Open Access in Croatia : a Study of Authors' Perceptions

The most important participants of scientific communication are scientists. They are both producers and users of scientific information. Publishers, libraries, scientific associations and institutions have to ensure transmission of information but scientists are in the centre of scientific communication. Open Access (OA) to peer-reviewed scientific information is relatively new form of scientific communication and is accepted by a number of worlds’ scientists, universities, libraries and publishers. Numerous surveys of scientists’ involvement in the open access movement have been published throughout the world, but Croatian scientists’ perceptions have never been examined. In this paper, a study of Croatian scientists' perceptions of Open Access movement will be presented. The sample will consist of over 300 Croatian scientists who had published their papers in the last issues of Croatian scientific journals published on the Hrčak portal (portal of Croatian scientific journals) in 2008. Anonymous web questionnaire will be send to the scientists. They will be asked about their publishing experiences – how many scientific papers they publish yearly, are the journals they publish in OA journals, what are reasons for publishing (or not publishing) in OA journals, have they ever self-archived their scientific paper, and if yes - why and where. They will also be asked how they deal with copyright issues while self-archiving. Results will be analyzed altogether as well as according to scientific field. Results will show whether Croatian scientists are familiar with the Open Access movement, whether they practice submitting articles to OA journals and whether they self-archive their papers. Some proposals about future development of Open Access in Croatia will be presented

Social networking sites, libraries, users

In this paper, Facebook statistics will show the growth of the SNS. In short literature review published papers on using Facebook in libraries will be discussed. Results of a survey of students participants of 2012 Erasmus Intensive Program Library, Information and Cultural Management – Academic Summer School (IP LibCMASS) will be analyzed

LIS students and plagiarism in the networked environment

Plagiarism is unethical behaviour that can have negative consequences on the development of science and society. It also ruins the reputation of individuals and institutions. Plagiarism can be intended or unintended. The paper will focus on unintended plagiarism that is a result of absence of that topic in the education curricula. Teaching about plagiarism is part of so-called ethical literacy that is a subcategory of information literacy. A survey was conducted with the aim of finding out about the degree of knowledge about plagiarism among the students of Library and Information Science at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. The analysis is based on an anonymous web questionnaire with 20 questions. The presumption is that the students do not know enough about plagiarism, they have not had any experiences with plagiarism during their education and they do not know what self- plagiarism is. Another presumption is that the students get detailed instructions about how to cite sources, but do not know enough about the concept of authorship. The conclusion will be made about the inclusion of this segment of information literacy in education curricula. New surveys will be proposed (on local and national level)

Croatian school libraries on Facebook: meeting the needs of young library users

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of Croatian school libraries on Facebook by analysing quality and quantity of interactions. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper, literature about libraries on Facebook is reviewed and the need for new research on the topic is explained. Quantitative and content analysis of all Croatian school libraries on Facebook is presented. Quantitative analysis includes: metrics, features, number of items in features, number of libraries' and users' activities (posts, likes, comments and shares). Content analysis includes analysis of information section and posts published in two-month period. Findings – Croatian school librarians know how to use Facebook on a basic level, but some are not educated sufficiently to administer Facebook presences – they use the wrong kind of presence, administer it without planning and sometimes publish inappropriate content. Users of Croatian school libraries rarely interact, mostly by liking library's status and they wait for their libraries to encourage the interaction. Practical implications – This research can help school librarians to see what they have to do to improve or to implement their Facebook activities. The improvement should advance library service, both on Facebook and in real life. Originality/value – The paper confirms that Croatian school librarians are aware of the importance of social networking sites for communication with patrons. This is the first complete study of Croatian school libraries on Facebook and intends to be a basis for a longitudinal study of school libraries' presence on social networking sites. The study could also be a starting point for similar analysis worldwide

Information literacy and open access in Croatian academic libraries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present results of a survey of Croatian academic libraries’ user education about open access (OA)-related issues. The concept of OA literacy will be explained, and the term will be put in the context of information literacy (IL) and scholarly communication. Design/methodology/approach An anonymous online questionnaire was sent to all the Croatian academic libraries with the aim to find out if libraries are involved in OA and to learn about plans for user education about the aspect of IL that is important for using OA information. Findings Almost all the libraries are involved in OA publishing, either through OA repositories or through OA journals. However, 22 per cent of the libraries do not educate their users about OA. Two most important IL skills in the context of OA are finding OA information and understanding OA citation advantage. Academic libraries in Croatia mostly recognize the questionable publishers as a threat for OA. However, 40 per cent of libraries do not plan any form of education about OA literacy. Practical implications The results of this research can be a basis for creating programmes of user education in academic libraries. Some problems are recognized, some skills are identified and further steps could be undertaken to improve academic library users’ OA literacy skills. Originality/value The research results contribute to understanding the importance of academic libraries in developing OA literacy of their users. The paper gives results of a survey of Croatian academic libraries and some new perspectives for authors, readers and libraries on how to evaluate OA sources using OA literacy skills

Gifts in Croatian public and academic libraries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide information on handling gifts‐in‐kind in Croatian public and academic libraries. It also recommends what should be done to improve practice with gifts for collections. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the author's research conducted using an anonymous online questionnaire that was sent to Croatian public libraries (n=139) and academic libraries (n=73) in May 2011. After a two‐week period, a total of 84 responses was received (40 public libraries and 44 academic libraries). In statistical analysis, some variables are tested by χ2‐test to show whether differences between public and academic libraries are statistically significant. Findings – The majority of Croatian libraries do not have gift policy statements. Gifts do have a significant part in collection building, especially in Croatian academic libraries, but are not always handled in the right way (i.e. according to IFLA's guidelines). This paper shows the quantity of gifts in the libraries, librarians' reasons for not accepting some gifts, librarians' methods in dealing with gifts, and their way of communicating with donors or potential donors. Originality/value – This paper gives results of the first complete study of gift policies in Croatian public and academic libraries. In conclusion, a need for a written gift policy in Croatian libraries is emphasized and some recommendations are given

The Balkans as European Otherness. On Shaping Italian Public Opinion about the War in Croatia

In Croatia, the political changes involving most of Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s included a war fought between 1991 and 1995. This paper aims, by examining the press releases and newspaper articles published in the Italian daily La Stampa in 1995, to show how this influential newspaper worked on shaping Italian public opinion about the war in Croatia, and to examine the extent to which well-rooted stereotypes about the Balkans played a role in the process. The application of the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis on the material has confirmed the occurrence of stereotypes expressed through several types of polarized representations, for example, the one between the good (Italy/Europe/West) and the bad (Croatia/the Balkans – associated with “primitive” nationalism and chaos). It has also shown that Italy (as part of Europe), largely saw itself as the “appointed” Western civilized neighbour towards one of its Balkan neighbours, Croatia, and worked on trying, as Todorova would put it, “to normalise” it

Ethical Attitudes of Practicing Librarians and LIS Academics: Is There a Difference?

Professional ethics seems to be gaining importance as the library environment changes under the influence of new technologies and new legislation of concern for libraries is continuously introduced. The changing environment may create uneasiness among the library staff who might not always be sure how to react in new situations. Therefore librarians should learn about ethical issues and professional ethics has become a legitimate topic in both LIS curricula and professional training courses. It might seem that LIS educators will be the first to adopt the library ethics principles and live by them. But in fact they also belong to another professional community – the academic profession – which has its own values which may or may not correspond to the professional values of librarians. In the times when the library profession is confronted with numerous challenges and when voices are raised that it should reexamine its position in the society, it is extremely important that LIS educators and practicing librarians share the same professional ethics. In order to understand the professional values of the LIS academic staff, an investigation of their ethical attitudes will be carried out. The investigation will be based on a specially developed questionnaire and an accompanying interview if needed. The results will be commented and compared to the results obtained in two earlier investigations on the ethical attitudes of practicing librarians which were carried out in 2002 and 2006. The aim of the paper is to find out if the whole library community in Croatia share the same professional values