On November 1, 2024, the Library & Information Center of University of Patras, Greece organised their multiplier event for the EU funded project CeOS_SE. Apart from the registered participants, the event piqued the interest of the users of the Library who also attended this event to listen to the project team presenting the outcomes of the project, the role of the Library, the network of partners that was developed around this project in Greece, as well as it gave room to several interesting projects of science communication of citizen science to share their practices.
The event started with two speeches from the Library of UPatras. Dr. Giannis Tsakonas, Director of the Library, presented an overview of the CeOS_SE project, its line of work and the role of the Library of UPatras. Then, Theodora Karaiskou presented the results of the PR5 that the Library led, which focused on the role of citizen science in the curricula of Library & Information Science Departments of Southeastern Europe and highlighted the opinions of both students and faculty members. Apart from the report on the findings from the student survey, the Library published on the YouTube channel of the project accessible video interviews of the faculty members.
Exploring the Role of Libraries in Citizen Science
Nataša Dakić and Aleksandra Trtovac from the Univerzitetska biblioteka “Svetozar Marković” presented the Roadmap of Citizen Science in Balkans and what were the recommendations for libraries to implement. The executive summary and the infographics of the Roadmap (designed by the UPatras team) can be found in all project languages on the Zenodo collection of CeOS_SE.
Finally, Iro Tzorbatzaki, Director of the Library of University of Macedonia, Greece and Vice President of the Greek Librarians Association presented how her library addresses the citizen science needs of their community on the way to implement the institutional open science policy.The next session concentrated on science communication. Michalis Sialaros, Anastasia Doxanaki and Christos Papatheodorou presented the Ancient Science Project by the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Greece. They emphasized the need of universities to be active on science communication and noted that social media is now governing the means of communication, which makes them, as well as their applications, necessary to approach and engage with the public, especially the young one.
Stefania Oikonomou from Web2Learn, project partner in the sibling project LibOCS, presented how citizen science, empowered by libraries, supports open innovation. She also presented the entire portfolio of Web2Learn projects that support the inclusion and active civil engagement of Ukrainian refugees through libraries. She underlined that libraries through open innovation can strengthen social resilience in times of utter difficulty. Another example that Stefania shared is the GROMADA project that investigates the environmental effects emerging by this war.
Citizen Science in Action: Natural Sciences Projects
The third section focused on natural sciences, presenting a series of projects and studies that have citizens in their heart. Professor Sinos Gkiokas from the Department of Biology, University of Patras presented the “Ornithopolis” project, one of the earliest citizen science projects in the institution. The project gave opportunities for bird observation in the urban environment and helped pupils of the city to increase their awareness and knowledge of bird fauna. He underlined the changes in the urban environment and biodiversity, and he revealed that in their project it was found that the observation effectiveness was associated with the socioeconomic aspects of the participants.
Nikoletta Sidiropoulou from iSea GR presented the virtues of citizen science and the challenges of validity when citizens gather data. She shared impressive figures from the long record of iSea GR activities, that demonstrate the power of citizen engagement, such as 610.000 observations from 20.000 observers. During her speech, a crucial concern emerged; that opening data can often lead to danger that risks the preservation of some endangered species and therefore citizen science need stewardship and protection. iSea GR held a BioBlitz at the Wetlands National Park of Kotychi-Strofylia, offering to the participants a very productive combination of theory and practice.
Diamantina Nikolaou presented the big picture of citizen science and biodiversity. One part of the study together with Professor Maria Panitsa, both at the Department of Biology, University of Patras, was dedicated to the bibliographic landscape. One of the important findings is that the countries with the most interest in it are the developed ones, the so-called biosphere countries, and less ecosystem countries. They also conducted a user survey with more than 400 participants.
Hrissi Karapanagoiti presented two projects for sea waste monitoring and how citizens can help. International Pellet Watch is a volunteer-based global monitoring program that collects data and monitors the pollution status of the oceans. The project covers more than 200 locations around the world and focuses on persistent organic pollutants, which, due to their bio-accumulative nature on marine organisms and humans, are regulated by international treaties. The Ocean Travelers project monitors organisms that are growing on floating litter and travel across the ocean. Then, they reside on new locations and possibly invade and colonize coastline biosystems with adverse effects.
Stavroula Kordella continued on to discuss citizen science for tracing microplastic pollution at the shores and in the sea. She showed how the Great Hunt of Microplastics, a game with citizen science for recording microplastics and mesoplastics on the coastline of Greece, was implemented. The game involved citizens of all ages.
Challenges and Opportunities in Citizen Science
The last part was dedicated to conclusions. Both researchers and librarians agreed that there is a connection between them, even if it is not profound and that based on this connection there should be more collaboration. Dr. Tsakonas closed the event with the opinion that the outputs of the project are not the same as the impact. The impact is now stronger and deeper than anticipated.Author: Theodora Karaiskou
