Updated strategic directions reaffirm the Library’s enduring purpose while responding to a changing research and information environment.
Today, Harvard Library released Advancing Open Knowledge 2026, its updated framework for how the Library will continue to expand access to knowledge, enhance discovery and engagement, and preserve information for the future.
Under University Librarian Martha Whitehead’s leadership, Harvard Library first articulated Advancing Open Knowledge in 2020. Six years later, the Library has returned to that framework to assess how the landscape has changed and what that means for its work now.
The world in which research libraries operate looks markedly different today. Societal, technological, and financial pressures have reshaped the landscape, and generative AI is accelerating that change.
What has not changed is Harvard Library’s fundamental purpose. Advancing Open Knowledge 2026 reaffirms the Library’s responsibility to connect people with knowledge and steward it for the future.
“Libraries have always adapted as scholarship and technology change,” said Whitehead. “This framework gives us a clear direction while allowing the work itself to keep evolving.”
Advancing Open Knowledge 2026 recommits Harvard Library to three strategic directions:
- Diversify and Expand Access to Knowledge: developing deep collections and disseminating high impact research results, supporting a broad range of perspectives in the scholarly record.
- Enhance Discovery and Engagement: enabling knowledge discovery and use, online and in communities, including pairing new technologies such as generative AI with library expertise and trustworthy collections.
- Preserve for the Future: stewarding physical and digital collections for long-term access and strengthening their resilience through strategic collaborations.
The updated framework will guide Harvard Library’s work in the years ahead.