The CAELUM Project and the Scientific Library of USUST

From March 31 to April 3, 2025, the University of Tartu (University of Tartu, Estonia, founded in 1632) hosted the inaugural meeting of the university team leaders from five European countries as part of the international project “Open science supporting vulnerable communities: empowering university libraries in crisis response” (CAELUM), funded by ERASMUS+.

The Scientific Library of USUST is the only university library in Ukraine that, together with European partners in CAELUM, won the competition of the European Union’s Erasmus+ program in the higher education sector and secured grant funding.

The USUST team in Estonia included: Tetiana KOLESNYKOVA (leader and coordinator), Candidate of Sciences in Social Communications, Senior Researcher, Director of the Scientific Library of USUST; Roman RYBALKO, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor, Deputy Director of the SEI DIIT (Project Manager). Constant online communication between Dnipro and Tartu included group leader Maksym SOROKA, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Ecological and Civil Safety of SEI DIIT; Tetiana SHCHERBATIUK (team member), Head of the Information Technology Department at the Scientific Library of USUST, and Olha SAVYNA (team member), Head of the Department for Prevention and Detection of Plagiarism at the Scientific Library of USUST.

The CAELUM project is being implemented by university teams from Germany, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, and Ukraine, and aims to promote open knowledge, open science, including citizen science, open education, and open educational resources. CAELUM places university libraries at the forefront of crisis response through the openness of knowledge, supporting vulnerable communities, and strengthening cooperation between the EU and Ukraine.

Open Science is at the heart of global and, in particular, European research policy. Since Ukraine gained independence, its primary direction for development has gradually emerged — EU integration. The idea of Euro-integration is a conscious and natural strategic choice of Ukrainian society, confirmed by many challenges. The key document guiding this movement is the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine’s Order (October 8, 2022, № 892-r.) “On the Approval of the National Plan for Open Science.”

The Scientific Library of USUST has been building the digital infrastructure for open science and open education for more than 15 years. The University’s academic text repository CRUST (Common Repository of the University of Science and Technologies), digital publishing platforms Open Journal Systems, Open Conference Systems, and Open Monograph Press, open metadata for DOI and Crossref, integration with the European open repository Zenodo, the global Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the Open Educational Resources Search Index (OERSI) are just a few of the initiatives that have long become standard practices at the Library.

The USUST team’s case, “Crisis of Disinformation in Emergency Conditions in Ukraine: the Library in Preventing the Social, Civil, and Political Consequences of Environmental Safety Misinformation,” is highly relevant in the context of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, including the information war.

The CAELUM project is funded by the ERASMUS+ program (project number 2024-1-EE01-KA220-HED-000243324) and will conclude in the spring of 2027.