What happened to the CRIN library
As our long-term readers know, CRIN was set up in 1995 to serve as a central place for sharing information about children’s rights. Back in those days, many organisations didn’t have a website of their own and so CRIN took on the role of online library, both for publications and as a directory of organisations around the world.
Over the years, the site became an essential repository for all kinds of information about children’s rights, from news and resources to organisations working on children’s rights. But keeping this up to date was extremely time consuming.
As it grew, so did the technical requirements of the database. Information was out of date, links to external sites were broken, organisations changed and disappeared, and our website was repeatedly hacked. We did not have the human resources or expertise to do it justice. It became untenable.
Our efforts in trying to rebuild it were painful and expensive. Several tech companies wouldn’t even go near the site; it was too complex. So we made the difficult but necessary decision to build a new light and vibrant website we could use for the work CRIN was doing: the policy, research and campaigning work, and to archive the library while we look for a solution. While the old site is still accessible, it is no longer being updated.
Since then, we have had many internal conversations with the team, the board and some external partners about where to go from here. We have fixed and relaunched some of the unavailable resources from our old website where there was demand, including our children’s rights case law database, but more broadly nothing is simple or decided. We know that many of our regular users have been disappointed and frustrated by the lack of progress.
In an effort to make amends we would like to invite anyone with a few minutes to spare to help us find the way forward.
One potential solution we are considering is to identify a new host with the technical capacity to maintain it, i.e. an existing online library or research institute. But there may be other options we have not considered.
So we would like to invite our readers and partners to share any thoughts, concerns or suggestions. We’ve created the following three options:
First: 2 minutes
Answer one question about the future of the CRIN library here.
Second: 10 minutes
Help us to understand your experience of, concerns about and interest in the CRIN library by answering this short survey.
Third: 60 minutes
To join a small focus group for an online discussion about the future of the CRIN library, drop you name and email here.
For any other ideas or to offer your help, please email us directly at info@crin.org
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