Uczelnie akademickie i ich biblioteki w Europie wiedzy

Abstract

The title refers to the place and role of university libraries in the context of the European Union development policy which evolves together with the competitive challenges on the global knowledge and education market. The goal of the paper is to blow a whistle to signal that the importance of the libraries for building a knowledge potential of the universities participating in those processes is not sufficiently acknowledged or used in the efforts to modernize the country or the Union as a whole. The said importance is merely partially taken into account in the EU and national science policies or the higher education policy. The EU development priorities mentioned in the paper give rise to a number of tasks for Poland in connection with generating, dis-seminating and transferring knowledge, which could not happen without university libraries. Although these tasks are perceived in Poland, they do not constitute an official priority in the higher education policy, but, instead, a mere proposal of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.