Archives
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Vol. 19 No. 2 (2023): Resources and means to access information
Vol. 19 No. 2 (2023)This issue gives insights into how information is accessed and used by two categories of patrons: students and people with disabilities. The first study gets the reader into the Romanian realities with regards to facilitating access to information for people with disabilities, and the second and the third are exploring the way students from The Department of Administrative Sciences and The Department of Communication Sciences of the Faculty of Letters are using information resources in their daily scholarly tasks.
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Information seeking behaviour, Artificial Intelligence and metadata access to digital objects representations
Vol. 19 No. 1 (2023)This issue is an information track with milestones at information-seeking behaviour and information literacy, the effects in research of the use of ChatGPT through a scientometric analysis ending with means to access research and cultural heritage metadata.
The first article sets the first milestone on the subject of the information seeking behaviour of students at Babeș-Bolyai University. Some important hypotheses are tested against the data collected through the means of a survey. An important conclusion in the context of the European Year of Skills, the article advises that "a much better collaboration between teachers and librarians is needed, to improve students' information literacy skills and increase their autonomy in the information search process". The second milestone is focused on bibliometric analysis concerning the use of the ChatGPT chatbot. The main takeaway from the study is that AI tools are used in the research field for documentation and a small teaser adds interest in improving accessibility. The last part of this issue is dedicated to the access to matadata through the means of Access Programming Interfaces - APIs. We draw the end of this summary pointing out some of the conclusions. The APIs role is in continuous growth as the need for metadata is also in high demand. APIs are one access point to the digital object representations opened to human and machine consumption and integration as long as some interoperability is maintained. -
Perspectives on professional library space
Vol. 18 No. 1 (2022)This issue comes with two perspectives: one concerning the libraries functioning in prisons, and the other shedding light on how new media influences the librarian competencies and involvement.
The purpose of „Enclosed Spaces, Boundless Possibilities” study is to draw attention to the current state of Romanian prison libraries by focusing on such aspects as the legal framework under which they operate, their organization and facilities, the management of their collections and the policies employed to this end, the staff in charge of these structures, as well as library usage and satisfaction. Moreover, the present study aims to highlight the main obstacles and difficulties that Romanian prison libraries are struggling with at the moment, and to provide a few minimal recommendations for the improvement of their services and overall quality.
Podcasts as modern strategies for promoting reading literacy and reading culture and their impact on professionals draws attention to the modern strategies in promoting reading literacy and reading culture in the professional environment, with emphasis podcasts in the Slovenian public libraries as strategy. General findings establish the connection between knowing or following podcasts and the impact on individual elements of professional competences.
Model of preparing podcasts as a contemporary strategy for encouraging reading literacy and reading culture presents and analyses the preparation and application of a modern strategy promoting reading literacy and reading culture, its scope, responsiveness and usefulness the professional environment and the wider social environment. Action research with the method of observation (system diaries) and analytical research (survey method) were used, which were conducted as part of a case study - this is the first such example of the use of modern strategies the Slovenian library space.
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Special Issue
This number contains papers presented at the VIIIth SWS International Scientifc Conference - Social Sciences
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Vol. 17 No. 2 (2021)
Lately, an increasing number of countries have set up national bibliographic databases, which aim to achieve more comprehensive coverage of the national research outputs. These databases both increase the visibility of national publications and compensate the limited coverage of traditional citation databases, such as Scopus or Web of Science. National bibliographic databases are being increasingly used by a wide variety of stakeholders for numerous purposes, ranging from basic information retrieval and research outputs overview to bibliometric analysis, evaluation and research funding.
The Republic of Moldova set up its national bibliographic database – National Bibliometric Instrument (IBN) in 2011. Nowadays, IBN includes over 113.000 articles published in national scientific journals, as well as conference proceedings from the Republic of Moldova starting from 1993 to date, with over 90% of publications indexed by Google Academic. IBN is used for the evaluation of national scientific journals and provides valuable insights on the overall evolution and trends of national research outputs, but is not being used for research funding.
This paper aims to describe the history, actual structure and user possibilities of IBN. It also aims to analyse IBN design, organisation, maintenance and usage from the perspective of the Manual of good practices regarding national bibliographic databases, developed in the context of the ‘European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities’ ENRESSH. Finally, the paper intends to provide a set of recommendations for IBN reengineering and improvement. (Irina Cojocaru, Gheorghe Cuciureanu, Igor Cojocaru)
The literature review is the most important step in achieving scientific research. The large amount of information can be analyzed using scientometric methods. It was downloaded a database of scientific production published in the last five years in the Clarivate Analitycs database — Web of Science - in the field of copyright. The downloaded database is analysed with VOS Viewer, scientometric analysis software. The subject analysed is used in many areas of research, as well as pure copyright, but also associated with the fields of medicine, nanoelectronics, genetics. The method used can be multiplied for any topic or domain.(Ionela Maria Bârsan)
Information literacy must be an innovative discipline, adapt to technology and the information requirements of the academic community. Introducing new chapters and then assessing their impact on students and their informational behavior is the best way to improve the content and the way of teaching the course. The authors present a model for investigating a part of the students’ perception in Transilvania University of Brasov. The paper was presented at the Romanian Librarians Association Conference in September 2021. (Angela Repanovici, Ionela Maria Bârsan, Eleonora Dinu)
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Vol. 16 No. 2 (2020)
Vol. 16 No. 2 (2020)The reference librarian and the services provided hold more than ever the attention of users at the “Dunărea de Jos” University Library of Galati (DJULG). The Internet, technology and struggle for survival left a significant mark on both librarians' skills and reference services in the new context of the information society. In order to align with new trends in librarianship and to respond effectively to the increasingly complex demands of users, the reference librarians had to move beyond the traditional and reinvent themselves. As a result, new skills have been acquired and new services emerged in the information landscape of the university library. The paper examines the evolution of the reference services at DJULG over the last ten years, emphasizing the changes of the librarian profile in this area. The variety of information sources, the emergence of new information technologies, the movement on open access have been the main elements that contributed to the professional development of the reference librarian and the implementation of new models of services for users. The case of the university library in this study reveals different profiles of the reference librarian: researcher, educator in information literacy, bibliometrician, wikilibrarian, digital resources manager, reference manager etc. Not far from the truth, we can say that the reference librarian became a chameleon, from the perspective of information evolution and ensuring sustainable library services (Lenuța Ursachi).
Libraries are a natural hotspot for volunteer work, they can act as both beneficiaries and organizers of volunteers and their work. Volunteer programs in the libraries cover an important range of possibilities, from basic library work (moving books, assisting users that need help) to specialized activities (language courses, computer courses, specialized activities with persons with disabilities) and everything in between.This study aims to offer an overview of the situation regarding volunteer work in Romanian public libraries. It seeks to find out whether and how the county libraries and the two national libraries use volunteers.This study presents a brief analysis of the online presence of Romanian libraries (Mihai Constantinescu, Alina Danciu, Dana Haimana)
We inaugurate through the material below the interview section of the Romanian Journal of Library and Information Science. This new section aims to bring opinions and comments directly from specialists in the field and other interested people. The first interview is with Mrs. Delia Pantea, librarian in charge with methodological assistance, "Gheorghe Șincai" County Library Bihor. The interview comes in the context in which the Bihor County Council decided to cut 17 occupied positions from the organizational chart of the county library and to abolish two branches (Mihai Constantinescu)
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Libraries and the COVID-19 crisis
Vol. 16 No. 1 (2020)Topics discussed in this special issue include an investigation into the ways in which an academic library from Norway adapted to the COVID-19 crisis (How an academic library worked during the Covid-19 pandemic by Ane Landøy and Trude Færevaag) and an „analysis of the online presence of Romanian libraries” (LIBRARIES IN THE CONTEXT OF A PANDEMIC: CRISIS AND OPORTUNITY by Elena Tîrziman). The reader will also find an article regarding RDA (Resource Description and Access) and its functionalities (RDA – THE LONG WAY TO A CHANGE OF VISION by Victoria Frâncu).
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Vol. 15 No. 3-4 (2019)
Our approach is unique, as the official activity reports published by the National Library are lacking the qualitative studies which would have helped establishing the directions of development of the services dedicated to different types of users. The quantitative reports officially reveal that the users tend to favor the free reading spaces in spite of the reading rooms. These statistics lead us to the idea that the library must operate changes in its public policies, considering new services and healthy conditions for 54,000 free spaces users per year. (Mădălina Lefter)
More and more in Romania the need to have well-trained teaching and administrative staff in order to transform schools, universities and libraries into inclusive environments is felt. Often, not only the material base is missing (for example: access technologies), but a large part of staff also feels that they do not have the skills necessary to ensure effective communication with people with disabilities and their families. This research aims to investigate the training needs of teaching staff and librarians, both in schools and universities. (Daniela Popa, Angela Repanovici)
The article surprises elements of novelty and needs in the activity of scientific research and communication, identifies the needs and their practical settlement. We identified the needs and behavior of the academic staff involved in research and we analyzed trends in contemporary research. (Ionela Maria Bârsan)
