Open Repositories 2026: looking back at OR2025

Blog series UK Web Archive

Author Nora Ramsey, Web Archivist

The Open Repositories conference returns this year as a free online event from 8–11 June 2026. The conference brings together repository managers, developers, librarians, researchers, and open scholarship practitioners from around the world to learn about formative techniques and technologies while connecting with people who are solving related issues at their institutions. This year’s theme is “Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies” which will explore how repositories sustain open knowledge exchange while advancing FAIR principles, preservation, community building, and responding to the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies.

I am looking forward to attending OR2026 after taking part in last year's conference in Chicago while working in the British Library's Research and Infrastructure team. Since then, I have moved into the role of Assistant Web Archivist with the UK Web Archive. Although repositories and web archives have different purposes, they face many of the same challenges around digital preservation, metadata, discovery, and access. Returning to the Open Repositories community offers an opportunity to learn from current developments in the repository sector and to consider how these ideas might inform web archiving practice.

The 2025 Open Repositories Conference was held at the University of Chicago, United States which marked the event's 20th anniversary. This was commemorated with a conference theme celebrating the repository community's progress and contributions toward equitable access to digital resources and research outputs.

The OR2025 theme, ‘Twenty Years of Progress, a Future of Possibilities’ invited attendees to reflect on two decades of growth in the repository community and to imagine the road ahead. Throughout the conference, participants explored how repositories have advanced equitable access to knowledge and digital resources, while also engaging in forward-looking conversations about the evolving role of repositories in addressing global challenges. From discussions on sustainability and inclusivity to innovative applications of technology, the theme provided a meaningful framework for celebrating past achievements and inspiring future directions.

The British Library presented two pieces of work at this conference. My presentation, The Big Picture: Visualizing Networks in the Shared Research Repository, introduced work undertaken to visualise co-authorship patterns across the British Library Research Repository and the Cultural Heritage Shared Research Repository. The visualisation program was developed to help repository managers visualise content and map co-authorship networks, graphical representations of relationships between authors based on shared publications. This approach allows repository managers to explore research themes, identify leading authors, and understand connections between works and cultural heritage institutions. The tool enhances the accessibility and usability of repository resources, providing transferable solutions for each partner repository in the Shared Repository. Additionally, colleagues Ilkay Holt, Susan Miles, and I authored a poster introducing the Cultural Heritage Open Scholarship Network (CHOSN) and outlining the benefits of collective efforts in establishing good practices for open scholarship activities.

One highlight of the conference was Ted Habermann's workshop, FAIR Metadata Bright Spots: Guides on the Road to Future Possibilities. This presentation identified repositories with complete and FAIR metadata, otherwise known as "metadata bright spots". The workshop taught DataCite users how to identify areas for improvement programmatically using the DataCite API. Creating complete and consistent metadata for diverse research resource collections requires dedication, perseverance, and sustained effort. Accessing metadata metrics makes otherwise invisible improvements within repositories visible, offering measurable indicators of progress. These metrics serve as a guide for other repositories striving to enhance findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

As I prepare to attend OR2026 in my new role, I am particularly interested in the intersections between repository management and web archiving. Both communities are working to preserve and provide access to digital knowledge for future generations, often facing similar challenges despite operating in different contexts. I hope this year's conference will provide opportunities to learn from repository colleagues and explore emerging approaches with open data.