Registration open: 2025 Open Access Week Virtual Summit
1. Theme: Who owns our knowledge?
The 18th edition of the international Open Access Week will be observed from 20th – 26th October, 2025, with the theme, ‘Who owns our knowledge?’ The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) is making the 2025 Open Access Week more participatory and community-driven by holding a virtual summit on Tuesday, 21st and Wednesday, 22nd October 2025. AfLIA hereby invites all libraries and allied institutions’ professionals to be a part of the 2025 Open Access Week celebration.
2. Four presentation tracks
The virtual summit will address the global theme ‘Who owns our knowledge?’ under these four tracks:
- Who owns our knowledge? Persistent Identifiers and Metadata for Open Access Best Practices
- Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Ownership
- Visibility, Ownership, and Access: Indigenous Knowledge and Citizen Science
- Digital infrastructure, structural inequities and open access
The 2025 Open Access Week Virtual Summit is for:
- LIS practitioners in all Library types
- LIS educators
- LIS policymakers
- Organizations and professionals working in partnership with African libraries
Expected Outcomes
It is expected that by the end of the Virtual Summit, participants will:
- Gain a better understanding of persistent identifiers and best practices for metadata as a pathway for answering the question, ‘Who owns the knowledge?’
- Be conversant with the possibilities, challenges and protocols for Open Access and knowledge ownership in the AI era
- Realize the role of library professionals in ensuring visibility, accessibility and ownership of African indigenous knowledge, including Citizen science in documentary, art and/or audio formats within the Open Access ecosystem
- Expand their understanding about how Open Access addresses existing structural and digital inequities within the knowledge landscape
Registration and fees
No fees will be charged for the virtual summit. However, all intending presenters and participants are expected to register here.