School library enables students to actively acquire basic literacy competence as well as to develop communicational, social and research learing skills and critical thinking, with special regard to motivation improvement, and ultimately to a lifelong learning through different ways of well planned professional training in the school/institution or otherwise. Huge curriculum changes in education stimulate collaborative, experiential andactive learning, intersubject cornnection, as well as the use of new digital tools, development of various skills, critical thinking and creativity in general, as well as international cooperaton. In the context of the above mentioned changes, the school library should be the central point of any school research project. An initial comparative survey has been conducted on 66 schools, both Croatian and foreign. Based on this, the state of libraries and librarians in Croatian schools is analyzed. This analysis is focused on the use of modern learning methods and modern educational practices.The goal is to stress the significance of the school library in the contemporary educational process, with special emphasis to planning and implementing school projectsand project-based learning, which include active participation of the school library, with a highly qualified librarian, resources, cabinets and information and communication tools. Croatian school libraries do not differ to a great extent from the foreign school libraries with regard to their work and participation in projects or project-based learning. On the other hand, differences which do exist, raise certain issues which may lead to further, more thorough and comprehensive studies with the aim to improve working conditions, which is a crucial step needed for active participation of all school libraries in Croatia in contemporary education and project-based learning.