Ivan Kanič, the head of the CEK: “According to the CEK’s data range offer we are at the very top of the economic schools.”
Central Economic Library (CEK) is the leading Slovenian scientific and academic library in the field of economics and business. We talked to Ivan Kanič, the head of the library, about the architectural, digital and content upgrade of the library.
1. We live in the so-called Information Age, in which we are constantly surrounded by information. The CEK offers a rich set of content in the field of economics and business. How do you help the users to find the relevant information?
“Beside the primary role and mission of the library, CEK at the same time pursues a vision of the faculty that is to educate personnel who will successfully be launched in the economic and political environment, and that the faculty will be ranked among the best schools of economics in the world in the coming years. Education and research activities are still based on printed books and magazines. Those are complemented with or substituted by electronic media.
The role of libraries is, of course, IT (information technology) training of its users, and in CEK the range of this is extremely wide and well adapted. We start to inform freshmen about the library and its rich information sources and the reasons why they should return to the library. We also offer courses and seminars, where we focus on the content of a particular electronic source, whether a domestic or foreign one. According to the CEK’s data range offer, we are at the very top of the economic schools. In this way, we provide students and researchers with what they need. We opened the doors to electronic magazines and these are used more than the printed ones, while things are a bit slower with regard to electronic books. Currently in collaboration with one of the largest global providers, we enable users to have a one-month access to electronic books in the fields of economics and business. One of the tools which help users obtain information is also the website of the library, where all relevant information about the sources, trainings and other content of the library is available.”
2. With the Digital Library of the University of Ljubljana we can get a remote access to rich sources of information in the databases. Has the role of CEK changed with the development of a remote access to information sources?
“The role of the library is not changing, but increasing. With an increasing number of interlibrary cooperations, and with limited financial resources, we achieved far more than any individual library could. Cooperation brings benefits to all parties, especially to our users. You do not give a book in the user’s hands, it is more important to offer qualitative and relevant information or access to it. Information is the raw material of knowledge that is indispensable. We must emphasize that electronic sources are generally very specialized and carefully selected, which often means they are payable and very expensive, but nevertheless necessary. The upgrade we have achieved in cooperation with other libraries is one of the bases on which we can obtain many of these sources. We also provide our users with the access to almost any information they need in their work in the most economical and the fastest way. This is why we have organized the remote access, which means that our users, regardless of strict restrictions on the licensing terms, can use sources from remote locations, e.g. from their offices or from home at night and on weekends.”
3. In 2012, the library received a thorough architectural renovation. What have the users gained, in addition to pleasant and modernly designed rooms?
“A modern library is a place where books and users are closely in touch. The architect did a brilliant renovation by transforming the available space from the warehouse to a pleasant environment, which is becoming a social point of contact among students. It is now a place where you can study individually or in small or large working groups. With the renovation, we especially took care of small work teams of students, since we provided them with six work rooms. These rooms are practically always occupied; in addition to these, we also offer rooms for larger work groups. All the basic area is complemented with a free wireless network, through which users have access to all the electronic sources of the library, and they are also available on mobile devices. ”
4. In the time of the financial and economic crisis, funding for all types of non-profit activities has been reduced. How does CEK oppose the pressure of reduced financial resources?
“The faculty has always been aware of the library’s important function of the IT support for research and study processes and it has always been able to provide funds for its smooth operation. With a very detailed analysis of the purchases, we removed those magazines which represented a high financial burden, but were able to replace them with other adequate sources. Cooperation with domestic and foreign libraries is one of the ways how we can save financial resources while maintaining access to the rich set of information sources. In the event that we and the library of the University of Ljubljana do not have access to the necessary information we can access the libraries of other universities. To this end, we have organized an extensive network of delivery of documents from abroad, where an electronic document can be delivered an hour after the user asks for it. ”
Špela Bandelj, EFnews
Proofread by Živa Furlan, EFnews
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