Abstract:

In the last few decades, we have witnessed an extremely rapid development of information and communication technologies, which confronts information institutions with the need to readjust their policies and take adequate advantage of the new opportunities for digital access to information and knowledge provided by modern technologies. The emergence of latest information channels, latest information carriers, the changed attitudes of users – desire for immediate, remote access to resources and services – all these are prerequisites for library institutions to seek for new models to respond to modern conditions and users’ needs. And in the modern digital world, digital information portals are the adequate answer to current readers’ needs, as well as to the vision of library specialists.

The main purpose of this paper is to present and analyse part of the results of two surveys on topic “Mobile Digital Libraries and Mobile Learning”, which clearly show the preferences of both users and librarians for digital forms of information access, library services and documents.

One study was conducted among library specialists from about 1,000 libraries of different profiles and sizes in Bulgaria – a national, regional, university and community libraries. One of its goals is to establish to what extent Bulgarian libraries provide digital services and resources, as well as what is the attitude of librarians towards them. The second survey was conducted among information users – students at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, ULSIT (BULGARIA) and aims to investigate and analyse to what extent information users use mobile devices for reading, learning and accessing information resources, what is their attitude towards the inclusion of mobile digital services in library services, and how informed and supportive they are of international policies on mobile access to learning and library services and resources.

The research methodology was implemented through an online form of structured type questionnaires, which were distributed through e-mails to all respondents. Empirical data from both studies were entered and processed with IBM SPSS Statistics 21 statistical software.

In summary, this paper aims to emphasize the key role of the inclusion of modern technologies in the educational, scientific and information provision and satisfaction of the reader’s requirements and needs today.

Keywords:

E-content, digital libraries, cultural and historical heritage, research project.