Academic library and NGOs alliance – successful partnership for open educational resources
Creators: name: Kokot-Kanikuła, Kamila
name: Wysmyk, Natalia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: Academic libraries are actively promoting open educational resources to researchers and students. However, OERs offer resources and tools that are useful to many user groups that are not necessarily related to science or faculty. To counteract educational exclusion Gdansk University of Technology Library partnered with non-governmental organizations that promote digital cultural heritage, digital knowledge society and support the professional path of librarians in Poland on a daily basis. The partnership included the following institutions: City Culture Institute in Gdansk, an organization working among the local community, which has a series of events promoting the region's cultural heritage and provides training for cultural, information and science professionals. At the national level, there are two more institutions: Digital Center Poland, whose main tasks include broad promotion of digital skills, conscious and legal use of Internet resources, and the Polish Librarians' Association, which brings together employees of different types of libraries. Colaborating with NGOs, librarians shared with their knowledge, experience and teaching skills. Whereas NGOs provided funds, materials and platforms through which it was possible to organize and promote events. The aim of this collaboration was:- to expand the audience that can benefit from OER- knowing the needs of different groups of users.- creating various offer to potential users. This goals were in line with those announced in the 2019 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Education Resources, particularly related to the 3rd area of action "Encouraging effective, inclusive and equitable access to quality OER". The result of cooperation was: - open webinars for the local community on OER and opportunities for their reuse, organized in 2021 together with the City Culture Institute in Gdansk. - a publication for librarians published in 2022 containing a set of open educational tools and materials, including scenarios for cultural and scientific events, meetings activating the most excluded social groups, such as seniors or national minorities. The publication is available in both digital and analog versions with additional QR codes linking to the cited educational tools and resources. The project was led by Digital Center Poland, while Gdansk University of Technology Library was invited to cooperate as an institutional partner. - a survey, which was conducted in 2022 among librarians working in public libraries (municipal and provincial) in Pomerania, on the initiative of the Gdansk University of Technology Library in cooperation with the Polish Librarians' Association - Pomerania Region Division. The survey was designed to determine the degree of familiarity with OER among librarians and the training needs of the community. On the basis of the responses, training courses are currently being designed. Training sessions among librarians are planned for late 2023 and early 2024. The poster is designed to showcase the activities undertaken, their impact and benefits to society and should give a boost to other libraries to come into a partnership with NGOs, because with the influence of NGOs, libraries can gain a wider audience and new ways of promoting.
description: This poster was presented during the 4th Open Science Fair (25-27 September, Madrid, Spain)