Cooperation and Best Practice Sharing between Academic and School Library Systems. The case of "Carol I" Central University Library Bucharest

Abstract

In the Romanian Library System "Carol I" Central University Library from Bucharest has a special status, that of both academic library and professional and methodological provider for the national school library network. As a result, the organizational mission has to follow through cooperation and sharing, three directions: (a) a common collection management policy; (b) a training policy for academic and school library network; (c) cultivating the social value of the library.

The collection management strategy is achieved together with a team of experts on academic and secondary school curriculum, users’ behaviour specialists and acquisitions experts. Both academic and school librarians work together with didactic staffs to develop collections based upon the curriculum. "Carol I" Central University Library respects the IFLA School Library Guidelines and its management plan takes into account the purpose, the long term resources and the intellectual freedom of information. In this respect, a strong set of procedures for increasing and managing the school and academic library collection has been set out. In order to acquire a balanced collection of print, digital and electronic materials, the library builds special studies on users learning styles, users’ backgrounds and reading interests.

The training policy is set up based on the need to be fluent in a digital world, in a perfect agreement with the technological evolution, the users’ demands and the skills of the librarians. Taking into account that...