About us
Turning shared knowledge into collective strength.
The PBUQ is at the heart of knowledge sharing, driven by our belief that shared knowledge can change the world.
Driven by this conviction, the Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ) was created in 2019 to strengthen the collaboration that has been ongoing for more than half a century and to promote it more widely.
Combining expertise to address major challenges.
The PBUQ brings together the expertise of Quebec’s university libraries in committees and working groups where shared expertise becomes a collective lever. Together, we address the essential challenges of access to resources, conservation, and collection management, while paving the way for key initiatives in open science, the fight against disinformation, and the advancement of research data.
Collective ingenuity at the service of experience.
By pooling resources, efforts, and initiatives, the PBUQ makes collaboration a driver of innovation for all university libraries. Joint projects go beyond efficiency: They create a space to reinvent the library experience and offer the student, teaching, and research community cutting-edge services that enrich their journeys and project the role of libraries into the future.
The circulation of knowledge as a collective force.
By supporting the creation, promotion, and circulation of knowledge, the PBUQ sets knowledge in motion so that it travels beyond campuses. It gives it a new voice, visibility, and usefulness: Ideas, produced here and elsewhere, resonate in society, are transformed into accessible resources, and feed collective reflection.
Alone, knowledge informs.
Shared, it transforms.
People behind the PBUQ.
Skilled, dedicated, and dynamic, our team applies its expertise in support of both the most advanced research and the broadest curiosity.
Our member university libraries.
By pooling the expertise, ideas and resources of Quebec’s university libraries, the PBUQ sets this knowledge in motion.
Our story.
From the early days of simple collaboration to today’s complex information ecosystem, the PBUQ has been innovating for nearly 60 years to advance the flow of academic knowledge.
The collaboration among Quebec university libraries begins under the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities (CREPUQ), aimed at fostering cooperation among Quebec institutions.
© Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
Creation of the Subcommittee of Libraries within CREPUQ, tasked with coordinating collective efforts: concerted development of collections, interlibrary loans (ILL), and cooperative cataloguing.
© Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
Collaboration intensifies as library computerization expands, digital resources emerge, and collections are increasingly shared.
© Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
Development of the “Virtual Quebec Research Library” (Bibliothèque de recherche virtuelle Québécoise – BRVQ), a major project that laid the groundwork for current resource-sharing ambitions by aiming to create a common service offering across Quebec’s university libraries.
© Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
First major technical resource-sharing initiative with the rollout of a shared information technology system for interlibrary loans (ILL).
© Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)
Transformation of CREPUQ into the Office of Interuniversity Cooperation (Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire – BCI), with an expanded mission of broader university cooperation, and the launch of discussions around a large-scale resource-sharing project and shared services platform.
© Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI)
Adoption of strategic directions for increased resource sharing, the development of a shared services platform (PPS), and a renewed model of collaboration among libraries. Learn more abou the PPS.
© PBUQ
Official launch of the PBUQ, bringing together the libraries of Quebec’s 18 universities along with the head office of the Université du Québec, marking a new era of collaboration.
© PBUQ
Official recognition of the PBUQ’s independence by university administrations: The partnership becomes a shared structure, distinct from the BCI, ensuring autonomous and sustainable governance.
© PBUQ
The PBUQ is affiliated with Université de Montréal, which officially assumes the mandate of representing it, thereby strengthening its administrative and operational stability.
© Google Map
The PBUQ is continually preparing for the future. If you have ideas to help shape our evolution and to make academic knowledge more visible, we invite you to share them with us.
© PBUQ
Stories worth telling.
Our plan for the future.
Clear objectives to shape action, steer projects, and amplify collective outcomes.
- Combat misinformation through coordinated and shared strategies.
- Establish libraries’ expertise in information and digital literacy.
- Support the joint development of services for open educational resources.
- Innovate by experimenting with artificial intelligence in learning practices and in support of open education.
- Implement a coordinated program for managing digital collections.
- Continue a shared program for managing print collections.
- Pursue initiatives to promote culture in consultation with Indigenous Peoples.
- Actively commit to standards that facilitate access to documentation for people with print disabilities.
- Optimize the harmonization of collections management by leveraging advances in artificial intelligence.
- Support the development and dissemination of scientific publications in French.
- Implement a shared service offering to support scholarly journals.
- Support scholarly publishing of open access e-books.
- Consolidate and share expertise in research data management.
- Pool expertise in supporting research activities, including copyright.
- Innovate by experimenting with artificial intelligence in the context of open science and research support.
- A team that supports and amplifies collective work.
- A team that professionalizes its practices and structures its knowledge.
- A team that makes the PBUQ visible and indispensable.
Annual reports
See our annual reports for insight into the initiatives and projects we’ve led together.