Opportunities to use the potential of academic libraries in research projects

Abstract

The article encourages representatives of the academic community to exploit the potential of the library and “advertises” the knowledge and versatile skills of librarians. The paper systemises and classifies the fields of activity where the potential of libraries can contribute to the delivery of a wide spectrum of research projects. Library activities are presented from a new perspective, with a focus on new quality of services provided by libraries, which can use both their own infrastructure and the potential of their staff to support and co-deliver projects. In addition to the services that are undoubtedly part of libraries’ mission, a new and very important aspect of their activities was described. In fact, libraries can carry out research projects themselves and even play the role of a project leader, which gives them a new place in the academic community. Research projects are understood as projects that involve basic research - funded mainly by the National Science Centre, the Ministry of Education and Science and from EU funds under Horizon 2020. In the case of EU-funded projects that do not involve basic research (Operational Programme Digital Poland), it is difficult to determine whether the research aspect - if any - is in line with the definition of basic research, unless it is clearly evident from the project description made available to the public.