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Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society

Received: 5 May 2017     Accepted: 20 May 2017     Published: 27 May 2017
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Abstract

The goal of this research was to examine information needs of students in democratic society with the emphasis on their perception and use of the public library in satisfying democratic and civil rights. In the research were used quantitative methodology (printed questionnaires) and participants were students of information sciences in Osijek (Croatia). Although research results showed that students mostly never (41%) or rarely (40%) searched for the information regarding their civil and democratic rights, they found that these rights were mostly important to them (mean 3.28). Less than a half of the respondents had information needs for democratic and civil rights in the area of education (42%). As expected more than a half of the respondents informed themselves about civil and democratic rights over the Internet (57%), while only 6% of them looked for that information in public libraries. Students mainly agreed that public libraries should provide access to the civil and democratic rights information (mean 4.13) by preparing public lectures, discussions, workshops or appropriate materials such as brochures (63%). Research data can be useful for public libraries in organizing collections and services for the support of democracy and civil rights.

Published in International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems (Volume 6, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12
Page(s) 21-24
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Information Needs, Students, Public Libraries, Democracy, Civil Rights

References
[1] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html
[2] The United Nations. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1994. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/undocs/vs41250e.pdf
[3] Lor, P. J., Britz, J. J. “Is a knowledge society possible without freedom of access to information.” Journal of Information Science, 2007, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 387-397.
[4] UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. http://www.unesco.org/webworld/libraries/manifestos/libraman.html
[5] Kranich, N. Libraries, the Internet, and democracy. American Library Association, 2001.
[6] Katic, Miroslav. “Libraries and democracy: the role of libraries in development of a deliberative democracy.” Public libraries as third place. Proceedings. Zagreb: National and University Library, 2015.
[7] Blewitt, John. “Public libraries, citizens and the democracy.” Power and Education, 2014, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 84-98. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/power.2014.6.1.84
[8] City of Aarhus. Urban Mediaspace Aarhus, 2013. http://www.urbanmediaspace.dk/sites/default/files/pdf/ums_haefte_2011_uk.pdf
[9] De la Pena McCook, K., Phenix, K. J. “Public libraries and human rights.” Public Library Quarterly, 2006, vol. 25, no. 1-2, pp. 57-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J118v25n01_05
[10] Nwofor, Amaka Florence, Chinyere, Ilorah Hope Mrs. “Sustaining Nigeria’s democracy: Public libraries as an indispensable instrument in Anambra state.” Library Philosophy and Practice, 2015. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3207&context=libphilprac
[11] European Commission. Democracy and human rights. https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sectors/human-rights-and-governance/democracy-and-human-rights_en
[12] Pateman, J. & Vincent, J. Public libraries and social justice. Farnham: Ashgate, 2010.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Robert Janus, Darko Lacovic. (2017). Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society. International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, 6(2), 21-24. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12

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    ACS Style

    Robert Janus; Darko Lacovic. Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society. Int. J. Intell. Inf. Syst. 2017, 6(2), 21-24. doi: 10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12

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    AMA Style

    Robert Janus, Darko Lacovic. Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society. Int J Intell Inf Syst. 2017;6(2):21-24. doi: 10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12,
      author = {Robert Janus and Darko Lacovic},
      title = {Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society},
      journal = {International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems},
      volume = {6},
      number = {2},
      pages = {21-24},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijiis.20170602.12},
      abstract = {The goal of this research was to examine information needs of students in democratic society with the emphasis on their perception and use of the public library in satisfying democratic and civil rights. In the research were used quantitative methodology (printed questionnaires) and participants were students of information sciences in Osijek (Croatia). Although research results showed that students mostly never (41%) or rarely (40%) searched for the information regarding their civil and democratic rights, they found that these rights were mostly important to them (mean 3.28). Less than a half of the respondents had information needs for democratic and civil rights in the area of education (42%). As expected more than a half of the respondents informed themselves about civil and democratic rights over the Internet (57%), while only 6% of them looked for that information in public libraries. Students mainly agreed that public libraries should provide access to the civil and democratic rights information (mean 4.13) by preparing public lectures, discussions, workshops or appropriate materials such as brochures (63%). Research data can be useful for public libraries in organizing collections and services for the support of democracy and civil rights.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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    T1  - Public Libraries and Student’s Information Needs in Democratic Society
    AU  - Robert Janus
    AU  - Darko Lacovic
    Y1  - 2017/05/27
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12
    T2  - International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems
    JF  - International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems
    JO  - International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7683
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijiis.20170602.12
    AB  - The goal of this research was to examine information needs of students in democratic society with the emphasis on their perception and use of the public library in satisfying democratic and civil rights. In the research were used quantitative methodology (printed questionnaires) and participants were students of information sciences in Osijek (Croatia). Although research results showed that students mostly never (41%) or rarely (40%) searched for the information regarding their civil and democratic rights, they found that these rights were mostly important to them (mean 3.28). Less than a half of the respondents had information needs for democratic and civil rights in the area of education (42%). As expected more than a half of the respondents informed themselves about civil and democratic rights over the Internet (57%), while only 6% of them looked for that information in public libraries. Students mainly agreed that public libraries should provide access to the civil and democratic rights information (mean 4.13) by preparing public lectures, discussions, workshops or appropriate materials such as brochures (63%). Research data can be useful for public libraries in organizing collections and services for the support of democracy and civil rights.
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Author Information
  • Department of Information Sciences, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia

  • Department of Information Sciences, University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia

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