In this paper, the authors report on collaboration between two universities from 2003 and beyond. The collaborations have been carried out in four main spheres: in the area of Staff training programmes, in the area of Development and research in information literacy, in the area of Developing Models of Digital Repositories and also in the domain of Research in Library Leadership. This cooperation started in 2003 when the authors worked on developing the first Leonardo da Vinci program in the field of continued education, and is still ongoing. The collaborations have been funded by different national and international funding agencies, as well as from the institutions of the authors.
TopIntroduction
In the globally connected world of higher education today with lists of rankings being presented in the mass media, it is necessary for any ambitious university to compare itself with others, search for best practices and find collaborators with whom to build strengths.
This is what our two universities have done. They are quite different in many respects, although both are medium sized European Research universities with a wide range of subjects; Bergen specializes in marine technologies and development research, while Brasov is strong on forestry and engineering. But this difference in research profiles does not necessarily mean that there are differences in teaching, or in the supports of research and information gathering that are expected from their libraries.
In this paper we will report on an ongoing collaboration between two universities from 2003 and onwards.
The collaborations reported will be from four different fields – but all within library related issues. The collaborations so far are within
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Staff training programmes
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Development and research in information literacy
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Developing models of digital repositories
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Research in library leadership
TopOne of the areas that we both needed better services was within the field of information literacy (IL). The following research was done at a time when Bergen had already started the IL-program and development of teaching modules, but still needing supporting research evidence about where to focus. Brasov was just starting to explore IL as a concept.
This research was first presented at the Norwegian Library meeting in 2008.
In the fall term 2007 and spring term 2008 a survey was conducted from the University of Bergen Library, Norway, and the Central Library of Transylvania University, Brasov, Romania. The survey was given to 93 students in Bergen and 100 in Brasov, by handing out similar questionnaires to students in both libraries. The questionnaires had been developed in Rumanian, translated to English and then to Norwegian.
The study was especially designed to explore students conduct and understandings as regards the use of libraries, especially the university library, and the electronic resources provided. At the same time, the results from this analysis were compared with other findings from other studies.
For both surveys, the questionnaires were handed out to students already in the library. This was done to ensure that answers would be coming from students who were actively engaged with the library as a place for learning.