In 1997 Bydgoszcz Technical and Agricultural Academy (currently Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology of J. and J. Śniadeccy) initiated the creation of the indexing database of the contents of Polish technical journals. In 1989, in Bydgoszcz, the interested institutions signed the Agreement of the libraries and institutes. The aim of that Agreement was the joint creation of the bibliographical and abstract database with the content of Polish technical journals, called BazTech. Bydgoszcz Technical and Agricultural Academy was the coordinator of this Agreement. Initially, the project gathered 14 academic libraries and scientific institutes. In the next years another 9 joined in the project, and one left. Now, the team consists of 22 institutions from 15 Polish cities- the creators of the database. In 2006-2022 the project was coordinated by Cracow University of Technology. Since 2022 the project has been coordinated by Lublin University of Technology.
In 2008 the institutions who create the Agreement signed the contract and established BazTech Consortium. The contract defined the rules of cooperation between the Partner institutions who belong to BazTech Consortium. The current Contract of BazTech Consortium was concluded for 5 years, from 13th May 2017 to 13th May 2022.
The creation of BazTech database began in 1998 within the framework of the grant from the Committee for Scientific Research for the “development and providing access to databases of a regional or national character in computer networks”. The database was made available on the Internet in January 1999 on the server of the University of Warsaw IT Centre (CIUW), currently the ICM UW within the framework of the Virtual Library of Science. Since 1999 the project was co-financed by the Ministry of National Education and Sport (MENIS) (research support activity). In the years 2005-2015, grants were received from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) as part of the SPUB WBN and DS WBN projects. In the years 2016-2019, the development of the database was co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s funds allocated to activities promoting science (DUN). Since 2020, the project has been co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education later the Ministry of Education and Science (MNiSW later MEiN) within the framework of the “Social responsibility of science” programme.
In 2007 Baz Tech Consortium activity developed and it started to create a domain portal of “subject gateway” type- BazTOL- Polish electronic resources in the field of technical sciences.
