Abstract:

The modern information society and the current information environment generated by it pose a number of challenges to library institutions, but also open up vast new opportunities for them. With the introduction of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in public life, a radical transformation in the thinking, attitudes and needs of library users is taking place. A society is being created in which knowledge and information are becoming increasingly important and valued, but also increasingly quickly and easily accessible.

Libraries are one of the key elements of the modern information environment and the single global information space. And the adequate response to the current reader’s needs in the modern digital world is the mobile digital library, i.e., digital library that offers access to its services and resources through mobile devices – phone, tablet, laptop, e-reader.

This scientific paper presents a comparative analysis of some of the results of two surveys on “Mobile Digital Libraries and Mobile Learning”. One study was conducted among librarians from about one thousand different in profile and size libraries in Bulgaria – national, regional, university and community centres. The second survey was conducted among information users – students at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, ULSIT (BULGARIA).

The research methodology includes an online form of structured questionnaires, and the empirical data were introduced and processed with the statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics 21. One-dimensional frequency distributions and qualitative content analysis of the open answers of the respondents were used.

Both studies were conducted in connection with the implementation of a research project entitled “Information portal for mobile learning and mobile access to library services and resources”, won in the Competition for financial support for projects of junior basic researchers and postdocs – 2019, organized by the National Science Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria.

The main purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the results of the two surveys on the following statements:
- mobile learning and mobile access to library services and resources promotes reading, information literacy and digital competence among the younger generations.
- the new information technologies provide up-to-date, additional opportunities for libraries to initiate different, current directions of development and to increase their social status and public prestige in the modern information society.
- through mobile learning and mobile access to library services and resources, library institutions actively participate in the preservation and socialization of national and world cultural and historical heritage.
- the application of the modern information and communication technologies meets the current information needs and challenges and strengthens the key role of the library as a cultural, educational, spiritual, moral, and educational institution.
- mobile education and library services are an effective way to access resources and information in crisis situations, as in the case of COVID-19.

In summary, this paper aims to reveal and summarize the positive changes that information technology is causing in modern society in terms of new opportunities for access to learning and information through the active role of mobile digital libraries.

Keywords:

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