Access Lab 2026: New year, new ideas, new tools
Learn more at Access Lab UK & EMEA, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Wednesday February 25 2026
Register now for your place at Access Lab. We’ve got a packed schedule of talks to share news and insights with you, as well as hands-on demonstrations of new tools and techniques. It’s an opportunity to try some out and give us your feedback.
You’ll be in good company, with like-minded people who are all interested in making access to knowledge easy. And now, with Access Lab returning to an in-person format for the first time since 2019 (when it was known as the OpenAthens Conference!), you’ll be able to catch up with old friends and make useful connections.
You’re welcome!
The day will kick off with brief welcomes from our commercial director Jon Bentley and the Royal Northern College of Music’s director of research, Wiebke Thormählen, and an overview from Liam Earney, Jisc’s managing director of higher education and research.
And then it’s into the program itself, starting with ‘through the keyhole’ – not the TV show but an engaging half-hour nevertheless, with our product and UX team bringing you up to date with 2025’s product developments and offering a first look at projects planned for 2026.
Sticking with the topic of UX, senior marketing officer Michael Smith will then announce the winner of this year’s OpenAthens UX Award. The award is for publishers and content providers, celebrating the work they’re doing to give customers and library users a great user experience and help them do better work. At the end of January, the finalists De Gruyter Brill and Emerald Publishing made their final presentations to the UX experts on the judging panel. They’ve done all they can, the judges will have made their decision and we’ll be able to celebrate with them all.
Top tips for helping struggling students
After a break, David Leffler, discovery and access librarian at Liberty University in Virginia, will talk about how his team is leveraging the value of data from OpenAthens. Three years ago he spoke at Access Lab about his library’s implementation experience and, if you missed it, you can read more about that in a blog post, top tips for implementing OpenAthens Compass. Now he’s back, to talk about how his library and others are using data to identify students who might be struggling – and how AI-powered research tools can help with providing support.
Panel sessions
We’ve arranged panel sessions, including one digging into how partnerships between libraries and publishers can identify pain points in the relationship and ways to overcome them so everyone – especially library users – can benefit. Our own Kieran Prince will discuss how joining the OpenAthens Federation is a powerful way to foster better, more fruitful partnerships.
For the latest on other panel sessions, please keep on eye on the Access Lab program.
Breakout sessions
Lunchtime will be an opportunity to refuel, network – and take a guided tour of the college if you like. Afterwards, there will be no early afternoon slump because we’ve planned breakout sessions, including one where you can try out new UX developments. We’d love your feedback to help us make them better and more intuitive. Continuing the theme, Tania Pemberton from our partner TDNet will give a high-energy lightning talk on TDNet Discover and how it helps users to use natural language to make better searches and so get better results.
Managing sensitive content
While our community is about make access to knowledge easy, we take privacy super-seriously. We’re delighted, therefore, to welcome Mutali Lithole, manager of the institutional repository at the University of Johannesburg, to tell us how his team balance their commitment to open scholarship with the need to manage sensitive material responsibly. They use OpenAthens to provide differentiated access for library users without hindering wider discovery.
Before adjourning for an informal networking reception, make time for the final session of the day – an ‘ask the experts’ tips and tricks session to help you get the most from your OpenAthens implementation. Find out what to do – and what not to do – from a panel with our own experts, David Leffler and the London Business School’s Jonathan Eaton.
Access Lab 2026 UK and EMEA is on Wednesday 25 February.
Keep an eye on our Access Lab pages for news of the in-person events for Asia Pacific in July, and the Americas in November.
Keep up to date with Access Lab program updates and more!
Sign up to our communications to be the first to know about Access Lab session announcements, new webinars, and more!