Search

The diversification of academic roles can lead to work overload, with significant consequences for well-being. In this context, the academic library's role in supporting research has become crucial. This study aimed to examine the relationship between academics and librarians based on the practices offered to support research activities, and the relevance of Community of Practice (CoP) theory in this context. Eighteen in-depth interviews with academic librarians from public universities in Poland were conducted. A thematic narrative approach emphasized the local context of the findings while grounding them in a broader context of international observations. This study shows that at all stages of scholarly communication, we observe interactions between academics and librarians. Although the level and type of these interactions differ depending on the stage and the institution, they are a rich source of knowledge about academics' needs. While organizing access to print and digital collections remains an essential part of their duties, the emphasis of their activities is shifting from collection management to service provision. These efforts lead to shared practices that constitute the community as defined in CoP theory, even though at the preliminary stage, it is often still unrecognized, invisible to the organization and even to some members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to diagnose the information culture of the university administration. Although university administrative work is commonly associated with bureaucracy, it is a bureaucracy of people in which employees demonstrate a set of competitive group information behavior focused on knowledge sharing and information use in day-to-day tasks. A group of 345 respondents, representing office staff from three institutions in Poland, answered the survey related to information culture. The research framework included 16 information behaviors, grouped by four levels of information and knowledge management and four types of information culture. The results were examined using statistical packages to perform the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and ordinal/linear regression analysis. Professional Bureaucracy culture is the dominant characteristic of the information behavior of university administrations, but its functioning is supported by three parallel information cultures included in the research model. The main limitation of the study is that it covers only lower-level employees' information practices. The applied scale, based on professional stratification within the university administration, is highly sensitive regarding different institutional contexts covered in the information culture diagnosis. To support the development of Professional Bureaucracy, it is necessary to support internal openness of behavior (socialization), internalization of knowledge, and external networking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose/Thesis: The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic made the digital space take a larger part in our everyday life. This article determines whether COVID-19 has in any way affected information literacy of users of a specific type, i.e. members of business sharing Facebook groups. Approach/Methods: The research involved a literature review and an analysis of data collected by the means of a survey. Results and conclusions: 104 people from eight groups from Lesser Poland, as well as Tri-City, Silesia, and Mazovia, took part in the pilot study. The survey covered the following themes: recognizing information needs and obtaining information, evaluating and using information, defining and self-assessing information literacy. The results showed that the participants did not think that COVID-19 had a significant impact on their information literacy, and they assessed their level of their own competences as adequate, or high. Originality/Value: The article contributes a new study which may inspire further discussions on the subject of social media users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]