Formation of Library Specialists’ Readiness to Inform Scientific Library Users with News
Authors: Ryabova Irina I. 
Published: December 2024

In the conditions of active technological development of society and increasing number of academic open access resources (OARs) there is a need for new knowledge and skills of library specialists who are able to realize modern forms of library and information services for scientists and specialists, including news information on current issues. Such information allows to orientate in the increasing disparate streams of news reflecting the current state of a particular scientific direction. In order to implement news information, continuous improvement of professional competences of library professionals is an important task.

The purpose of this study is to justify the development of mass open online courses (MOOCs), as well as programmes of additional professional education (APE) on the basis of determining the readiness of university graduates in the specialty 51.03.06 “Library and Information Activity” to implement the work on news information of library users (on the example of open science). To achieve the goal, we studied the competences of graduates required by the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education — Bachelor’s degree in the direction of training 51.03.06 “Library and Information Activity”. These competences are necessary for the implementation of the information system in the library, they include knowledge of selected issues, the ability to create information products and services with the help of information and communication technologies, as well as the skills of analytical and synthetic processing of information (ASPI).

The research method was a survey “Competences of librarians in the conditions of open science development” among 4th year bachelors studying in Russian universities in the direction of training 51.03.06 “Library and Information Activity”. This survey was conducted in the period from 1 February to 1 April 2024. It was aimed at studying the general ideas of graduates: 1) about open science and open knowledge, the growing interest in which is caused by the emergence of international initiatives and requirements of publishers/grantors; 2) about a variety of OARs; 3) about some legal aspects in the field of open science; 4) about technologies for creating modern library and information products and services; 5) about the methods and tools of ASPI as necessary elements of effective news information in a scientific library. The results of the survey allowed to conclude that the respondents are partially ready to inform library users. The survey also ranked the highlighted gaps in knowledge of some theoretical and practical aspects of ASPI that are required to create modern library and information products.

The survey became the basis for the development of the MOOC School of Future Librarian “Library for Open Science”. The course “Librarian-Bibliographer — Instructor of Open Science”, implemented on the Stepik open platform, and a similarly-named training programme at the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have also been developed. The competences required for realization of news informing of library readers on open science can be extended to any topical issues.