With the 2030 milestone for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fast approaching and the recent adoption of the Pact for the Future by all 193 United Nations member states, the urgency of rewiring our knowledge systems has never been greater. Ensuring equitable access to knowledge and upholding the right for all to participate and benefit from science—including from emerging technologies—are essential for achieving the transformation needed to implement these policies
Research libraries champion access to data and knowledge, support information verification and empower communities to drive local, sustainable development initiatives. From supporting SDG Voluntary Local and National Reviews (VLRs and VNRs) to enabling data ecosystems aligned with FAIR and CARE principles, libraries create conditions for informed, data-driven decision-making and capacity-building at local, national, and international levels.
In a digital ecosystem dominated by algorithm-driven content and information fatigue, libraries uphold the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity. They promote digital inclusion, ensure scientific participation and benefit for their communities and actively adopt diamond open access policies. Their ability to implement open science practices, preserve and share data makes them indispensable in tracking SDG progress and amplifying diverse perspectives. In this way they contribute directly to actions 28-33 of the Pact for the Future which focus on leveraging science, technology, and innovation for the benefit of people and the planet.
Drawing on examples from the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library’s programmes and projects, this keynote will explore how libraries forge new partnerships, harness open data and emerging technologies, advocate for online information integrity and actively participate in transforming knowledge systems—ensuring no one is left behind in the pursuit of a just, informed, and sustainable future.
Thanos Giannakopoulos
Tackling the climate crisis requires large-scale, interdisciplinary collaboration to identify and test effective solutions. In this talk, I will present the findings from the International Climate Psychology Collaboration (ICPC), a global megastudy involving 258 collaborators that tested interventions designed to promote climate-friendly attitudes and behaviours in over 59,000 participants from 63 countries. As one of the largest experiments in climate psychology to date, this initiative provides unique and valuable insights into what works—and what does not—when it comes to fostering climate action on a global scale.
Beyond the findings themselves, the ICPC serves as a case study on the challenges and opportunities of massive, open, and collaborative research. Managing such extensive international projects requires careful coordination, data-sharing, methodological standardisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. These efforts underscore the importance of research infrastructure, data accessibility, and transparent workflows in advancing global-scale behavioural science.
Given the increasing popularity of such large-scale collaborative approaches, there is a growing need for efficient data-sharing systems, well-structured data management plans, and streamlined archival processes to ensure that large-scale collaborations remain accessible, reproducible, and impactful over the long term. In this talk, I will highlight key challenges in conducting international open science projects, reflect on lessons learned from ICPC, and invite discussions on how research libraries and digital infrastructures might better support collaborative sustainability research in the future.
For practical and legal reasons, Large Language Models are primarily trained on contemporary, web-based texts and not on the vast array of content found in published books. As a consequence, their competence does not capture the rich diversity of knowledge that libraries have worked to preserve and make accessible. Because of this epistemic gap, libraries can potentially play a crucial role in the development of future versions of these models. In this presentation, I will discuss a computational strategy designed to effectively quantify and utilize the knowledge contained within books, addressing the opportunities and challenges for libraries in this process.