Aleksandra Horvat

A Multinational Study on Copyright Literacy Competencies of LIS Professionals

This paper presents findings from a multinational study on copyright literacy competencies of LIS (Library and Information Science) professionals. An online survey instrument was developed by the authors in order to collect data from professionals who work in cultural institutions such as libraries, archives and museums regarding their familiarity, knowledge, awareness, and opinions on copyright related issues. The survey garnered a total of 622 complete responses (148 from Bulgaria, 82 from Croatia, 311 from France and 81 from Turkey). Copyright competencies are getting more crucial for information professionals because managing and meeting copyright related challenges and trends will play a key role in shaping the future of the profession. The findings and conclusions are expected to help the LIS education community, experts of professional associations, managers and other specialists from cultural heritage institutions to discover gaps in copyright competencies of information professionals and take measures to fill those gaps.

Fragmentation of the LIS curriculum: the case of Croatia

An overview of the Library and Information Science (LIS) education in Croatia is provided. It is argued that the changes brought about by the new information and communication technology have a great impact on LIS education that requires more than habitual updating of the curriculum content practised up to the present. Apart from a number of new topics that have to be introduced into the curriculum, the form of the delivery of the content has to be changed. Modular form of delivery of LIS educational topics has become common and its adoption is related to the influence of technology that usually approaches the problems one‐by‐one as separate issues. Modularity is contrasted with the traditional academic teaching that assumes accumulated expert knowledge of the faculty.

Continuing education of librarians in Croatia: problems and prospects

Prior to the recent establishment of the Training Centre for Continuing Education of Librarians, training of librarians in Croatia had been organized sporadically by several organizations in the field. For the majority of librarians, however, professional education could have easily ended with diploma, because there has been no legal obligation to attend any form of further education. The first attempt to establish a consistent pattern of continuing education for librarians in the whole country was made when four major organizations in the library field, the National and University Library, Zagreb City Libraries, Croatian Library Association and Department of Information Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, signed an agreement on the establishment of the Training Centre. The programme of the Centre was successfully launched in February 2002. However, further activities of the Centre might become seriously hampered by the lack of legal provision for continuing education that makes it difficult for librarians to obtain leave, lack of funding allocated in library budgets for the education, and the impossibility of relating professional development to professional promotion.

Anonymity of library users in The Netherlands and Croatia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document a joint research project aimed at investigating the existing library practices regarding protection of personal data, in view of computerization of libraries and its consequences, and awareness of the privacy (anonymity) of the library users that was carried out simultaneously in The Netherlands and Croatia in the autumn of 2007.Design/methodology/approach – The research was a continuation of an ongoing cooperation between The Netherlands Public Library Association and the Department of Information Sciences, University of Zagreb. A questionnaire was developed based on previously conducted interviews with librarians and survey of recent literature on anonymity. It was carried out online via a special link on the web site of The Netherlands Public Library Association and sent by e‐mail to selected libraries in Croatia.Findings – Replies obtained from 65 Dutch and 33 Croatian libraries of all types have been compared and commented in the paper. The research ...

Information Professionals and Copyright Literacy: A Multinational Study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a multinational survey on copyright literacy of specialists from libraries and other cultural institutions. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a multinational survey of copyright literacy competencies of Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals and those who work in the cultural heritage sector (archives and museums), conducted in 13 countries, namely Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (CR), Finland (FI), France (FR), Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), Mexico (MX), Norway (NO), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Turkey (TR), UK and USA in the period July 2013-March 2015. An online survey instrument was developed in order to collect data from professionals regarding their familiarity with, knowledge and awareness of, and opinions on copyright-related issues. Findings Findings of this study highlight gaps in existing knowledge of copyright, and information about the level of copyright literacy of LIS and cultural sector professionals. Also attitudes toward copyright learning content in academic education and continuing professional development training programs are investigated. Originality/value This study aimed to address a gap in the literature by encompassing specialists from the cultural institutions in an international comparative context. The paper offers guidance for further understanding of copyright in a wider framework of digital and information literacy; and for the implementation of copyright policy, and the establishment of copyright advisor positions in cultural institutions. The recommendations support a revision of academic and continuing education programs learning curriculum and methods.

Digital rights for digitally literate citizens

The aim of this paper is to show that digital literacy should be understood in a much broader sense than is the case now, and that its full achievement is impossible if new digital rights are not introduced in society and understood and accepted by citizens. To prove their presumption that little is known about digital rights even among students, the authors conducted small-scale research among LIS and non-LIS students at two different universities in Croatia - the University of Zagreb and the University of Dubrovnik. On the basis of the findings, the authors concluded that LIS educators and librarians have special responsibilities as regards digital rights: educators should reformulate study programmes and incorporate the topic of digital rights, while librarians should strive to speak for their users and incorporate users’ rights into library legislation.

Copyright Issues Related to the Digitization of Cultural Heritage in Croatia

A proliferation of EU programmes and action plans on digitization proves that there is a political will to digitize and make available to the public the rich cultural heritage of Europe. The article tracks the development of these ideas and actions and focuses on one of the obstacles to be overcome-the lack of consistency in approaches to intellectual property rights. The aim of the investigation described in the paper has been to find out how copyright issues related to the digitization performed by public institutions such as libraries and archives have been dealt with in Croatia. Information collected from the national electronic portal Croatian Cultural Heritage was further enriched by interviews held with the persons responsible for digitization projects in four major public institutions in the country. A lack of suitable registries or databases with data on national authors has been noted. Institutions show different approaches to digital copies they produce; some consider themselves to be the publishers and rights holders of new digital editions of works, while the others take digitization primarily as a means of protection of originals. As a rule institutions have a policy of copyright management, even if a rudimentary one. All institutions provide copyright information, sometimes with a copyright disclaimer. They use watermarking as a technical protection measure. Digitized materials are provided at no cost on the Internet for private use and research. Use of materials for commercial purposes has to be paid for and the institutions look upon it as a source of revenue to fund further digitization activities. The institutions’ policy toward derivative works, i.e. offering the opportunity to users to create their own content, is yet to be determined.

Defining Information Literacy Competences in a Professional Framework of Library and Information Professionals in Croatia

This paper presents the main findings of research conducted with the aim of proposing and exploring a professional framework for library and information professionals in Croatia. Two online surveys were conducted among key library and information stakeholders in Croatia, and part of the Tuning methodology was applied for the purpose of identifying subject-related and generic competences in the library sector in Croatia. The results revealed that all respondents agreed on one distinctive core of subject-related competences which consists of user-centered and information-based competences, and which were identified as information literacy competences. Information literacy competences are valued equally highly by labor market stakeholders as in academia, while subject-related competences within the competence periphery point to differences in opinions among all respondents. Generic competences were highly rated by all respondents.