Editorial

A short history of the journal is presented and the steps taken along the years in order to enhance the quality and reach of the journal, including the recent change of its title.

The role of libraries in the fight against fake news and hate speech is discussed in this article. Fake news can be understood as misinformation. On the other hand fake media which publishes fake news is not a new phenomenon and it has a long history.

One of the main objectives of public libraries is to promote a sense of community, pluralism and cultural diversity. The role of libraries in supporting media and information literacy (MIL) is important. In the future, the focus should be on mapping, and developing the media and information literacy skills of library employees and customers in public libraries. Disseminating distorted information deliberately is not the task of the library.

Keywords: information literacy hate speech fake media media education libraries

The necessity of better process-related activities, due to the contemporary dynamic and complex information environment, determines libraries to analyze and understand the relevance of library services and the information practices of their users. This study adopts an ethnographic research method to observe the users' perceptions, experiences and information habits, combining field observations with interviews and questionnaires, with the aim to propose a series of measures to optimize the library services and to better meet the information requests. The results indicate that Romanian research libraries must constantly reconfigure their services and redefine the librarians’ tasks, in line with changes in users' information behavior and with the development of science communication and digital technology. In general, librarians are envisioned and must act as consultants, if they want to offer perceived value and effective support to the community they serve, both in traditional and digital space of the library.

Keywords: library service quality research library users information practices

The early studies concerning library users were focused was on identifying general patterns of research and retrieval of information. Along the years, the studies have shifted towards measuring the degree of satisfaction with library services. The present study is taking into consideration both approaches and investigates aspects related the reasons for frequenting the library. In February 2018, on the premises of “Carol I” Central University Library of Bucharest, we have conducted 13 semi-structured interviews with the new users of the library. Our main findings are the following: the main reason for coming to the library is studying for or writing a paper, users have a rather stereotypical representation of the library and the users regard the library as a place with a potential for interaction with fellow students.

Keywords: library users interviews users’ motivations qualitative research

Romanian libraries are institutions strongly attached to the social environment, through which carry out the role of cultural and educational pole of the community. Any change at the social level affects more or less the internal mechanisms of the organization. Amendments to international law on the processing of personal data also have effects on these information structures. From this perspective, we intend to analyze, in a comprehensive way, the main areas of influence that privacy and privacy laws have upon the library. Thus, we investigated the library-user relationship, library-employee, and some of the ethics of information issues. Obviously, on a national scale, all these ideas will have a specific treatment after the unitary analysis of the intersection of legislation with the field of practical data activity. We consider that approaches related to the convergence of the personal data processing with the ethics of information and the main practical procedures that will be implemented in Romania have not only a theoretical justification but above all, became a prerequisite to act rightful.

Keywords: personal data integrated systems libraries data protection

The article presents the way in which the digital and traditional archive of a unique museum in Europe is capitalized within the Permanent Exhibition.

The literary archive, part of the cultural memory of the Romanian people is exposed by traditional methods and techniques, but also by modern, digital interactive means that transform the museum’s space into an extremely vivid, attractive place for any visitor, local or from any part of the world.

Keywords: exhibition literary archive digital archive traditional archive memory

In the last years, all kind of institutions and associations worldwide have built up digital collections related to the topic of First World War, among them the Europeana 1914-1918 being one of the most impressive WWI digital archive in the world.

The paper describes the story of the Croatian Pasko Rogulj and the Romanian Dumitru Nistor, both sailors on Kaiserin Elisabeth ship in WWI – a digital encounter after 100 years enabled by the Europeana1914-1918 archive. It also emphasizes the importance of digital storytelling and community engagement for GLAMs in our times.

Keywords: digital archives World War One family and local history (digital) storytelling

The present article analyses the documentation methodology as part of the teaching/learning process within the University of Bucharest at the faculties without philological profile by journaling the means for documentation and research of information while in the second part the article focuses on the teaching/learning process using technology in order for students to assimilate specialized vocabulary.

Keywords: documentation library ESP technology for teaching

This article presents the remarkable story of the very old manuscripts in Timbuktu, found in the archives of official institutions as well as in private collections. Going beyond the myths of illiterate Africa, the paper attempts to expose the thriving scholar activity and bibliophilic importance of the city of Timbuktu, the heart of intellectual history of Western Africa. A particular emphasis is put on the crucial role many courageous Malian librarians and conservationsts had in their bold attitude to the warriors under the Jihadi occupation. In 2013 their adventurous evacuation of the books was pivotal to the salvation of their precious cultural heritage.

Keywords: librarian library manuscripts documents collection archive Western Africa

The journal Ermis ‘o Logios, issued in the year 1811, in Vienna, represented an important period in the ideological confrontations of the Greek Enlightenment intellectuals, regarding the evolution of the language and education in Greece. The journal was supported morally, but mostly financially, by the Greek-Dacian Literary Society from Bucharest. Until the war of the Greek independence, the journal functioned as a redoubt of the liberal group of the Greek Enlightenment led by Adamantios Korais, the adept of the purist Greek language and of the non-interference of the clergy in the education. Most of the journal's numbers will focus on the debates between two representatives of two different groups of Greek Enlightenment, Panagiotis Kodrikas, conservative, and Adamantios Korais.

Keywords: Greek-Dacian Literary Society. Bucharest Enlightenment Modern Greek Language (Καθαρεύουσα) 19th century Panagiotis Kodrikas Periodicals Collection