Strategies for Acquiring Access to Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Services and Systems, a report based on CNI Executive Roundtables held in October 2024 and March 2025 is now available at: https://doi.org/10.56561/JQFD9900

The exploratory roundtable discussions brought together senior leaders from more than 20 member organizations to examine how institutions are selecting, acquiring, financing, and governing access to generative AI. Rather than attempting to generalize about higher education as a whole, the report documents a snapshot of institutional thinking at a moment of rapid change.

The roundtables revealed significant variation in institutional approaches, from enterprise agreements with commercial providers, to locally hosted models, to shared platforms that enable managed experimentation with multiple large language models.

Thank you to the representatives who participated in the discussions and were beyond generous with their experiences and perspectives. We apologize for the delay in publication, which was complicated by CNI’s leadership transition.

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Spring 2026 Membership Meeting , taking place April 13–14 at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City in Salt Lake City, UT.

Anyone is welcome to propose a project briefing—affiliation with a member organization is not required. Speakers are invited to attend the entire meeting (otherwise open only to member representatives) at no cost, though we do not provide reimbursement for travel expenses.

Submit your proposal and learn more about the proposal process at: https://www.cni.org/mm/spring-2026/project-briefing-proposals-s26 Submission deadline: February 13, 2026

If you have any questions, please contact me at paige@cni.org paige@cni.org. We look forward to your submission!

Below is a recent announcement from the Library Publishing Coalition, of which CNI is a strategic affiliate. The announcement includes a call for entries for the 2026 edition of the Library Publishing Directory and more information about the ongoing project. Thank you!

-Paige Pope, CNI Communications Manager

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Dear colleagues,

All videos from CNI’s Fall 2025 Membership Meeting are now openly available on the CNI website and our YouTube and Vimeo channels.

We extend a final thank you to all of our Fall 2025 presenters and attendees. These recordings capture a wide range of current work and perspectives. Please share them widely with colleagues and relevant communities!

-Paige, CNI Communications Manager

The IS&T Archiving 2026 conference will take place 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭𝟱–𝟭𝟴, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 at 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆’𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗥𝘂𝗯𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻. CNI is delighted to serve again this year as a cooperating society of the conference, which covers digitization, imaging, preservation, metadata management, archival workflows, and more.

The conference details and proposal information are available at: https://www.imaging.org/IST/Conferences/Archiving/Archiving2026/Archiving2026_Home.aspx

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲: Innovation & Technology Community Engagement & Representation Sustainable Practices Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing Digital Ethics & Security

Paige Pope, CNI Communications Manager

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) has just announced the new Dealing with AI Bots website that provides a wealth of information on bots and crawlers impacting the services and operations of open repositories, including mitigation strategies; see the announcement below for more information. This work follows a survey COAR conducted of its members in spring 2025 to better understand the scope and scale of the problem; COAR Executive Director Kathleen Shearer provided a video report of the project for the July 2025 issue of CNI’s Pre-recorded Project Briefing Series, available here: Artificial Intelligence Bots and Repositories—Results and Next Steps from COAR Survey. My sincere thanks to Kathleen Shearer and all involved for this impactful contribution, and for granting me permission to share it with the CNI community.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

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I am very pleased to announce that the initial outcomes of our work on dealing with bots is now available in the form of a website .

We invite you to explore the eleven videos in the winter 2026 edition of CNI’s Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series , designed to bring you succinct, timely year-round updates on work relevant to the CNI community. Our thanks to the presenters for sharing their work; please contact them directly with any questions or follow-ups.

Archivault: Processing Digital Collections at Scale with Generative Artificial Intelligence : Daniel Genkins (Vanderbilt University) Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Music Cataloging Project : Hannah Moutran (University of Texas at Austin) Automated Handwritten Text Recognition of Manuscript Document Collections : Chulin Meng and Joe Corall (Lehigh University) Building Academic Research Library Artificial Intelligence Capacity: A Strategic Multi-Unit Integration Model : Raymond Uzwyshyn (University of California, Riverside) Findings from a Workshop on Sustaining Open Source Software in the Research Enterprise : Chelsea McCracken (Ithaka S+R) Implementing AI in Research Administration at Emerging Research Institutions: Preliminary Findings from Two NSF-Funded Workshops : Ruby MacDougall (Ithaka S+R), Doug Dechow (Chapman University), Stefanie Brachfeld (Montclair State University) Launching the OAEBUDT within the Scholarly Communications Trusted Dataspace | A 2025 Year in Review : Christina Drummond (University of North Texas) Metadata Matters: Modernizing the Vanderbilt Television News Archive Database : Jim Duran and Vaibhav Ravinutala (Vanderbilt University) Quantum Computing-as-a-Library Service (QCAALS): Preparing Academic Libraries for the Next Computing Revolution: Seth Porter (University of Colorado Colorado Springs) US RAiD (Research Activity Identifier) Pilot Update : Sheila Rabun (Lyrasis) Vertical Interoperability: Building Research Commons that Work Across the Full Research Lifecycle : Maria Praetzellis (California Digital Library, University of California Office of the President), Rory Macneil and Rob Day (Research Space)

You can see all of the editions and learn more about the program on the CNI website .

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Spring 2026 Membership Meeting , taking place April 13–14 at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City in Salt Lake City, UT.

Anyone is welcome to propose a project briefing—affiliation with a member organization is not required. Speakers are invited to attend the entire meeting (otherwise open only to member representatives) at no cost, though we do not provide reimbursement for travel expenses.

Submit your proposal through the form at: https://www.cni.org/mm/spring-2026/project-briefing-proposals-s26 Submission deadline: February 13, 2026

Project Briefing Overview Project briefings present explorations of emerging issues in digital information or updates on institutional or collaborative initiatives. They include information about a project’s background, goals, progress, and lessons learned, time for discussion, and perhaps demonstrations. Project briefings are typically 30-minute to one-hour sessions. We also accept proposals for lightning round presentations (limited to five minutes, one presenter). All sessions will be recorded and made openly available after the meeting. We accommodate non-recorded sessions only in rare cases with strong justification. If selected, an abstract submission will be used as the project briefing description throughout meeting materials and may be lightly edited.

Last week, we gathered in DC with our members and speakers for our 71st meeting—the Fall 2025 Membership Meeting. The opening and closing plenary recordings are now available for anyone to view. We’re immensely grateful to our speakers for sharing their candid and timely perspectives with our community.

Opening Plenary

Welcome + Shaping CNI’s Future Together Kate Zwaard, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/8r63ZgYGuTU

A Landscape of Artificial Intelligence in Libraries, or “What Librarians Talk About When They Talk About AI" Benjamin Charles Germaine Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Washington YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/YcB07k3wn-M

We wanted to pass along a recent funding opportunity that could be of interest. Last week, Schmidt Sciences announced the RFP for the next round of funding for the Humanities and AI Virtual Institute (HAVI) program. More information about the program is available in the below announcement.[1]

You can also learn more about the most recent round of awardees at: https://www.schmidtsciences.org/havi-2025-announcement/

Sincerely,

Paige, CNI Communications Manager

The call for proposals for the next International Open Repositories Conference (OR2026) has been released, and CNI is pleased to once again serve as a cooperating organization.

Please see below for the official call for proposals. You can visit the website at: https://or2026.openrepositories.org/

-Paige, CNI Communications Manager

————————— Please visit the Call for Proposals page to learn more about the sub-themes and submission categories of the conference, including a full list of submission templates and key dates.

In a few weeks, the CNI community will gather in DC for the annual CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting . This year’s program reflects the challenges and opportunities our members are navigating and draws on the community’s deep expertise for perspective, sense-making, and direction. Our intention is that each attendee leaves the meeting with something useful— an insight, an appointment to explore a new collaboration, or a bolstered sense of resonance and connection (or, hopefully, all of these!). You can view the complete meeting program, including session and schedule details, on our website .

I wanted to specifically highlight that for the closing plenary , Deborah Altenburg, vice president for research policy and advocacy at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, will address how federal research funding and policy shifts are transforming the foundation of the US science and technology ecosystem in her talk, The State of Funding for US Higher Education, Science, and Technology in a Time of Change. She’ll overview key research and education policy updates, assess the current federal funding landscape, and highlight emerging opportunities for institutions and researchers navigating this evolving environment.

The closing will also include a guest presentation of the 2025 AUPresses Stand UP Award, which honors those not currently on staff at a member press who have supported, defended, and celebrated the university press community and mission, by Peter Berkery, executive director of the Association of University Presses.

Since our last announcement, we’ve also finalized the opening plenary details. My introductory talk, Shaping CNI’s Future Together, will be followed by Benjamin Lee’s presentation A Landscape of Artificial Intelligence in Libraries, or “What Librarians Talk About When They Talk About AI.” You can read more about the plenaries on our website .

Materials from the 6th Global Research Platform Workshop (6GRP) (which was held in Chicago Sept 15-16, 2025) are now available at

This event provides an excellent opportunity to look at high performance computing and communication initiatives supporting leading edge scientific research around the world. The full announcement from the workshop organizers is below. 6GRP will take place in Naples, Italy September 28-29, 2026 in conjunction with IEEE E-Science 2026.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart Assistant Director, CNI

With the CNI Fall Membership Meeting drawing near, it’s time to share a first glance at the program.

I’m really looking forward to talking with you at our opening plenary on my appreciation for our community and an invitation for your continued participation in shaping the future of this organization we steward together. Additionally, we’re excited to share that Ben Lee, assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and founder of the Lab for Computing Cultural Heritage, will be joining us for a plenary talk that will give an overview of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the libraries and information science context.

Please note that the opening plenary session will start a bit earlier than usual, at 12:30 p.m. rather than the usual 1:00 p.m. You can find a tentative meeting schedule at: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2025/schedule-f25

We also have a compelling collection of project briefings planned. While we’re still finalizing the program, we expect only minor changes. You can find the preliminary list at: https://www.cni.org/mm/fall-2025/project-briefings-f25

We are now accepting proposals for the next edition of the CNI Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series. More information about this year-round program is available on the CNI website .

Proposals may be submitted via online form: https://www.cni.org/resources/pbvs/submit-a-proposal Videos should focus on a timely topic or on a project related to digital information. We especially invite briefings on recently published reports, and updates on new or ongoing projects, programs, or organizations that may have reported at CNI in the past. We recommend that these videos run no more than 15-20 minutes, though longer presentations may occasionally make sense; we leave this to the presenters’ discretion.

Anyone may propose a pre-recorded project briefing, including groups/individuals from non-member institutions and organizations. No more than 12 project briefings will be accepted for each edition; we issue calls for proposals approximately every two to three months.

Important Dates Deadline for submissions: November 7 Notification of acceptance: November 19 Video submission deadline for accepted proposals: December 15 Video collection release: Winter 2026 (January)

I’m very pleased to post this announcement of various resources and events associated with the Internet Archive achieving 1 trillion archived web pages. They have done extraordinary work.

—Joan Lippincott, Associate Executive Director Emerita, CNI

Throughout the month of October, Internet Archive is celebrating an extraordinary milestone: 1 trillion web pages archived and available for use in the Wayback Machine! Together with more than 1,300 libraries, we’ve helped preserve a living record of the web for future generations.

To mark this once-in-a-generation achievement, we're inviting all libraries to join the celebration using our new Library Resource Guide. Learn more & explore the guide in our recent post: https://blog.archive.org/2025/10/07/calling-all-libraries-celebrate-1-trillion-web-pages-archived-with-the-internet-archive/

Hear from CNI at the upcoming EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Nashville, TN:

CNI Executive Director Kate Zwaard will speak on how CNI’s work fosters collaborations that are critical for navigating the challenges facing research, scholarship, and higher education; provide an overview of current CNI initiatives; and explore, as well as solicit feedback on, CNI’s possible future programmatic priorities, such as cybersecurity, infrastructure, and accessibility.

Session Title: “Advancing Research and Scholarship through Collaboration ” Date: Tuesday, Oct. 28 Time: 3:30-4:15 p.m. CT Location: Room 208 A, Level 2

Additionally, Karen Estlund, CNI steering committee member and dean of libraries at Colorado State University, will represent CNI on a panel organized by the research computing and data community group.

University of Rochester, host of the recent Designing Libraries XII Conference, has made videos of 3 sessions available. They are: - A stirring opening plenary by architect Andrew Frontini, Perkins&Will, "Episodes in Public Architecture: A Candid Reflection". - A session offering conceptual and practical information for libraries, “Supporting Student Well-being & Neurodiversity through Design and Programming,” featuring Marisa Nemcik, CannonDesign and Kelly Miller, University of Miami, and an overview by me, as moderator. - A session, "Sustainable Staffing Models for Experiential Learning", featuring Meg Moody of University of Rochester, David Woodbury of North Carolina State University, and two truly exceptional students who have been part of the programs, providing models for training and staff development for high technology spaces and services.

The videos are available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5ClYcqV2bk&list=PLJD1Q2B5iWBQxIsYeUZmU_YtScOLAzyX0&index=3 With appreciation to Gary Price for his pointer to these newly released videos and to University of Rochester Libraries for providing the staffing needed to make these available.

Slide decks for many of the sessions are available at https://www.library.rochester.edu/designinglibraries

CNI is one of the three sponsors of the Designing Libraries Conference, along with North Carolina State University Libraries and Tom Hickerson, conference founder.

Submit your project briefing proposal for the CNI Fall 2025 Membership Meeting by Friday, October 10, 2025.

For more details and to submit your proposal, visit https://www.cni.org/events/mm/fall-2025/project-briefing-proposals-f25

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at paige@cni.org paige@cni.org.

We look forward to your submission!

We are pleased to announce that the Futurescape Libraries AI Toolkit is now available. The toolkit is designed to help libraries explore strategies and activities to prepare for various possible AI-influenced futures, integrating the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios published in spring 2024 and strategic priorities developed at a convening in December 2024. Keith Webster, Carnegie Mellon University dean of libraries and a CNI Steering Committee member, developed the toolkit, and served as a member of the original ARL/CNI Task Force for AI and Machine Learning Futures.

To access the toolkit and learn more, read ARL’s blog post at: https://www.arl.org/news/arl-cni-futurescape-libraries-ai-toolkit-can-help-you-thrive-in-the-ai-landscape/

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI