2024 Keynote

MIRL 2024 featured a keynote by Dr. Jennifer Beamer, SPARC | Visiting Program Officer US Repository Network, who highlighted the strategic mission of USRN to create a more cohesive network of repositories in the US, recent activities of the network, and what role medical IRs can play in the stakeholder community. Dr. Beamer's keynote is titled "Breaking Down Silos: USRN and the Future of Repository Networks."

Keynote Bio:

Jennifer Beamer, Ph.D., is the Visiting Program Officer for the United States Repository Network, an initiative of SPARC with support from the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR). Jennifer is also the Scholarly Communication librarian at California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB). Jennifer provides leadership, outreach, and education on the scholarly communication ecosystem, including open access advocacy, open science practices, open educational resources, copyright and fair use, and research impact, and runs the institutional repository. Jennifer was awarded a Fulbright Research award for 2023 - 2024 to examine open-access infrastructure at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan. She is passionate about open-access advocacy and open infrastructure, having completed her doctoral work on how organizations support open-access social and technical infrastructure.

Breaking Down Silos: USRN and the Future of Repository Networks

The U.S. Repository Network is an initiative of SPARC with support from the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR). In its “Modernizing the Global Repository Network Initiative,” COAR identified the need for assistance in breaking down institutional silos and developing a more cohesive approach and greater collaboration around repositories in the U.S. Through a Visiting Program Officer Position, SPARC engaged an expert group of library/repository professionals as well as the broader U.S. repository community to develop a strategic vision for U.S. repositories. The strategic vision is that “an interoperable network of repositories is an essential component of our national research infrastructure, offering rapid and open access to research, and plays a crucial role in collective efforts to transform global research communications, leading to a more open, inclusive, and equitable system.”

Since the founding of the USRN in March of 2023, the USRN published the Desirable Characteristics of Digital Publication Repositories [sparcopen.org], which provides a US framework based on international and national good practices for repositories. In November 2023, USRN launched a one-year pilot project to improve the discoverability of repositories in the US and increase their adoption of good practices. The pilot project will last until 2024 and includes 23 participating repositories. Jennifer will briefly describe the USRN development process and discuss its activities and the status of the action plan. The USRN is intended to include all U.S. repositories, and the presenter will also discuss potential avenues for future engagement.