Public libraries as an important community hub for citizen science
ECS project
July 9, 2026, 11:34 a.m.
When people picture citizen science, they usually picture a lab, a field site, or a university department. Rarely do they picture the library down the street. And yet, over the past four years, working within the European Citizen Science (ECS) project has convinced me that public libraries are one of the most natural homes citizen science could ask for.
Public libraries already do, every day, what citizen science needs: they are free, trusted, and open to everyone, regardless of background or education. They sit in neighbourhoods, small towns, and remote villages that research institutions rarely reach. They already run reading groups, workshops, and public talks. Turning that same infrastructure toward science felt less like starting something new and more like recognising something that was already there, waiting to be named.
That naming is exactly what ECS helped us do. Before the project, libraries and researchers largely lived in parallel worlds: researchers didn't always know libraries could be genuine partners rather than just venues, and librarians often found the research world hard to access, unsure who to approach or how to get involved. ECS gave us the occasions, the training resources, and the community to start closing that gap. Events like "Bringing Citizen Science to Public Libraries" in Ljubljana this June brought librarians and researchers into the same room to talk honestly about what was stopping them from working together, and, more importantly, what could make it easier. What came out of those conversations was simple: libraries need to be invited in from the start of a project, not after the design is already finished, and both sides need a clear point of contact to make that first step less daunting.
Rather than let that momentum fade as ECS comes to a close, we decided to give it a permanent home. Together with Aleš Klemen from Ljubljana City Library, I'm proud to be co-chairing a new ECSA Working Group on Public Libraries and Citizen Science. The Working Group will map what libraries across Europe are already doing, build practical guidance and training for library staff, collect case studies worth replicating, and advocate for libraries to be recognised as genuine citizen science infrastructure, not an afterthought.
The future of citizen science in libraries is still being written, but the foundations ECS helped us lay, trust, training, and a growing community of practice, mean it won't be written from scratch. If your library is curious about getting involved, or you're a researcher looking for a partner who already knows your community, the Working Group is open and we'd love to hear from you.
By Ilona Kish