From Local Memory to Research-Ready Knowledge: Community-Driven Urban History in a Research Library Repository

Research libraries face the challenge of integrating lived, local, and informal knowledge into their collections while maintaining scholarly standards. This presentation demonstrates how community stories and citizen science methodologies can be embedded into research library infrastructures, highlighting both benefits and challenges without compromising research integrity. 

The case study is presented through the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library of Budapest (FSZEK), which represents a hybrid library model particularly relevant in this context. FSZEK functions simultaneously as Budapest’s public municipal library network, a nationwide public library service, and Hungary’s national specialist library for sociology. Its long-established special collections - focused on Budapest, music, and sociology - reinforce its character as a research library. At the same time, through its Central Library and a network of 46 branch libraries operating in every district of Budapest, FSZEK reaches a broad and diverse audience, from everyday city residents to academic researchers, university lecturers, and students. This dual role positions the library at the intersection of civic knowledge and scholarly research. 

The project builds on Mihály Ráday’s urban survey conducted in the early 1980s, which documented buildings, functions, and social life in Budapest’s inner districts. Decades later, the initiative continues through a contemporary extension in which residents, students, and volunteers contribute photographs, observations, interviews, and contextual information using a structured citizen science approach. This process captures urban change while preserving everyday memories that would otherwise risk disappearing. 

Community contributions are curated, contextualised, and preserved within the Budapest Electronic Archive (BEA), FSZEK’s institutional digital repository based on DSpace. Controlled metadata, editorial review, and ethical guidelines ensure that community-generated materials become discoverable, citable, and reusable research resources, transforming local narratives into structured content suitable for urban studies, heritage research, and social research. 

The presentation will showcase: 

Beyond the local case, the project invites reflection on how research libraries—particularly those operating at the boundary between public service and scholarly infrastructure—can actively shape the future of knowledge creation. The session will examine the transferability of this model across diverse research library contexts and discuss its strategic implications for citizen science and digital collection development. By opening this discussion, the presentation aims to contribute to a broader dialogue on how libraries can build resilient, inclusive, and research-ready knowledge infrastructures in times of uncertainty.