OCUL seeks to be a leader in the development of partnerships and agreements that expand Canada’s digital research infrastructure and accelerate collaboration.
Canadian and International Partnerships
Keepers Registry
OCUL’s Scholars Portal is an Archiving Agency for the Keepers Registry. The registry is an international service that provides information about e-journal archiving arrangements.
North/Nord
North: The Canadian Shared Print Network/Nord: Réseau canadien de conservation partagée des documents imprimés (North/Nord) coordinates the preservation of published Canadian heritage, to consolidate print collections while ensuring long-term content retention and access for users. Together with regional consortia across Canada, OCUL provides funding support for this national initiative and one OCUL member representative serves on the Steering Committee for North/Nord.
Public Knowledge Project (PKP) – Major Development Partnership
OCUL contributes to software development, testing, support and hosting of the PKP open-source software suite through this partnership.
Agreements
Canadian Academic Libraries Resource Sharing Agreement (2026)
Four library consortia have partnered to establish an updated resource sharing agreement that includes cross-country lending of physical materials, e-resource sharing, and in-person reciprocal borrowing at Canadian universities and colleges.
Ratified in January 2026, the agreement consolidates and replaces the Canadian University Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement (CURBA) and the Canadian Inter-Consortial Resource Sharing Agreement.
- Reciprocal borrowing cards are no longer required for in-person borrowing. Instead, valid institutional identification is accepted as proof of borrowing eligibility.
- Where additional verification is needed, participating libraries provide user confirmation to one another by phone or email.
The updated agreement will be posted online in spring 2026.
In addition to OCUL, the agreement partners are the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries, the Council of Atlantic Academic Libraries/Conseil des bibliothèques postsecondaires de l’Atlantique, and Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec.