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We are pleased to announce the formation of the Borealis Steering Committee that will foster national governance for Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository. This inaugural committee will begin by overseeing implementation of the bylaws for the Borealis service. The establishment of the Borealis Steering Committee marks a significant step forward in providing essential governance for the service.
Borealis is a bilingual, multidisciplinary, secure, Canadian research data repository provided by academic libraries and research institutions across Canada. Borealis supports open discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data, and enables Canadian researchers to meet research data management requirements and recommendations by funding agencies, journals, and institutions.
Borealis launched as a national service in 2022 with the University of Toronto Libraries acting as service provider and national governance established in partnership with the four regional academic library consortia: the Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries (CAAL-CBPA), the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ).
Since 2022, the governing partners, the service provider, and participating institutions have been working to develop a new governance model and create bylaws that will provide clarity, consistency, and a sustainable structure for this new national service.
We are pleased to welcome the Borealis Steering Committee members appointed by regional library consortia:
- Caroline Hyslop, Associate University Librarian, Research Services, University of Ottawa (OCUL)
- Wei Xuan, Associate University Librarian, Open Scholarship and Systems, University of Manitoba (COPPUL)
- Cynthia Holt, Executive Director (CAAL-CBPA)
- Catherine Lavallée-Welch, University Librarian, Bishop’s University (PBUQ)
The key pieces for the formation of governance moving forward are the new Borealis Steering Committee and accompanying bylaws grounded in the principles of transparency, equity, sustainability, and bilingualism.
“Openness and equity must be core components of a service that supports open discovery and data sharing, not only in the provision of the service, but also in how we run it. The time and energy we have devoted to developing a sustainable, national governance structure aligns directly with Borealis’s overall priorities,” said Larry Alford, Chief Librarian, University of Toronto Libraries.
“This new governance structure represents a turning point for the relationship between academic library consortia in Canada,” the Executive Directors of the four regional library consortia wrote in a joint statement. “As leaders of library consortia, we witness the power of collaboration on a daily basis. With Borealis, we are able to leverage our successful regional collaborations and make them the basis for national governance. This governance partnership could be a model for future initiatives to support shared research infrastructure across Canada.”
We look forward to working together to strengthen the Borealis service for the benefit of members and users to support a diverse range of institutions and foster a more inclusive approach to governance.
For more information, please contact info@borealisdata.ca.
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ABOUT BOREALIS
Borealis is a bilingual, multi-disciplinary, secure, Canadian research data repository, supported by academic libraries and research institutions across Canada. Borealis supports discovery, management, sharing, and preservation of Canadian research data. The service is supported by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and provided collaboratively through the University of Toronto Libraries and participating regional library consortia: Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries (CAAL-CBPA), Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL), Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ). Borealis is committed to the provision of national data repository services and supports institutional research data management services in Canada.