The 18th International Open Repositories Conference (OR2023) will be held from 12-15 June 2023 at the Lord Charles Hotel, Somerset West, close to Stellenbosch, South Africa.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the programme. The theme for the conference is Repositories unlocked for discovery and interoperability. 

OR2023 provides an opportunity to explore and reflect on the ways repositories enable discoverability and interoperability of information and data within the structured web of data. How can we better utilize repositories for machine interoperability? How can we develop the capacity of institutions to implement sustainable open repositories to improve data equity worldwide? In doing so the OR2023 conference will focus on the practices of the international repositories community to develop and implement the standards, frameworks, architectures, and methodologies for open repositories to serve as knowledge representation databases for the structured web of data.

We particularly welcome proposals aligned to the overall theme, but also on other administrative, organisational, or practical topics related to digital repositories. We are interested in the following sub-themes:

1.     Unbiased discovery of knowledge: Open repositories facilitating the unbiased discovery of indigenous knowledge.

2.     Sustainable development: Linking open repositories content to the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

3.     Linked data: Integration with other open knowledge resources (e.g. Wikimedia and Wikidata).

4.     Trust in the machine: Integrating repository content with the semantic web of data using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) knowledge representation language.

5.      Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS): Taxonomies and ontologies in open repositories to enhance the discoverability of data.

6.      Integrating content: Novel or complex formats, data types and sources.

7.      Repositioning repositories: Next-gen repositories, the Pubfair framework and new models.

Please visit the Call for Proposals page to learn more about the sub-themes and submission categories of the conference, including a full list of submission templates and key dates for submission deadlines and approvals.

The deadline for submissions is 15 January 2023.

We look forward to the vibrant conversations and learning opportunities of the conference.

Please see the registration fees on the Registration page (registration will open in March 2023).

Programme Co-Chairs:

  • Ilkay Holt, British Library
  • Mimi Seyffert-Wirth, Stellenbosch University
  • Wouter Klapwijk, Stellenbosch University

Contact: or23-program-chairs@googlegroups.com

For the Open Repositories Steering Committee:

Claire Knowles and Torsten Reimer