CARL Honours Geoff Harder with Award of Merit

November 19, 2025

Montebello, Québec, November 19, 2025 – The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) is delighted to announce that Geoff Harder, Associate University Librarian at the University of Alberta, has been awarded the CARL Award of Merit during its Fall General Meeting in Montebello, Québec.

The CARL Award of Merit is presented to individuals who have made outstanding local, regional, or national contributions to research librarianship, with a lasting and beneficial impact on the CARL community. Established in 2001, this award recognizes distinguished individuals whose efforts have advanced the mission of research libraries in Canada.

Geoff Harder receives the award in recognition of his extraordinary leadership, vision, and sustained contributions to Canada’s academic library community, particularly in the areas of digital infrastructure, preservation, and open scholarship.

Throughout his career, Geoff has exemplified innovation, collaboration, and a deep commitment to strengthening Canada’s digital research ecosystem. As Associate University Librarian at the University of Alberta Library, he has played a pivotal role in advancing national initiatives that have transformed how Canadian libraries preserve, share, and steward digital knowledge.

Geoff’s leadership has been instrumental in the evolution of Canada’s digital preservation and research data management landscape. His early work with the International Polar Year Data Assembly Centre Network (IPY-DACN) helped lay the foundation for national collaboration in data management that would later inform Project ARC, Portage, and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. His technical expertise and ability to build bridges across diverse stakeholders have been key to Canada’s progress in research data coordination.

As Chair of the CARL Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG) and a valued member of the Advancing Research Committee (ARC), Geoff has helped shape national preservation practices and supported major collaborative efforts such as the Canadian Web Archiving Coalition (CWAC) and the @Risk North Summit series.

During his 2022–2023 administrative leave, Geoff served as Project Director for the National Shared Repository Infrastructure project, guiding the foundational development of a collective, pan-Canadian repository infrastructure model. His leadership brought together experts from across the country through the Shared Repository Infrastructure Advisory Committee (SRIAC), laying the groundwork for Scholaris, Canada’s shared institutional repository service.

Beyond CARL, Geoff’s influence extends through his service on the boards of CLOCKSS, Internet Archive Canada, and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), as well as his engagement with ORCID-CA, the Public Knowledge Project, and the Canadian Persistent Identifiers Advisory Committee (CPIDAC). His commitment to advancing digital infrastructure and open scholarship continues to strengthen the foundations of Canada’s research landscape.

“Geoff’s work exemplifies the values of innovation, collaboration, and sustained commitment that the CARL Award of Merit celebrates.”
– CARL Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG)

Congratulations to Geoff Harder on this well-deserved recognition!

(Via Canadian Association of Research Libraries)