Abstract:

More than 2000 years ago, the Roman politician, philosopher, lawyer and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”. Today, libraries continue to be one of the most important institutions in public life – they are a key element of the modern information society and the united global information space. An inalienable requirement and condition for building a democratic and informed society is the right to equal and unobstructed access to information. Given that one of the main functions of the library institution is the information, there is no more appropriate public structure to ensure maximum open access to information resources for society. In modern society, libraries also play a key role in overcoming “digital inequality” through their ability to perform the functions of educational institutions that provide an environment for improving information literacy and user competencies.

But the effective and quality provision of information requires modernization of the operations for collecting, processing and providing of information and developed technological infrastructure. Modern mobile technologies provide boundless opportunities for the introduction of innovative library activities and services, for the initiation of current and demanded by users’ directions of development that will further increase the social status and role of library institutions.
The main purpose of the research presented in this paper is to clarify the concept of a mobile digital library, to study and systematize the international experience and the benefits of the inclusion of mobile technologies and the opportunities they provide in library activities and services.

The methodology applied for the realisation of the study includes instruments for observation, search, systematisation, summary and analysis of traditional as well as electronic information sources.

The paper also presents the Information Base: “Mobile Digital Libraries”, created during the implementation of a research project entitled “Information portal for mobile learning and mobile access to library services and resources”. The main goal of the project is through a systematic study of the issues related to mobile learning and mobile access to library services and resources to achieve new scientific knowledge, combined and presented in a common information Internet portal, in order to reveal and summarize the positive changes that modern mobile technologies provide as opportunities for access to training and information. The project was won in the Competition for financial support for projects of junior basic researchers and postdocs – 2019, organized by the National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, with Contract №KP-06-M35/2 from 18.12.2019, and is led by Senior Assist. Prof. Elisaveta Dimitrova Tsvetkova, PhD.

In summary, this paper and the implementation of the presented research project aim to underline the key importance of the active inclusion of the modern mobile technologies in the information and educational space today, to emphasize the essential role of one information point: Internet portal to unite information on issues of mobile library and information provision in an international aspect, to prove that mobile digital libraries are a key element of the information system of any modern library, adequately meeting the current reader’ needs and requirements.

Keywords:

Mobile digital libraries, mobile learning, digital libraries, mobile technologies, research project.