Managing information resources through university library collections

Golubović, Vesna. (2017). Managing information resources through university library collections. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Information Science.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij informacijskih i komunikacijskih znanosti) [mentor Afrić, Vjekoslav].

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Abstract

The thesis initiated from the fundamental problem of building library collections that represent the core of all library resources. Global web environment, the emergence of new publications and new ways of scientific communication, the use of print and electronic resources, diverse user needs, especially of student population, and new learning models (distance learning) are changing the traditional approach of building a collection. The introduction describes the activities of a contemporary university library which, as a result of new media and information and communication technology emergence, systematically develops new library products and services to meet the diverse demands and needs of all participants of science and higher education system. Changes in communication within the scientific community and the application of new learning models have also changed the way of building library collections, and a new environment has been created in the organization and information sources management. Since library collection today, with the emergence of new media, represents a set of physical resorces of information along with virtual access to selected and organized sources of information, it is necessary to redefine the management and business operations of libraries in higher education institutions with the goal of raising the quality of their collections and services. Chapter 2 briefly describes the historical context of the collection building and development, from "theory of selection" to its management. By creating a consistent library collections, the users are provided with access (physical and remote) and active use of relevant, quality and useful information resources that represent cultural and scientific heritage, as well as valuable research sources. The chapter on acquisition and collection building describes all relevant operational processes where individual and/or aggregated information sources (books, journals and other material) can be found in libraries, and whereby professional staff must adapt the content to social changes and technological development, information expansion and access possibilities to a variety of information on the Internet. Chapter 4 consists of cross-section analysis of the theoretical-methodological origination in the approach to the construction and management of library collections, with a special focus on the evaluation of the collection applying the usage and users model with relevant authors listed and quoted. Chapter 5 describes international standards and manuals for measuring the quality of the library, its services and the available methods used in the library collection evaluation. These include methods of evaluating the collection and its information resources, as well as evaluating the collection from the user's point of view to determine certain advantages and disadvantages of individual collection(s) in order to improve the benefits as well as reduce and eliminate deficiencies. Prior to research, Chapter 6 briefly describes the library system University of Zagreb and the National and University Library in Zagreb as the library system's central library with special emphasis on the asymmetricity of its collections/fund building: national and university collection. Chapter 7 describes the goal of research, hypothesis and methodology of research. The research was aimed to evaluate National and University Library's (NSK) University Collection print and electronic resources from user viewpoint by Model of usage and users. While adapting to changes in the environment, development of the University Collection should be an important element in assessing its accordance with each of the university programs, and the usage of all its resources, especially its information sources are important indicators of library business performance. The research presented the set of five hypothesis: There is a greater number of used books from humanities and social sciences field than within natural, technical and applied sciences; Use of electronic journals in the field of natural, technical and applied sciences is considerably greater than of humanities and social sciences; There is considerably greater use and loan of Croatian than foreign books; There is considerably more use and loan of the latest book editions; The users of natural, technical and applied sciences are significantly dissatisfied with the availability and accessibility of information resources of the University Collection. Quantitative and qualitative mixed methodology was used in the research in order to confirm or refute proposed hypotheses. Quantitative analysis of the Collection use and loan by scientific fields is defined by determining the use within the Library and loaning publications outside the Library, and also the use of available full-text databases by scientific fields. Qualitative analysis is defined by identifying user satisfaction with selection and topicality of printed and electronic information and knowledge resources as well as their availability. Out of total 69,410 titles and 97,286 items in the Collection, within a two year period (2013 and 2014), 52% (50,854) of items was used and loaned within humanities and social sciences compared to 40% (39,423) items within natural, technical and applied sciences. The usage and loaning data confirm the first hypothesis that greater number of books within humanities and social sciences are used in the Reading Rooms. In the two years observed, the use of e-journals was most common in the multidisciplinary databases (EBSCO, and ScienceDirect), but because of different journal distribution and available statistical indicators it wasn’t possible to determine the use of specific scientific fields or discipline, so the second hypothesis could not be accepted nor denied. The usage ratio of Croatian editions compared to foreign is 70:30, and the loan ratio is 91:9, which confirmes the third hypothesis that the number of use and loan of Croatian printed books editions is much greater than use and loan of foreign editions. In the reference period mainly used books were from 2000-2009 and of the current decade, which confirmes the fourth hypothesis that there is considerably more use and loan of the latest book editions. In the analysis of user satisfaction with availability and accessibility of printed resources, obtained results show that users from natural, technical and applied sciences faculties are satisfied (average grade 4), but are also dissatisfied with the availability of databases and electronic journals from their scientific field (average grade 2). The results partially confirm the fifth hypothesis that users are satisfied with printed but not the e-sources. Analysis of University Collection printed materials by scientific field (basic groups of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) classification scheme) and synthesis of the research results have given basic insight of information sources available in the Collection (quantity, age, language); relation between humanities and social sciences and natural, technical and applied sciences, and finally the Collection use itself. E-journals within available databases require additional efforts in the ongoing monitoring of prepaid sources. The results of this research and the contribution of the work will add to the upgrading of existing policies in the construction and management of the University Collections; measuring the implementation of the planned collection development policy; detection of disproportionate coverage of specific content (scientific areas and / or disciplines); harmonization of development of collections to the scientific / subject areas; transparent information to the user community and the general public of information sources; transparent spending of public funds by putting users and their information needs in support of educational, scientific and research work at the University of Zagreb in the focus.

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