The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Fall 2025 Membership Meeting, taking place December 11–12 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

Submit your proposal through the online form at: https://www.cni.org/events/mm/fall-2025/project-briefing-proposals-f25

The submission deadline is October 10, 2025

Important information: We welcome proposals on timely topics, state-of-the-art developments, or cross-institutional projects related to networked information content and technologies. Presentations are typically 30 minutes to one hour; we also accept five-minute lightning talks. Anyone may propose a project briefing. Presenters are expected to attend and present in person except in very unusual circumstances. All sessions will be recorded and made publicly available, unless requested otherwise.

On behalf of John Borwick (University of Washington), Ray Frohlich (Yale University), and Dale Hendrickson (Yale University), I invite you to complete a survey as part of a collaborative research initiative on library IT governance.

From the research team: “This 10-15 minute survey is designed to gather information about IT governance practices in higher education libraries. Your responses will inform a broader study of governance models and may contribute to a future publication.” The survey is available here: https://forms.gle/H5exDV1jSduNt4zT6

For additional context on this project, see Yale's presentation from CNI’s spring 2025 membership meeting: https://www.cni.org/topics/economic-models/yale-library-governance-and-technical-infrastructure-to-fuel-innovation.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, Acting Director, CNI

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Fall 2025 Membership Meeting, taking place December 11–12 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Note, this will be a Thursday–Friday meeting.

Submit your proposal through the form at: https://www.cni.org/events/mm/fall-2025/project-briefing-proposals-f25

The submission deadline is October 10, 2025

Project briefings (presentations) address state-of-the-art developments, issues of interest to the membership, a timely topic , or a specific project related to networked information content and technologies, particularly those that are cross-institutional or of broad interest to the community. Project briefings include information about a project’s goals, progress, and lessons learned, time for discussion, and perhaps demonstrations. Issue-oriented briefings include background information on a topic of interest and ample time for general discussion with attendees.

Edition Guide Coalition for Networked Information Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series Summer 2025

We invite you to explore the summer 2025 edition of CNI’s Pre-Recorded Project Briefing Series. This collection comprises contributions covering a range of topics, including open infrastructure, digital literacy, identity management, and more.

Several sessions report on community-driven efforts to examine how emerging technologies and external pressures are shaping the research and higher education ecosystem. A video from Ithaka S+R overviews the Making Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generative for Higher Education project, which brought together 18 higher education institutions to explore how generative AI is impacting teaching, learning, and research. The presentation highlights the findings, which illuminate AI adoption patterns, the challenges instructors and researchers are facing, and related support needs; it serves as a follow-on to a lightning round presented at CNI's spring 2023 meeting. AI Bots and Repositories—Results and Next Steps from COAR Survey overviews a recent Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) survey to better understand the impact of the growing number of AI bots and crawlers, which in some cases cause service disruptions in repositories and other scholarly communications infrastructures. The presentation provides a summary of the findings and discusses next steps. As policy shifts threatened federal research funding and disrupted agencies central to the knowledge ecosystem, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) conducted a poll to gauge the impact of these changes on open infrastructures and to identify emerging patterns. IOI’s Katherine Skinner discusses the findings in Vital Open Infrastructures in a Volatile Moment , and explores key questions, including how different stakeholder communities are experiencing and responding to these pressures.

Dryad, an open source platform for publishing research data, has long struggled to set a fee structure that balances costs with partner needs. In 2024, it convened a multi-stakeholder group to advise on fee development. A Community-designed Plan for Sustaining Open Data Infrastructure details the process, fee model decisions, and broader implications for funding open infrastructure and repositories.

All five CNI Interviews podcast episodes from the Spring 2025 Membership Meeting are now available.

Produced by EDUCAUSE and hosted by Gerry Bayne, this ongoing series features conversations with leaders and innovators in libraries, research, and networked information at the CNI meetings.

This season includes both podcasts and accompanying video recordings: Developing AI Literacy for Faculty and Librarians – Leo Lo Collaboration Fuels Digital Transformation at Washington University – Mimi Calter and Kelly Walker-Moseley Access and Preservation in the Audiovisual Age – Peter B. Kaufmann Building The Public Interest Corpus for AI and Computational Research – Dan Cohen and Thomas Padilla Libraries at Risk: Borrowed Infrastructure and Institutional Resilience – Brewster Kahle

Listen to the full season here: https://er.educause.edu/podcasts/the-cni-interviews-podcast

Details on the program sessions and speakers for the Designing Libraries Conference, to be held at University of Rochester on September 28-30, 2025, are now available on the conference website https://www.library.rochester.edu/designinglibraries where you’ll also find a registration link.

CNI, NC State University Libraries, and Tom Hickerson, Conference Founder are proud to sponsor this conference for the 12th time. The conference generally reaches capacity registration so I urge you to register soon!

Conference sessions include a wide variety of topics, including supporting student wellbeing and neurodiversity, which I will be moderating, strategic master space planning, the evolution of Studio X (one of University of Rochester’s innovative spaces), reconceptualizing staff spaces, and more. Architect Andrew Frontini will present a keynote for the conference based on his inspirational recently published book Episodes in Public Architecture.

Tours of renovated campus facilities will include the Gleason Library, iZone, Studio X, and Lam Square. Through presentations, tours, and interactions with other participants, you’ll return to your institution with new ideas and practical information for implementation.

A recording is now available of a presentation about the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios by Cynthia Hudson Vitale of Johns Hopkins University. The talk was hosted by the EDUCAUSE Research Computing and Data Community Group (RCD CG) in June. Note that a passcode is required to access the video: URL: https://educause.zoom.us/rec/share/v4ZfNgz9MApfO6jLUcOkI0O6nUdx0M3TEQnNrXUIiMmsx6gwBzeH-js2ULFT1m_1.OwDc96X19L27ff9a Passcode: 6.*?@ucA

The presentation includes an overview of the scenarios, as well as discussion about how they can be used to spark strategic conversations and planning in research computing and data services. My thanks to EDUCAUSE and to the RCD CG for highlighting this work and for making the video openly available.

More information about the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios, including a link to the final set, is at https://www.arl.org/resources/the-arl-cni-2035-scenarios-ai-influenced-futures-in-the-research-environment/

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) has just announced a webinar series to highlight strategies aimed at long-term sustainability of digitization and data mobilization efforts. Created as part of the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, iDigBio provides digital versions of data and images for millions of biological specimens from collections nationwide.

The webinar series announcement is below; a link to registration and a calendar of events are available at https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-series-importance-sustaining-biodiversity-specimen-collections-digitization-absence

Registration is free.

Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

MIT’s Sloan School of Management recently launched a new initiative to track quantum computing development, the MIT Quantum Report (QIR). In his article published in HPCwire on July 23, 2025, John Russell compares the MIT initiative to other similar efforts, describing the QIR as “a not-for-profit effort willing to share its data freely.” Russell also notes that report authors aimed to help a wider audience gain a deeper understanding of the quantum landscape by reducing the technical complexities and focusing on broad measures such as IP, policy, and investment, and taking a global perspective. The article provides a useful overview of the report and its genesis; it is available at https://www.hpcwire.com/2025/07/23/introducing-the-mit-quantum-index-report/.

The QIR website (https://qir.mit.edu/) includes access to the report data and other resources.

The full report is available at https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/70553845/2025-mit-quantum-index-report.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

In preparation for the 2025 Horizon Report, Data and Analytics Edition, EDUCAUSE seeks submissions of examples that illustrate the technologies and practices selected by the 2025 expert panel. Please consider submitting projects or programs that fit the criteria described in the message below; questions should be directed to Kim Arnold at EDUCAUSE. The deadline for submissions is August 12th.

Disclosure: CNI leadership has participated in various aspects of the Horizon Report project over the years.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

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CNI is pleased to serve as a cooperating organization for the symposium Truth, Knowledge, & Society, to take place September 15-16 in Victoria, Canada. The event will help launch the Kula Academy, a library-based institute of advanced studies at the University of Victoria. The announcement below includes some program information; registration details are at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/kula-academy-launch-symposium-on-truth-knowledge-society-tickets-1406245400849.

More about the Kula Library Futures Academy is available at http://www.uvic.ca/library/kula/.

-Diane Goldenberg-Hart, CNI

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 Kate Zwaard Courtesy: Shawn Miller and the Library of Congress

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is pleased to welcome Kate Zwaard as its next executive director, effective September 15, 2025.

Kate joins CNI from the Library of Congress (LC), where she has served since 2011, presiding over the Library’s comprehensive digital transformation and establishing the organization as a technology leader. Under her stewardship, the Library underwent a fundamental change in how it manages, preserves, and provides access to its vast collections in the digital age. Kate’s numerous contributions include authoring LC’s first digital strategy, spearheading innovative digital initiatives such as LC Labs to explore creative uses of new technologies, exponentially expanding the Library’s digital collections, and leading an agency-wide shift to open source software.

Currently serving as associate librarian for Discovery & Preservation Services, Kate oversees a $125 million annual budget and leads more than 600 staff members, working to further modernize acquisitions, description, preservation, and access. She leads the Digital Services, Preservation, and Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorates.

I’m very pleased to share this announcement of the opening of registration for this year’s Designing Libraries Conference, to be held at University of Rochester on September 28-30, 2025. As usual, we’ll have a stimulating program full of timely topics and tours of the renovated spaces at the River Campus libraries. The sponsors of this conference have often been asked to feature a library that has renovated incrementally, designing new spaces, incorporating technologies, and rethinking programs and staff roles. This conference will fully address those perspectives. Frequently this conference has reached capacity for registration so I encourage you to register soon!

— Joan Lippincott, CNI Emerita

On September 28-30, the River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester hosts Designing Libraries XII , an annual conference that gathers librarians, architects, planners, designers, and information technologists to discuss the challenges and achievements of designing libraries and learning centers for the 21st century.

We are pleased to announce the publication of Networking Networks: A Festschrift in Honor of Clifford Lynch, guest edited by CNI Associate Executive Director Emerita Joan K. Lippincott. This special issue, a supplement to portal: Libraries and the Academy 25, no. 3 (July 2025), is now openly available through Project Muse: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55108.

In the summer of 2024, Clifford Lynch announced his retirement as executive director of CNI after 28 years of visionary leadership. To honor and document his legacy, CNI quietly launched this Festschrift project, inviting many of Cliff’s closest colleagues and collaborators to contribute reflections on his profound impact on digital scholarship, libraries, and the information landscape.

The final CNI membership meeting of Cliff’s tenure, held April 7–8, 2025, in Milwaukee, was to include a surprise presentation of the Festschrift’s table of contents. Though Cliff’s health prevented him from attending in person, he participated virtually and heard readings of excerpts from each contribution. Clifford Lynch passed away shortly after, on April 10, 2025. Authors completed their essays before his passing, and the original text remains unchanged.

Contributors and their articles: Andrew K. Pace and John O’Brien — Foreword Joan K. Lippincott — Introduction: The Many Facets of Clifford Lynch Donald J. Waters — CNI as an Idea Factory: An Appreciation of Clifford Lynch Dan Cohen — When Information Is Networked Kevin M. Guthrie and Roger C. Schonfeld — Clifford Lynch: “Conducting” the Infrastructure of Scholarship Christine L. Borgman — Libraries, Digital Libraries, and Data: Forty Years, Four Challenges Michael K. Buckland — Clifford Lynch at Berkeley Marjory S. Blumenthal — A Farsighted Integrator Judy Ruttenberg — Reflections on Research Library Advocacy: Lessons Learned through Collaboration with Cliff Lynch Herbert Van de Sompel and Michael L. Nelson — The Invisible Influencer in Information Infrastructure Ken Klingenstein — An Interview That Ran Long Howard Besser — Stewardship of Digital Images Victoria Reich and David S. H. Rosenthal — Lots of Cliff Keeps Stuff Safe Diane Goldenberg-Hart — Afterword

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries has been scheduled for December 15-19; the conference will be a fully virtual, synchronous event. The call for papers, posters, and more has been released. For more information, see https://2025.jcdl.org/

As we have for many years, CNI is delighted to be a cooperating organization for this important annual conference.

-Paige, CNI Communications Manager

All videos from CNI’s Spring 2025 Membership Meeting are now openly available on the CNI website (https://www.cni.org/mm/spring-2025) and on CNI’s YouTube and Vimeo channels. All meeting materials, including selected presentation slides, project briefing videos, and opening and closing plenary videos are included. We extend a final thank you to all of our Spring 2025 presenters and attendees. There is a wealth of information in these videos—please share widely!

-Paige, CNI Communications Manager

The LIBER Architectures Group is now accepting proposals for its 2026 Seminar to be held at the Technological University Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. I’m sharing this information via Tom Hickerson, founder of the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century Conference. "We are delighted to invite you to submit your papers for the LIBER Architecture Group Seminar 2026, themed Invest – Involve – Inspire: Shaping the next generation of Library Buildings.

This seminar will bring together library professionals, architects, designers, and other stakeholders in the library architecture and design field to share insights and explore the challenges and opportunities in shaping the future of libraries.

We are looking for new library projects in Europe and on a variety of topics.

More information is available at https://libereurope.eu/event/lag-seminar-2026-technological-university-dublin-dublin-ireland/

We’ve been informed that there is a new link for the EDUCAUSE Research Computing and Data Community Group (RCD CG) open call for today, June 26, on the Strategic Foresight in Research Computing: Leveraging the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios.

The new link is: https://educause.zoom.us/j/98225270010?pwd=Toxknh2hTvytmaDI9EWdsWBLGVaYqk.1&from=addon

Please note, the session is being recorded and will be distributed in the near future.

More information and the original reference to the event is available at: https://www.cni.org/news/invitation-strategic-foresight-in-research-computing-leveraging-the-arl-cni-ai-scenarios

Colleagues,

I share below an invitation to join an open call of the EDUCAUSE Research Computing and Data Community Group (RCD CG) in which work related to the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios will be discussed. The event will be held this Thursday, June 26th, 1:00-2:00 pm ET - details are below, including the Zoom link to join the call.

More information about the ARL/CNI AI scenarios, which were published in June 2024, is available at https://www.cni.org/events/cni-workshops/arl-cni-joint-task-force-on-scenario-planning-for-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-futures.

My thanks to RCD CG leadership for featuring this topic, and for bringing this event to my attention!

Here is an update on this fall’s Designing Libraries Conference to be held at University of Rochester. CNI is a co-sponsor of this conference. As soon as registration is open, I will post a message to cni-announce.

—Joan Lippincott Associate Executive Director Emerita CNI

Thank you for your continued patience as we finalize details for this year’s conference.

After hearing from our community that you strongly value the Designing Libraries conference and will support the conference by sending attendees, the Sponsors can now confirm we will proceed with DL XII on September 28-30, 2025 at the University of Rochester. We are excited about the line-up of topics and speakers that we are planning and look forward to seeing all who are able to come.