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

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

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 "Carol I" Central University Library is the national methodological center for the Romanian School Library System, a special training program has been created, which includes: face to face and on line courses, national conferences, documentary visits and exchanges of good practices. In this digital era, the best managers are those able to adapt and change library practice in perfect harmony with academic environment and technological developments. The social value. In a decade inspired by new attributes as social, interconnected, opened, sustainable, the library (no matter public, school or academic) has to enhance and use its technological services more and more, in the benefit of the social sphere "Carol I" Central University Library has a great social implication given by a mixture of actions which brings together children, adolescents, specialists from architecture, arts, music and literature. It offers, year by year in September, suitable packages for its users (literature, architecture, cinema, arts, music, poetry, theatre and workshops) all compressed in a complex experience called The book and arts festival. Being an unique library in Romania, with know-hows on two different but complementary library systems, "Carol I" Central University Library improved its services to offer the best groundwork and services to the academic and school community. It acts like a living mechanism which raises the level of education and culture of the society.