Learning and acting together: how an Open Education network’s collaborative journey gives voice to librarians as agents of change

Abstract

(Watch the RECORDING.)

The European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), led by SPARC Europe, provides a collaborative model for advancing Open Education through decentralised, peer-led action. Established in 2018, ENOEL has grown into a hierarchy-free community of librarians from 31 European countries who support one another in making Open Education accessible and its resources reusable. Members engage at multiple levels—within institutions, across borders, and at the grassroots level—often without formal institutional or governmental backing. This collective effort demonstrates the value of voluntary participation, inclusivity, and adaptability in sustaining engagement and fostering agency.

ENOEL’s activities include initiating working groups, co-creating multilingual outputs, and organising capacity-building events. A key example is the ENOEL Toolkit, now available in 22 languages, which provides adaptable resources for advocating and implementing Open Educational Resources (OER). Training initiatives cover topics ranging from OER basics to operationalising the UNESCO OER Recommendation. These outputs reflect the network’s emphasis on reuser-focused, scalable solutions tailored to diverse contexts.

The presentation shares lessons learned through ENOEL’s work and highlights strategies to enable community resilience and growth. These include flexible participation models (e.g., from silent learning to skills sharing), practices preventing burnout, and approaches to maintaining inclusivity across a geographically and culturally diverse membership.

By examining ENOEL’s structure, leadership, and outputs, the session illustrates how librarians, as agents of change, can collectively shape effective and sustainable Open Education practices. Participants will gain insight into frameworks for decentralised collaboration, inclusive engagement, and alignment with international policy, with a focus on practical tools that can be reused and adapted in other contexts.