In this article the authors introduce the Librarians' Research Partnership (LRP), founded in 2013, at McGill and Concordia University Libraries. The Partnership was inspired by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries' Librarians' Research Institute (CARL LRI) which was attended by three of the authors in 2012 and is described here from the point of view of the participants. The authors touch upon the research culture at McGill and Concordia Libraries and discuss barriers and supports for

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... research as prominent themes in the literature on the research role of Canadian academic librarians. The formation of the LRP and the eight subsequent meetings are explained in detail, as well as the factors that made the LRP a successful initiative between the two universities: physical proximity, similarity of working environments, and common organizational culture. The article also includes a discussion of how the LRP's philosophy might diverge from that of the LRI. Although the place of research among the professional responsibilities of academic librarians has long been debated, often as part of a larger discussion of librarians' academic status, 2 discussion of the topic has grown significantly in Canadian institutions over the past decade. A recent increase in literature focused on research culture in Canadian academic libraries exemplifies this trend and establishes the context from which the McGill-Concordia LRP developed. Schrader credits the recent interest in this topic to a growing desire among librarians to contribute to the pool of professional knowledge and to engage in the scholarly communication process. Schrader observes that this desire is at least in part inspired by "an increasing expectation in research libraries across Canada that librarians pursue 1 See http://www.carl-abrc.ca/en/research-libraries/librarians-research-institute.html. 2 Schrader, Shiri, and Williamson point to sources tracing the debate back in print to 1878.