Access Lab EMEA 2026: bigger, better, and back in person

It’s January, which means we’re finalizing the program for Access Lab, our yearly conference for librarians, publishers and everyone else with an interest in securing access to knowledge. Register for your place for the EMEA event now! 

Over the last decade Access Lab has addressed some big issues in the scholarly space. A look back at earlier sessions in the Access Lab resource hub is a great reminder of how they have played out over time.

User experience (UX)

In 2023, for example, Elsevier’s Emily Singley talked about how partnerships between vendors and librarians can improve UX for library patrons. At both Access Labs since, there have been numerous conversations about this, as well as talks and workshops about various aspects of UX. Now, at the 2026 UK and EMEA event in February, our own designers will present a session highlighting our latest UX insights and product developments. Later, they’ll host a session where you can try out innovations from OpenAthens and various content providers, all aimed at taking UX to the next level in 2026. 

AI 

Naturally, the most recent Access Labs have tracked the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence in libraries. In her keynote in 2024, Luba Pirgova-Morgan, a research fellow at the University of Leeds, asked are AI and libraries friends or enemies?. Her take on the question was that AI “can be a library superhero”, transforming and personalizing services – if the library community addresses risks around privacy, accuracy and fairness. Our own e-resource manager, Emma Wilson-Shaw, pursued this further, chairing a panel discussion balancing AI innovation and library ethics. 

This year we’re excited to welcome guest speaker, David Leffler, discovery and access librarian at Liberty University in Virginia, to talk about how AI is being used in distinctly friendly and ethical ways. His talk on exploring AI and OpenAthens for library interventions will include real-life examples from his own institution (and some in the UK) about how librarians are using data from OpenAthens to identify struggling students so they can offer support. 

Lots more 

But if we’ve given you an appetite to explore sessions from Access Labs past – don’t stop there! As misinformation and disinformation make depressing news headlines around the world, take a look at Rick Anderson’s 2025 talk on misinformation, disinformation and trust in scholarly communication. He’s the university librarian at Brigham Young University in Utah and he looks at the challenges for institutions as well as some strategies his library has adopted. 

In 2024 our own Kieran Prince and Sylwia Zientek discussed how OpenAthens works with publishers to evolve the needs of the library, and further back in time delegates enjoyed a practical talk about when BMJ Best Practice moved to OpenAthens Keystone – why, what happened, and what lessons other providers could learn from their experience. That was back in 2020, when the pandemic forced Access Lab to move online. It’s been online ever since, but in 2026 we’ve taken the decision to go face-to-face again, to leverage the valuable networking opportunities that Access lab can provide. 

Join us at Access Lab 2026 for the EMEA region at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester on Wednesday 25 February. 

Or keep an eye on our Access Lab pages for news of the online events for Asia Pacific in July, and the Americas in November.