Abstract
Today, we are witnessing a significant increase in high quality scientific literature, either born digital or
digitized. According to a series of specialists in education, research activities affect education and a specialized
dialogue between researchers and students can affect the quality of research output. This study takes into
consideration this interplay between research and education - even in the form of e-learning and digital
information -, and analyzes the accessibility of digital scientific literature offered by Romanian research libraries.
Firstly, the study presents findings obtained through exploration of existing specialized digital repositories
worldwide and in Romania, high quality digital scientific literature, renowned databases of journals, e-learning
platforms, along with open access initiatives. These digital resources need to be better identified and this paper is
framed by consideration of different ways to make visible the scientific output. In general, researchers use data and
information from other studies and, also, they need to communicate and disseminate their results rapidly to the
international academic community, by means of digital repositories and digital publications. Secondly, this
research identifies findings from an empirical analysis regarding the experiences and preferences of the Romanian
researchers and, also, a series of aspects regarding the role of librarians in digital literacy. Several methods are
used, including qualitative interviews, questionnaires, corroboration across participants and engagement with
previous international studies. The study concludes with the current trends observed for Romanian research
libraries and a series of considerations for practice, with the remark that academic work in institutes and
universities varies substantially across fields and disciplines, which can prohibit a generalization to all research
libraries in Romania. |
