Abstract:

Modern information and communication technologies have radically changed the world we live in, opened up vast opportunities for us and transformed the way we work, learn, communicate.

New technological capabilities have also provided new approaches to creating, storing, organizing, and providing information. This in turn has led to a change in consumers’ expectations of the information provision provided by library institutions. Today, users expect information faster, prefer the full text of the document instead of bibliographic data, expect information that accurately and most relevantly answers their questions, received online at a time convenient to them. Increased expectations provoke libraries to respond adequately to these searches with innovative information approaches and resources.

In today’s digital world, the adequate response to current reader needs is a mobile digital library, i.e., a digital library that offers access to its services and resources through mobile devices – phone, tablet, laptop, e-reader.

The current scientific paper presents a comparative analysis of the results of two surveys on “Mobile Digital Libraries and Mobile Learning”. One study was conducted among library specialists from about 1000 libraries of different profiles and sizes in Bulgaria – national, regional, university and community centres. The main purpose of the research is to study and analyse the extent to which mobile forms of access to knowledge and information are included in Bulgarian libraries, what is the attitude of library professionals to these information approaches, and how informed and supportive they are of international policies for mobile access to education and library services and resources. The second survey was conducted among information users – students at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, ULSIT (BULGARIA) and aims to study and analyse the extent to which information users use mobile devices for reading, learning and access to information resources, what is their attitude towards the inclusion of mobile digital services and training in library services, as well as the extent to which they are informed and whether they support international policies for mobile access to training and library services and resources.

The empirical data were entered and processed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 21 statistical software.

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, Contract №KP-06-М35/2 from 18.12.2019, led by Chief Assist. Prof. Elisaveta Dimitrova Tsvetkova, PhD.

The main goal of this paper is to present and analyse the comparable results of the two surveys conducted among library specialists and users, and to formulate conclusions about the extent to which the expectations and attitudes towards mobile digital libraries and mobile learning of the two surveyed groups overlap.

In summary, this paper and the implementation of the research project aim to emphasize the important role of the inclusion of new technologies in educational and information provision and in meeting readers’ requirements and needs today.

Keywords:

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