Conference Agenda

The evaluation process of school libraries, developed by the Portuguese School Libraries Network (RBE), has been carried out through the application of a self-evaluation model (MABE). This evaluation seeks to establish a relationship between processes, the impact or value they generate, and the prospects for future development (Bastos, Martins & Conde, 2011). The model contemplates four domains, which constitute parts of analysis and evaluation in harmony with the main axes of work of the school library (SL). The instrument used by teacher librarians (TL) is based on a set of elements, including the collection of data through questionnaires applied to students of different schooling levels.

Therefore, in the framework of an agreement between Universidade Aberta with the RBE for research purposes, we examine the responses obtained through the surveys carried out in that context, to students from the Portuguese districts of Évora, Leiria, Setúbal and Vila Real, in 2015, 2017 and 2019. The analysis is focused on activities related to MIL, considering that primarily it concerns with competencies and skills, but can also be devised as the basis for a democratic society in which all citizens can participate (Haider and Sundin, 2022, p. 15). According to the orientations published by RBE (2017), students need to critically engage with media and information, namely in digital settings, and it is of the utmost importance to identify how students evaluate SL’s action and to realize whether the SL is achieving its goals in this area.

This study is based on a mixed methods approach and crosses the four regions (representative of different geographic and social contexts) and the three indicated time periods, verifying the incidences and contrasts in the dimensions studied in the observed universe. We want to understand how students face the contributions of the school library in the development of their skills in information and media literacy by means of a statistical analysis of the answers given to MABE surveys. These data are crossed with the Improvement Reports, from 2016 and 2018, in particular the strengths and weaknesses pointed out by the TLs. From this analysis it is possible to identify what has been the role of SL in the development of MIL skills, as well as the constraints and improvements in the action of libraries during this period of time. Being widely considered that MIL is the answer to today’s information crisis and that schools have an important role to play in this context, we think that SLs are right at the center of this process. This study is particularly relevant as it analyzes unpublished data collected by RBE, especially considering that the SL evaluation model has become an instrument to guide good practices, monitoring and evaluating the different intervention areas, certifying processes and results, and informing decision-making.

References

Bastos, G., Martins, R., & Conde, E. (2011). A self-evaluation model for school libraries in Portugal. In L. Marquardt & D. Oberg (Eds.), Global Perspectives on School Libraries: Projects and Practices (pp. 11–21). Berlin: De Gruyter Saur.

Haider, J., & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of media and information literacy: the crisis of information. New York: Routledge.

RBE. (2017). Aprender com a biblioteca escolar. Lisboa: Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares.

An essential component of the information society is intellectual property (IP) knowledge, in particular copyright and related rights. IP has become even more relevant with the increasing openings allowing people to create and promote their work in online media.

There are a lot of different versions of copyright surveys in Social Sciences in Bulgaria because the specialists in this field find their spheres of realization in different public institutions. As cultural and information institutions where using or producing information resources is the basis of their activity, specialists need to be well informed on IP protection, especially copyright (Trencheva & Denchev, 2016; Todorova & Trencheva, 2014; Todorova et al. 2014). However, a survey dedicated to copyright awareness among future media specialist had not been performed.

The paper presents the methodology and results of a survey which aims to establish, systematize, and analyse the current level of awareness about copyright issues among trainees in the media field.

The survey instrument was developed by the authors in order to collect data, regarding students’ knowledge, awareness levels and attitude of copyright issues. The questionnaire consists of 40 main questions in four panels.

The survey was conducted in nine universities in Bulgaria, among students in the public communications and information sciences, with specialties such as journalism, media, public relations, arts, and creativity. It was conducted from 1st April – 26th May 2021. The general aggregation, consists of 449 effectively surveyed Bulgarian students in Bachelor, Master and Ph.D degree programs. The study was done on the principle of systematic random selection with stratification to 10% of the students in the mentioned professional field. Data collection was carried out by Google survey.

The survey provides information on copyright literacy and the attitudes of young people to IP and was conducted at a time when the rights of authors and journalists were in focus and their value emphasized. In this sense, it can be assumed that the answers of the respondents indirectly influence the public debate on the IP topic. The analyzed information serves as a starting point for a model for increasing copyright literacy among future media specialists.

References

Todorova, T., Тrencheva, T., Kurbanoğlu, S., Doğan, G., Horvat, A., & Boustany, J. (2014). A multinational study on copyright literacy competencies of LIS professionals. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), Information Literacy, Lifelong Learning and Digital Citizenship in the 21st Century, Second European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2014, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 20–23, 2014: Proceedings. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 492 (pp. 138–148). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Todorova, T., & Trencheva, T. (2014). Copyright literacy in memory institutions: Findings from scientific research project in Bulgaria. In Proceedings of the 3th International Conference on NPSE (pp. 169–172). Florence: PIXEL.

Trencheva, T., & Denchev, S. (2016). Intellectual property awareness of sulsit’s students: Survey results and curricula reflection. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference of E-Society (pp. 79–86). Vilamoura, Algarve: Portugal.

Recently, the global information and educational space has been constantly and intensively enriched with new phenomena and forms of their presentation that needs to be comprehended and analyzed. Over the past few months the authors of the article have chosen a specific segment of Facebook network and have tracked a small part of this global phenomenon. In our first publication we pre sented a content analysis of individual information and educational Facebook Pages. That study aroused public interest, prompting us to conduct a comparative analysisof related objects and phenomena. It should be noted that all educational pages on Facebook are professionally oriented and serve to develop the professional and medical competence of the interested educational community.

We attempted to compare thematic pages created or moderated by authors by means of content analysis. We give for comparison the statistical data of two author multi-thematic FB-pages.

“Медіашкола професора Ганни Онкович”, “Media School of Professor Ganna Onkovych” had 2,000 registered participants, URL: https://www.facebook.com/groups/898909013519964/about). Освіта за спеціальністю “Нафтогазова інженерія та технології”, Education by profession “Oil and Gas Engineering and Technology”, had registered 1,200 participants (URL: https:// www.facebook.com/groups/145315129579851/about). They are led by professors G.V. Onkovych from the department of Ukrainian and Latin languages of Kyiv Medical University, where a special course “Professional-oriented media education” is offered , and V.S. Beletsky, professor of the department “Oil, Gas and Condensate Extraction” of the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”.

Every page has associated statistics, that are automatically updated continuously. A comparative analysis of Facebook informational and educational pages provides opportunities for obtaining versatile information that can be useful in the processes of monitoring and regulating information flows and in particular, professional information.