Sustaining the Commons

We launched Sustaining the Commons in 2020 in order to inform our community about a series of then-forthcoming changes to the network and its governance. We were moving the hosting and fiscal sponsorship for the network from its founder, the Modern Language Association, to Michigan State University, as well as migrating the repository infrastructure from Columbia University Libraries to MSU Libraries. We had also just received an Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as a result we were embarking on a period of significant fundraising, which we hoped would allow us to build a five-year runway to both financial and technical sustainability.

We’ve made excellent progress since then, and so we’ve reframed this site as a space that will allow us to continue to communicate with our users, with our current and potential participating organizations, and with our funders, in the most open transparent way possible. We plan to use this site to keep you updated on the processes and results of our network governance structure; on the technical work we’re embarked upon (and ways that you can get involved); on our community development work; on our financial operations and the support we receive from funders, organizational and institutional partners, and individual users; and on our network policies...."