Launched by Simon Fraser University library in January of 2016, the Community Scholars Program is a no-fee gateway for staff at non-profit organizations (a.k.a. community scholars) to access research publications. The program has grown to seven publishers and 500 users. The Community Scholars Program plays an important role in democratizing access to research findings and promoting considered research relationships.
The Community Scholars subproject will use information from sign-up surveys and telephone interviews to examine the needs and anticipated uses of the research by community scholars, attempting to identify and remove obstacles for users. We will implement online or in-person support where needed, and may make recommendations to producers and aggregators of published scholarship as necessary. 