The aim of this lightning presentation is to showcase the latest knowledge, evidence, and potential solutions to support Openness in education in Europe, as one of the components in the Open Science ecosystem. It presents the results of a 2022 survey of European libraries in Higher Education and their roles in Open Education (OE) and Open Education Resources (OER).

The main interest of this work is that brings together the librarian community’s actions to foster OER, through the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), and that it is framed by the UNESCO Recommendation on OER (2019). In this regard, academic libraries have provided evidence about their familiarity and level of implementation of OER, based on their experience in each of the five action areas of these UNESCO Recommendations:

• Area 1: Capacity building. Library engagement with OE, OER Library services and Skills

• Area 2: Developing Supportive Institutional Policy. Availability of policies addressing OE, type of OE policy and if library was involved in its conception.

• Area 3: Encouraging effective, inclusive and equitable access to quality OER. Library steps in providing inclusive OER (as for sensitive, culturally equitable, linguistically diverse and accessible)

• Area 4. Sustaining OER. Library staff dedicated to OE and the availability of OE grant programme or funding.

• Area 5: Promoting and reinforcing international cooperation: Involvement of libraries in OE netwoks and projects.

The work also suggests some recommendations that libraries can take to implement OER in their institutions and how to collaborate (between them and with other units) to advance the OER landscape, starting from their own work whilst also learning from others.

The research, launched in May 2022, addressed academic librarians across Europe, garnering 155 responses from 28 European countries and generating a comprehensive report (Santos-Hermosa, Proudam & Corti, 2022). This work is a collaboration between the research group Open Science Spain - and its funding National Plan “Ciencia abierta en España: la transición hacia un nuevo modelo de investigación” (PID2021-125828OB-I00)- and SPARC Europe -and its European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL)-.