, but a strategy to accelerate discovery, improve education, and combat misinformation. Joseph’s message is rooted in long-standing principles, including the belief that publicly funded research should be freely accessible to the public.

Joseph outlined SPARC’s multi-level strategy: reinforcing foundational policy principles at the international, national, and institutional levels; expanding coalitions to defend research infrastructure and data; and supporting libraries in adopting sustainable, open practices. She highlighted the importance of collective action, long-term relationship building, and pragmatic support for institutions under pressure.

The keynote concluded with Joseph’s call for the library community to remain grounded in its values, emphasizing that the everyday work of libraries—done with integrity and purpose—is itself a powerful form of advocacy and resistance in turbulent times.

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