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Contemporary organization of scientific work in the digital environment has created new models of action and interaction. Increasingly, this cooperation is beyond the scope of research units, and from all participants in the process of scholarly communication – scientists, engineers, librarians, lecturers and publishers – is expected to close cooperation. The paper presents the importance and organization of the Technical Sciences Knowledge Exchange and Academic Publications Sharing Integrated System (abb. SUW), which is an open system of scholarly communication based on the Open Access initiative. The system developed by the Library of Cracow University of Technology allows to create and integrate existing resources of CUT Digital Library and publications staff and students of his alma mater. An important element of the SUW will be an ability to exchange views, comments and observations on the shared materials. The idea is to support the academic community, to create a unified knowledge base for the purposes of research and teaching (including e-learning) and development of scientific communication. System, ensuring proper organization of scientific communications, enables smooth and free exchange of knowledge, influencing the academic community succeed CUT.

The issue of assessing the efficiency and quality of library and information services is a crucial point of many professional works being undertaken in LIS all over the world. The attempt at creating the program which would give such an assessing, has been held in Poland nowadays. The issue which required the biggest effort in working on that project was collecting and compiling the data in a way which could guarantee its credibility and objectivity and, in the same time, retain the uniformity used for analyzing the data in different aspects. The Project (http://ssk2.bu.amu.edu.pl/standaryzacja/) is a useful for library management and also used for creating the objective comparisons on both qualitative and quantitative range (internal and external benchmarking). It is also meant to bring arguments in relations with the units supervising the libraries and to indicate possible threats and opportunities. The paper presents the general principles of the Project, the possibilities in using the program by different groups of users and selected results performance measurement in academic libraries in 2002-2006.

According to the ISO Standard 11620 Performance Indicators for Libraries, the quality means "totality of features and characteristics of a product or services that bear on the library's ability to satisfy stated or implied needs". Hence the quality assessment depends not only on the product or service as it is but also on a person or institution involved in the assessment process. High quality of library performance is crucial for each research library to survive. Wide on-line access to information makes researchers and students demand the highest quality library services. It is the quality of library services that decides on the perception of the library within its parent institution and the society. Comparable quality measures (which refer not only to library services but to all aspects of library performance) are of vital importance for efficient and effective library management. A library needs both to satisfy its users and to prove to its funding bodies that it is worth investment. Moreover, the State Accreditation Commission in the process of the assessment of higher education institutions takes the quality of library services into account. Therefore current efforts to determine unified standards and library performance indicators are a starting point to the full implementation of reliable analysis-based management and assessment. The main objective of the paper is to present the results of the on-going study of performance indicators for Polish research libraries. The report from the research together with background information on library statistical data collection reflects the overall situation of library quality measures and assessment in Poland. The study is a continuation of the activity realised in the frame of the EU Tempus Project "Development of Library Management as a Part of the University Total Quality Management". The Group for Standardisation presently conducts the research in the frame of the national project financed from the funds of the Ministry of National Education and Sport. Authors of the research encountered many difficulties implied by the lack of national patterns or standards for library statistics and effectiveness measurement to follow. Therefore they have been trying to adopt model foreign solutions to the Polish realities. The paper describes the tools for library performance evaluation applied in Poland in 2003. The authors discuss some issues related to the preparation of an online questionnaire for comparative studies and a computer program for a quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Next, the results of the research for the years 2002-2003 are presented including tables and graphs. Finally, we present a proposal for new standard surveys to be used for the assessment of the quality of libraries by their users (according to the international standard 11620). Data received from users surveys will provide important complementary information to the raw data and the indicators derived from them.

According to the ISO Standard 11620 Performance Indicators for Libraries, the quality means "totality of features and characteristics of a product or services that bear on the library's ability to satisfy stated or implied needs". Hence the quality assessment depends not only on the product or service as it is but also on a person or institution involved in the assessment process. High quality of library performance is crucial for each research library to survive. Wide on-line access to information makes researchers and students demand the highest quality library services. It is the quality of library services that decides on the perception of the library within its parent institution and the society. Comparable quality measures (which refer not only to library services but to all aspects of library performance) are of vital importance for efficient and effective library management. A library needs both to satisfy its users and to prove to its funding bodies that it is worth investment. Moreover, the State Accreditation Commission in the process of the assessment of higher education institutions takes the quality of library services into account. Therefore current efforts to determine unified standards and library performance indicators are a starting point to the full implementation of reliable analysis-based management and assessment. The main objective of the paper is to present the results of the on-going study of performance indicators for Polish research libraries. The report from the research together with background information on library statistical data collection reflects the overall situation of library quality measures and assessment in Poland. The study is a continuation of the activity realised in the frame of the EU Tempus Project "Development of Library Management as a Part of the University Total Quality Management". The Group for Standardisation presently conducts the research in the frame of the national project financed from the funds of the Ministry of National Education and Sport. Authors of the research encountered many difficulties implied by the lack of national patterns or standards for library statistics and effectiveness measurement to follow. Therefore they have been trying to adopt model foreign solutions to the Polish realities. The paper describes the tools for library performance evaluation applied in Poland in 2003. The authors discuss some issues related to the preparation of an online questionnaire for comparative studies and a computer program for a quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. Next, the results of the research for the years 2002-2003 are presented including tables and graphs. Finally, we present a proposal for new standard surveys to be used for the assessment of the quality of libraries by their users (according to the international standard 11620). Data received from users surveys will provide important complementary information to the raw data and the indicators derived from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the results of the on-going research on performance indicators and library statistics for Polish research libraries. It is a continuation of activity realised in the frame of the EU Tempus Project "Development of Library Management as a Part of the University Total Quality Management". The Task Group for Standardisation presently conducts it in the frame of the national project financed from the funds of the Ministry of National Education and Sport. The first part of the paper presents the results of the EU Tempus Project. The second part describes the tools for library performance evaluation applied in 2003. The authors discuss some issues related to preparation of an online questionnaire for comparative studies and computer program for quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. The final part reports the analysis of data and performance indicators derived from technical university libraries. The paper presented on behalf of the Task Group for Standardisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[CYRENA – Digital Science Repository of the Technical University of Lodz] At the end of February 2010 the Technical University of Lodz Library (TULL) has completed the first implementation step of DSpace system, which enables to build an institutional repository at parent university. The DSpace system is an open source application dedicated to that kind of projects, created and developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology university and applied in their own repository. Main goal of a repository project implemented by TULL was to enable scientific community of the Technical University of Lodz (TUL) effective management and wide distribution of their scientific materials in digital form. Almost every university in the world has a repository of scientific output/works, where deposition of pre- and postprints, laboratory data, reports from university, is possible. Deposition process is free of charge and quick, researcher gains increase of his/her publication impact through citations, metadata and content indexing by search engines, increase of citations with dependence on research fields and documents language as well as long-term digital preservation of received research data. In the paper the respective steps of repository project, concerning e.g. selection of the system, collection and community structure, copyright issues, deposition policy and deposited resources type choice have been described. In addition, the subsequent phases of PhD and habilitation theses as well as full-text documents of scientific output based on bibliographic database run by TULL digitization process and furthermore final deposition in CYRENA repository have been discussed. Finally, promotion actions undertaken so far have been presented.

[Opinions of researchers on open access publishing model based on the research conducted in the frame of the Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) project] The Study of Open Access Publishing (SOAP) project was run from March 2009 to February 2011. Its aim was to „study the new open access business models that have emerged as a result of the shift from print to digital documents and inform the European Commission and all stakeholders about the risks, opportunities and essential requirements for a smooth transition to open access publishing”2. The project was coordinated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The partners working within a consortium were key stakeholders such as publishers (BioMed Central Ltd., Sage Publications Ltd., UK, Springer Science+Business Media Deutschland GmbH), funding agencies (Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC UK) and libraries (Max Planck Digital Library of the Max Planck Society). In the frame of the Project a large-scale survey of the attitudes of researchers was conducted. About forty thousand answers were collected across disciplines and around the world, including over 400 answers from Polish scientists representing various disciplines. To allow a maximal re-use of the information collected by this survey, the data have been made accessible in order to „allow libraries, publishers, funding agencies and academics to further analyze risks and opportunities, drivers and barriers, in the transition to open access publishing”. The author of this article presents some selected results of the survey. Special attention has been paid to the attitudes of Polish scientists towards the idea of open access publishing compared to overall results. This article serves as an introduction in Polish to the survey and presents selected highlights from a preliminary analysis of the survey responses.

[A hunt for resources, or on the strategy for acquiring documents for AMUR repository] This article presents a model of factors determining and affecting effective submission policy for the institutional repository, as well as strategies envisaged by the institutional repository to encourage the archiving of scholarly publications. Mandatory archiving policies of research papers for faculty are discussed as the fundamental determinant of a well-balanced and sustainable development of a repository. The current mechanisms implemented by AMUR repository to ensure accurate and timely submission of scholarly publications and the strategy of the benefits to authors of having their works included in the AMUR institutional repository are presented. The article highlights the significance of promotion and popularization of the idea of a repository at the research community level and presents methods for reaching the community through presentations at faculty and institute board meetings performed on a regular basis as instrumental in promoting the idea of the repository. Motivating elements that may enhance the accumulation of resources are discussed and explained. Additionally, the article provides the results of a pilot survey conducted at Adam Mickiewicz University focused on psychological and structural barriers in knowledge-sharing behavior and self-archiving practices.

[CASPAR – long-term preservation of digital objects Streszczenie]In the paper authors will present an international research project CASPAR – Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval, devoted to writing, sharing and searching for information on science, art and culture. Authors will discuss the goals, objectives, architecture and functionality of the system CASPAR.

[Developing Open Access in Ukraine – an example of electronic repository of the Lviv Polytechnic National University] Rapid development of information technology has a deep impact on the nature of worldwide scientific communication. In accordance with the mission of disseminating knowledge, well-known academic institutions not only gather information about academic achievements of their employees, but also build repositories that expose digital content to its members and to the broader research community. The paper presents the development of electronic archives in academies of Ukraine over the past 5 years. Content and size of the archives is characterized. The authors describe the creation process and operating principles of scientific electronic repository „Electronic Scientific Archive of the Lviv Polytechnic National University” (http://ena.lp.edu.ua). Conditions that are necessary for effective development of university repositories, document sources, provision and promotion of the idea of open access are considered. The authors analyze growth of the electronic repository of Lviv Polytechnic National University in the first year of operation and provide usage statistics by different categories of users, including Polish scientists. For statistical data analysis DSpace and Google Analytics tools were used. Major sources of electronic documents in the electronic repository of Lviv Polytechnic National University are defined. The authors conclude that effective cooperation between librarians and researchers is crucial factor in the successful development of an institutional repository.

[Open resources of knowledge illustrated with an example of scientific institutions in Lodz with particular focus on the University of Lodz] The purpose of this article is to discuss the issue of open resources of knowledge that are made available by scientific institutions in Lodz. The paper comprises characterisation of Open Access resources including scientific periodicals, scientific repositories (already existing ones such as ECNIS and those in the process of being set up, e.g. the repositories of Lodz University and the Technical University of Lodz), digital libraries and other databases offering on-line access to their resources. Other issues presented in the article are: the process of creating or modifying periodicals for the purposes of the Open Access model, financing, indexing and solutions for copyrights regarding such resources. The paper also includes the results of a survey done at the University of Lodz, the purpose of which was to demonstrate how much the university’s research and academic staff know about the subject of Open Access. The article will also discuss the institutional repository which is being created by the University of Lodz and the Library of the University of Lodz, and whose function will be to collect and store scientific publications and didactic materials by employees of Lodz University. The article will also present characterisation of scientific Open Access periodicals edited and created by scientific institutions in Lodz, inter alia the University of Lodz, the Institute of Biopolymers and Chemical Fibres, the Institute of Paediatrics (the Medical University of Lodz), the Military Teaching Hospital, and the Medical University of Lodz. The main purpose of the article is to demonstrate the development of Open Access-based resources of knowledge, especially in the scientific community of Lodz.

[Digital library as an open repository (an example of Lower Silesian Digital Library)] Lower Silesian Digital Library is one of over 60 digital libraries active in Poland at the moment. The Consortium comprises 19 institutions: most of public higher education institutions at Lower Silesia and the Opole region, the Ossolinski National Institute (Ossolineum), majority of public universities of Lower Silesia, the Lower Silesia Pedagogic Library and the Province Centre of the Conservation in Wrocław. The collection of DBC includes the oldest written texts, college course books, textbooks, PhD theses and reports of examinations. The author discusses the role of digital libraries in the realization of the idea of Open Access in Poland based on the example of DBC. Types of collections, ways of acquiring them and making accessible have been presented. The author refers also to international projects DART Europe (a partnership of research libraries and library consortia working together to improve global access to European research theses) and ViFaOst virtual library of the Eastern Europe (specialized academic information on history, language, literature, politics and culture of East, Central East and South East European countries and regions).

[European trends in openness – an overview of strategies and programmes] The European institutions recognized the importance of Open Access in science several years ago. In 2004, the European Commission, through the Directorate of Research, initiated a study of an open model of scientific publishing, and carried out Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe. Over the subsequent years, numerous reports, studies and summaries of public consultation in the field of Open Access were published. As a consequence, it became mandatory to publish the results of any research financed from the 7th Framework Programme within the Open Access model. The first reference to educational reform and the creation of open knowledge resources can be found in the Lisbon Strategy, which was to give a new dimension to the European economy through directing it towards knowledge and the use of knowledge in economy. Open resources are also important for the preservation of the cultural heritage. The paper will present programs and strategies which originated with the European institutions and promote OA in science and culture at various levels and within various scopes.

[The scientific communication, openness and cooperation on Social Networking Sites] The National Reform Programme for 2008–2011 for Lisbon Strategy focuses among others on intensification of knowledge exchange – mobility of researchers, increasing the importance of the concept of open learning – open access to the knowledge, active society and efficient scientific institutions. Scientists begin to accept social network as a place where scientific information can be provided, new contacts can be forged and appraisal as well as identification of people can be carried out. Social portals are one of the tools which allow the flow of knowledge and scientific communication by using different means: discussion groups thematic forums, blogs, chat rooms and others. They make it possible to create own profile as well as a list of scientific papers which can help in increasing their citedness. Internet websites created by social networks promote openness and cooperation, which also assists in the creation of research teams combining the specialists of different branches and from different countries. In this paper the social portals for researchers were examined: ResearcherID, Research Gate, Scientix. The possibility of open access to data, the results of studies and publications, especially the life science ones were analysed. Different ways of searching scientific achievements and free access to work were compared. The attention was drawn to the activity of Polish and foreign researchers. Users profiles were overviewed for data that can be available on the Net. On the base of this analysis it was noticed that the profiles created by scientists can be helpful in librarians work on setting up the database of publications of the university staff.

[Polish university journals in Open Access] Scientific journals are valued by scientists for the reason that they constitute a source of information about the latest projects, carried out independently or collectively, current research and their results. Market for electronic journals in recent years has grown to enormous size, and today the lack of access to the journal via the Internet may have a negative effect on the ranking of the journal. The fact that on-line access to individual titles is preferred by researchers is understandable, because searching for information in e-journals is easier and faster than in printed ones, it is also increasingly possible to access them from home. All this helps to increase the comfort of the scientist’s work. The advantage of this solution is also an increase in range of articles, and in result an increase in the number of citations, important inter alia for the assessment of the researcher’s achievements. Commercial publishers have offered online journals for a fee for many years, and researchers continue to seek access to their resources. However, a sharp increase in fees for periodicals, including electronic journals and other databases contributed to the exploration of new forms of dissemination and sharing knowledge. As a result of these searches the idea of Open Access was conceived. The principle of free access to journals is gradually adopted by academic publishers, also Polish ones. This paper presents examples of Polish university journals available in the formula of open access resources on the Internet. The analysis of journal sources, forms of publishing their online versions and the tools used for their circulation has been carried out.

[Conflicts within the area of mediation in scholarly communication: business and ideology] The main goal of the paper is to foster wider and rational consideration regarding the rules the system of scholarly communication is based on as well as the consequences of open access developments. The area of mediation – the sphere between senders and recipients in scholarly communication – is seen as an indispensable area where some important value is added while data, information and knowledge is transferred through space and time, which requires financing, work and competency to work properly. The relativity of the adjective „open” in „open access” phrase is stressed and a little historical background of open access is provided. Furthermore, three prevalent types of open access business models are presented and some important consequences (both noticeable today and potential) of their implementation for relations among subjects operating within the area of mediation in scholarly communication are shortly discussed.

[The role of research libraries in implementation of open solutions Open Access Repository – a model for university] The Open Access movement (open knowledge, open science, open information resources) has reached its mature phase, in which not only new models or policies of information exchange emerge, but also sophisticated tools to support collections of information resources development, scientific bibliometric or scientometric analyses are created. New quality of scientific communication processes is based first of all on the development of e-resources which are open and freely accessible to everyone who needs them for research, didactics, other professional activities or personal development. The openness of resources does not mean that they are not protected by law. Authors’ rights are protected and the openness of documents results from the authors’ will not to reserve all their rights. Maturity of Open Access movement manifests also in world-wide scientific lobby noticeable in business and political environment. It has introduced to the systems of science new vision of the essence and ownership of science and its resources. It shows how to invest public funds so that they come back to tax-payers as a gift of open resources.

[International Repository for Library and Information Science E-LIS] International Repository E-LIS has been created to support self-archiving of documents in library and information science. To date over 12 000 papers from 98 countries have been archived. The repository is a freely accessible voluntary enterprise. For the quality of data is responsible a team of volunteer editors from 47 countries. In the paper policy of acquisition of documents, JITA classification, copyright issues and search methods have been discussed.

[Open resources of knowledge – the offer of Polish research libraries] Scientific knowledge is distributed by numerous institutions (including government institutions, publishers, libraries) and authors themselves. Open knowledge resources increase the availability of materials sought by users and enable access to publications that otherwise would be hard to get, from any place and in almost no time. They improve the quality of education, including remote education as well as enable presenting and promoting scientific achievements of Polish scientists in the world. The development of the concept of open knowledge implies a new position of scientific libraries that go between authors and recipients of the knowledge published. Libraries not only gather, store and distribute scientific resources but also provide proper tools that allow access to local and remote knowledge sources both for authors and users. Open resources play increasing role in teaching processes and scientific research run in colleges and universities. Thus academic libraries get involved actively in creating open resources and their distribution (e.g. digital libraries, repositories), as well as in promoting the idea of Open Access in academic environment. In this respect, the review of the open knowledge (full text, bibliographic and abstract databases, digital libraries, portals etc.) on the web sites of libraries is an attempt to answer the question how Polish scientific libraries get involved in popularization of open knowledge resources. The authors present size and variety of free resources offered by academic libraries and means of their. The research run in the first quarter of 2011 covered scientific libraries of public technical and economical universities in Poland.

[Book evolution or library revolution? One case study] A short presentation of some Polish and foreign open knowledge repositories which collect literature in science, first of all in physics. It shows the ways in which researchers from the Institute of Physics at the Jagiellonian University are involved in Open Access initiatives and emphasizes that researchers are both creators and users of open educational resources. Based on the observation made at the Library of Physics at the Jagiellonian University, changes of information needs of the library users, first of all students of the first and second year of study in mathematical sciences who participated in the First Workshop in Physics, has been discussed. A case study was conducted to observe changing patterns of use of the handbook I Pracownia fizyczna [The first workshop in physics] edited by A. Magiera. At first the handbook was published in print and afterwards it was made accessible on-line from the University home page. Observation and research into the use of that one document (in printed and e-version) by real and potential users of the library resulted in an attempt to determine relationships between traditional forms of publication and spreading of open network resources.

[Library as university hub? New time, new challenges] In the era when most of the academic library users – not only students, but unfortunately also the researchers – are increasingly satisfied with the information found on the open Internet, the role of library as a source of high-quality information is increasingly reduced. Paradoxically, libraries contribute to this phenomenon by popularizing „open access” initiatives, which, for some, are more or less the same as „open Internet”. In such conditions, to maintain its relevance and role in the university, library must undertake new tasks, which often have little in common with the traditional function of academic library. These activities have yet to demonstrate that the organizational environment of library and competence of library staff allow them to undertake many functions and tasks vital to the parent university. In the text, new functions and tasks carried out by the library of the Technical University of Lodz are presented, with particular regard to the role in the project of electronic learning platform. Within the framework of this project, the library is the main coordinator as well as the provider of a number of new services, for the realization of which an alternative was the establishment of an independent, new unit within the university.

[Ukrainian-Polish aspect of the activities of the research library of the Ivan Ohienko National University in Kamianets Podilskyi] The article deals with Ukrainian-Polish relations and cooperation in the activity of Scientific library of the Kamianets-Podilskyi National University named after Ivan Ohienko.

[BazEkon and Dorobek – databases created by the Main Library of the Cracow University of Economics] The author presents databases created by the Main Library of the Cracow University of Economics – BazEkon (new name after Economy and Social Science databases has been merged) and Dorobek. BazEkon is current, annotated bibliography and related economic issues, based on the contents of the leading Polish scientific periodicals, economic and scientific publishing a series of economics education, economics and management departments of universities and scientific institutions, including non-government organisations. Dorobek is a bibliography of CUE employees works. It includes descriptions of works published in Poland and abroad and on the Internet. Both databases are also part of the system created by IT Department. In the paper discussed the results of the work to establish cooperation between major economic libraries (Warsaw School of Economics, University of Economics in Katowice, Poznań University of Economics and Wroclaw University of Economics) in order to contribute BazEkon database, not only in terms of creating bibliographic descriptions, but also a place of publishing article full text. Outlines changes in the interfaces available to readers, which are designed to help you navigate through both databases. At the end also discussed prospects for further development of the database.

[Problems of science and technology information in Poland, A concept of Central Library for Science and Technology] One of the greatest values of each university and scientific unit is a research library. Present situation of research libraries in Poland is difficult. Rapidly growing number of publications is accompanied by significant increase of their costs. Development of science depends on access to professional information. In the article current model of funding Polish scientists access to world-wide e-resources an limitations in such access have been discussed.

The University Library at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) currently manages several collections with different automated systems. These collections include the bibliographic collections of libraries, the Digital Library (which includes commercial products, such as books, journals and databases) and the documents generated by the University (such as dissertations, teaching materials, research results, projects by students, digital videos, etc.). The production processes of the digital materials that are generated by the University, which are highly specific and complex, follow an established workflow that traditional management systems are unprepared for. Increasingly, the University requests the Library to actively participate not only in the management of the final documents (within the library) but also during the entire life cycle of the documents generated. We should keep in mind that digital documentation has its own specific publication and editing requirements, which are sometimes very sophsticated, and therefore the management of different kinds of materials with one overall system is difficult. The University Library has developed different systems to suit the characteristics of each collection, which has also spawned different support products that meet specific needs to be developed for the management of these collections. These products are therefore very efficient; however, they have led to a disparity in the procedures for document retrieval and, furthermore, the system’s development and maintenance has become very expensive. aced with this situation, the University Library is analysing the advantages and disadvantages of using a unique management system or, alternatively, of continuing to employ different systems, as the previous stage to the design of a new strategy for the management of university production.