Lyrasis is a 501 c 3 non-profit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. Lyrasis organizational and staff values are: communication, respect, collaboration, impact, and service.
Lyrasis was created by its members to help them tackle wide-reaching challenges with a collective strength, including: the development and selection of new technology solutions; fostering community-wide projects that help deliver better outcomes and services; content creation, acquisition and management; support for new content models and strategies; and large-scale knowledge management programs unique to collections-holding institutions.
Lyrasis Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) are core values at Lyrasis. Our mission, to catalyze and enable equitable access to the world’s knowledge and cultural heritage, can only be achieved by inviting and valuing the perspectives, experiences, and identities of all people. As such, we are committed to seeking and welcoming diversity in our recruiting, hiring, and culture building practices to create an environment that is equitable, inclusive, and accessible for all.
Lyrasis works to fulfill this commitment through:
- Recruiting and interviewing a diverse candidate pool for any and all open positions
- Enacting robust non-discriminatory practices for hiring, retention and evaluation of team members
- Welcoming the input and participation from the diverse members of our programs and services communities
- Creating and supporting a staff-directed DEIA committee to identify and address opportunities and challenges to building equity
- Identifying opportunities and enacting solutions to make our work and workplace more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible
History
In 2019, Lyrasis merged with DuraSpace, a globally recognized leader in open source software technologies. The merger brought together two dynamic communities and made Lyrasis home to 10 community supported programs and 1733 users, all under one roof.
With an organizational history dating back to 1936, Lyrasis is home to more than 1,000 member academic and public libraries, museums, archives and other collections-holding organizations located in 28 countries. With a global staff of nearly 100 expert professionals, Lyrasis is organized around three primary areas of focus: Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives, supporting licensing and Open Access initiatives; Community Supported Technology and Hosting Services, supporting community-based open source software initiatives and maintaining hosted versions of some of these technologies; and Ebooks and Community Engagement, supporting a library-owned ebook platform and tools for communities to create and share content.
Supporting these three units are dedicated teams including member outreach and member services (sales and customer service), marketing and communication, fiscal operations, grant writing and licensing. These are unique functional areas and benefits afforded the member.
Lyrasis operates with strict fiscal discipline. This commitment ensures the financial health needed to preserve the heart of a non-profit, enabling it to build a mission-driven team of professionals and an organizational structure capable of creating sustainable global solutions at scale.
Ultimately, Lyrasis helps its members amplify their impact and influence, participate in national and international programs, create and deliver better programs and services to their communities, while still maintaining their unique collections, cultures and identities.
