Ivana Hebrang Grgić

Culture and Competencies: A Multi-Country Examination of Reference Service Competencies

Abstract Reference librarians have the opportunity to interact with patrons and colleagues of many different backgrounds, languages, and cultures as a result of our increasingly interconnected and peripatetic world. In order to provide the best possible service to these varied communities, reference librarians should understand some of the culture differences that exist across countries, and in particular, the differences in the way that reference services are conceived and delivered in different countries. This study explores some of these differences in reference services by surveying current practitioners in thirteen countries to find out which competencies they believe are most important for academic reference librarians right now, and in the near future. The results of this study highlight some important commonalities and differences, and could help reference librarians to manage and meet the expectations of their international patrons, and perhaps help them to prepare for an international job experience of their own. Academic reference librarians may be interested to see the extent to which their counterparts in other countries face similar challenges and expectations with regard to delivering reference services. Teaching faculty in library science programs will be interested to understand reference competencies and expectations in other countries, especially as they teach greater numbers of international students or consider collaborating with international colleagues. In addition, an international understanding is important in developing students who can compete in a global job market.

Information Literacy of LIS Students at the University of Zagreb: Pros or Just Average Millennials

The rationale underlying information literacy in higher education refers to lifelong learning, critical thinking and problem solving. In addition to these common goals, LIS students have to be fully aware of the importance of IL as a concept, understand its relevance in contemporary societies and have to learn about main aspects of teaching IL. Regardless of whether LIS students have attained information skills and practices by studying library and information science, or whether they have been attending IL courses, the question of transferability of IL to learning situations remains open. This paper presents a sub-study that explores the transferability of IL competencies to the overall research experience of LIS students and the application of IL competencies in fulfilling course assignments. The survey of LIS students was conducted at the Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb and is a part of a wider, international survey.

Scholarly Journals at the Periphery: the case of Croatia

This paper analyses 231 Croatian journals available on the national online platform, the Hrčak portal. To qualify for analysis journals had to be peer reviewed and to have published at least one issue in 2012. Some differences from the results of previous studies were noted. More journals are internationally oriented and the number of times they are accessed apparently depends on their scientific field. Publishers are still mostly not‐for‐profit but are more likely now to apply article processing/publication charges. This is new for Croatia and raises questions about the potential influence of this trend on the availability and visibility of scientific results. The results are relevant not only to Croatia but may also be representative of other countries at the ‘periphery‘.

Total and cytosolic concentrations of twenty metals/metalloids in the liver of brown trout Salmo trutta (Linnaeus, 1758) from the karstic Croatian river Krka

Total and cytosolic concentrations of twenty metals/metalloids in the liver of brown trout Salmo trutta (Linnaeus, 1758) were studied in the period from April 2015 to May 2016 at two sampling sites on Croatian river Krka, to establish if river water contamination with metals/metalloids downstream of Knin town has influenced metal bioaccumulation in S. trutta liver. Differences were observed between two sites, with higher concentrations of several elements (Ag, As, Ca, Co, Na, Se, Sr, V) found downstream of Knin town, whereas few others (Cd, Cs, Mo, Tl) were, unexpectedly, increased at the Krka River spring. However, total metal/metalloid concentrations in the liver of S. trutta from both sites of the Krka River were still mainly below previously reported levels for pristine freshwaters worldwide. The analysis of seasonal changes of metal/metalloid concentrations in S. trutta liver and their association with fish sex and size mostly indicated their independence of fish physiology, making them good indicators of water contamination and exposure level. Metal/metalloid concentrations in the metabolically available hepatic cytosolic fractions reported in this study are the first data of that kind for S. trutta liver, and the majority of analyzed elements were present in the cytosol in the quantity higher than 50% of their total concentrations, thus indicating their possible availability for toxic effects. However, the special attention should be directed to As, Cd, Cs, and Tl, which under the conditions of increased exposure tended to accumulate more within the cytosol. Although metal/metalloid concentrations in S. trutta liver were still rather low, monitoring of the Krka River water quality and of the health status of its biota is essential due to a trend of higher metal/metalloid bioaccumulation downstream of Knin town, especially taking into consideration the proximity of National Park Krka and the need for its conservation.

IL and Information Ethics: How to Avoid Plagiarism in Scientific Papers?

One of the most usual misconducts in science is plagiarism. It has negative consequences for authors, editors and scholarly journals, causing loss of credibility, reputation, readers and finances. Academic ethics can be assured by proper education, good codes of ethics and detailed instructions to authors of scientific papers. This paper analyses contents of author’s guidelines in Croatian journals in the field of social sciences. The analysis tries to ascertain whether the journals mention and/or explain ethical issues in their instructions to authors. The paper also analyses content of codes of ethics of Croatian universities, with the accent on plagiarism. A conclusion is made about the use of proper protection mechanisms in Croatian academic community when it comes to misconducts in science, especially plagiarism. Recommendations for universities and publishers on what to include in their codes of ethics and instructions to authors are given.

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 authors 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 IFLAs guidelines). This paper shows the quantity of gifts in the libra...

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 ...

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).

Is peer review evolving in the open access environment? A survey of Croatian open access journals

Most of the journals in Croatia adopted the open access (OA) model and their content is freely accessible and available for reuse without restrictions except that attribution be given to the author(s) and journal. There are 444 Croatian scholarly, professional, popular and trade OA journals available in the national repository of OA journals Hrcak, and 217 of them use peer review process as the primary quality assurance system. The goal of our study was to investigate the peer review process used by the Croatian OA journals and the editors’ attitude towards open peer review. An online survey was sent to the Hrcak journal editors with 39 questions grouped in: journal general information, a number of submitted/rejected/accepted manuscripts and timeliness of publishing, peer review process characteristics, instructions for peer reviewers and open peer review. Responses were obtained from 152 editors (141 complete and 11 partial). All journals employ peer review process except one. The data were collected from February to July 2017. The majority of journals come from the humanities (n=50, 33%) and social sciences (n=37, 24%). Less represented are journals from the field of biomedicine (n=22, 14%), technical sciences (n=16, 11%), natural sciences (n=12, 8%), biotechnical sciences (n=10, 7%) and interdisciplinary journals (n=3, 2%). Average journal submission is 54 manuscripts per year, but there are big differences among journals: maximum submission is 550 manuscripts, and minimum just five. In average journal publishes 23 papers after the reviewers’ and editors’ acceptance. In average it takes 16 days for sending the manuscript to the reviewer, 49 days for all the reviewers to send the journal a detailed report on the manuscript, 14 days to the editors’ decision, and another 60 days for the paper to be published. External peer review process where reviewers are not members of the editorial board or employees of the journal’s parent institution was used by 86 journals (60%). Other journals use external peer review process where reviewers are not members of the editorial board but could be employees of the journal’s parent institution (n=40, 28%), and editorial peer review. Remaining 10% journals combine previous three types of the peer review. Only 20% journals use exclusively reviewers from abroad, 44% are combining international and national reviewers, and 36% journals use only reviewers from Croatia. The majority of journals provide two reviews for each manuscript, and the process is double blind. Detailed instructions for peer reviewers are provided by less than half of the journals (n=57, 40%), but ethical issues like plagiarism, conflict of interest, confidentiality etc., are neglected. Usually, a reviewer is not informed of the final decision upon the manuscript, and reviews are not shared among reviewers. Somehow surprising was the opinion of the majority of the editors that reviewers must get credit for their efforts (n=121, 85%). On the other hand, editors are not familiar with the concept of open peer review, which can be easily used for that purpose. Some editors believe that open peer review is related to the identity disclosure: both authors’ and reviewers’ (n=35, 25%), reviewers’ (n=27, 19%), and authors’ identity (n=14, 10%). For many editors open peer review implies publicly available reviews (n=65, 36%) and authors’ responses (n=46, 33%). Open peer review is an unknown concept for some editors (n=32, 23%). In spite of all criticism traditional peer review is predominant in Croatian OA journals. Our findings show that traditional peer review is still the preferred review mechanism for the majority of journals in the study.

Guidelines for Authors in Croatian Scholarly Journals

Purpose The paper aims to compare guidelines for authors in Croatian scholarly journals regarding six scientific field (according to Croatian classification) and to show representation of technical and ethical issues that are explained in guidelines for authors. Design/methodology/approach The aim of the research is to identify which elements are included in guidelines for authors in Croatian scholarly journals and to identify the differences regarding scientific fields. Fourteen parameters for 200 journals were analyzed (all the journals that had published at least one 2016 issue by the end of February 2017). Findings The parameter that is explained in the most journals is the length of the manuscript (91.5%). The lowest number of journals explain ORCID (1.5%). The highest percentage of journals that explain plagiarism is in the field of natural sciences (44%). If compared to the results of previous researches, there is an increase in the number of ethical questions mentioned in guidelines for authors of...