Working groups

LIBER Citizen Science Working Group

Introduction

Citizen Science, or the participation of the general public in the scientific research process, is an important element in establishing new links between science and society. There are several ongoing efforts to create a definition for citizen science or to adopt the best terminology for public engagement in research activities.

One good description of citizen science used by the European Commission is:

Citizen Science refers to the general public engagement in scientific research activities when citizens actively contribute to science either with their intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge or with their tools and resources.

The LIBER Roadmap to Open Science makes a set of four strong recommendations to European research libraries, recommendations which remains guidelines for our working group.

Citizen Science, or the participation of the general public in the scientific research process, is an important element in establishing new links between science and society. It is thus essential to implementing Open Science, can contribute to innovation tailored to the needs of society, lead to reciprocal learning and foster a scientific culture across society as a whole.

The LIBER Citizen Science WG formally began in March 2019 and held its kick-off meeting during the LIBER Annual Conference in Dublin (June 2019). As Working Groups are the primary units to conduct work on the LIBER strategy, ours will operate under the Steering Committee for the direction, Research Libraries as Engaged and Trusted Hubs, as defined in LIBER’s 2023-2027 Strategy.

Contact

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Want to see a snapshot of what the Citizen Science Working group get up to?

Take a look at this ‘making of’ video, produced during the ‘Hands-on Citizen Science’ workshop at the LIBER Winter Event 2022.

(Produced by Tiberius Ignat, Scientific Knowledge Services)

Priority 1

Initiate and/or participate in a research project (by October 2021).

Priority 2

Complete the Working Group team (by July 2020).

Priority 3

Sign two partnerships with external organisations (by October 2021).

 

Achieved

Two MoUs have been signed in January 2022 – one with SciStarter and the other with ECSA.

Priority 4

Deliver a template (or a suite of templates) with accompanying advocacy for a “Single CS Contact Point” that could be implemented in research libraries (by October 2021).

Priority 5

Organise and deliver a webinar (by July 2020).

Priority 6

Release a Librarian’s Guide to Citizen Science (considering the existing model created by SciStarter/Arizona State University in the USA) (by July 2020).