Reimagining openness in academic libraries:

Why openness needs to go beyond access Earlier this year, Open Research Librarian Abi Harrison-Henshall and Open Research Specialist Dr. Sarah Kneen attended the Academic Libraries North (ALN) Conference 2026: Reimagining Openness in Academic Libraries. The conference brought together library professionals from across the sector to explore what openness means in practice, and encouraged us to think beyond Open Access as simply making research free to read.