ISSN 2707-0476 (Online)

University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development. Conference Proceedings, 2021, No VI

UniLibNSD-2021

EDITORIAL

UDC 027.7


KOLESNYKOVA T. O.

Editor-in-Chief,

PhD Social Sciences, Communication,

Senior researcher,

Director of the Scientific and Technical Library

Dnipro National University of Railway Transport

named after Academician V. Lazaryan (Dnipro, Ukraine),

e-mail: chief.library@gmail.com, ORCID 0000-0002-4603-4375


CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN THE GLOBAL SCENARIO OF UNCERTAINTY: UNILIBNSD EDITOR'S VIEW


The global scenario of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how quickly university libraries can respond to changes in the educational and research ecosystems of their institutions. The new (6th) issue of the journal “University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development. Conference Proceedings” is exactly about this. The papers discuss new behaviours / work of library staff based on digital communication technologies, our projects, our goals, our hopes, as well as our doubts and concerns for the maximum contribution of libraries to the development of university communities in a constantly changing world. Full-length articles about the most interesting world library and information practices and ideas were selected, reviewed and recommended by members of the international editorial board of the similarly-named conference (UniLibNSD-2021), which was held in a hybrid format on October 7-8, 2021 in Dnipro, Ukraine. The title “University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development. Conference Proceedings” has been accepted in Scopus (2021).

Keywords: Conference Proceedings; university library; blended conference experience; hybrid conference; UniLibNSD-2021 International Conference; acceptance in Scopus; Library and Information Science; Library of DNURT; Ukraine


Dear readers, authors, and colleagues,

Many of us were looking forward to the (VI) issue of the journal “University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development. Conference Proceedings”. Full-format papers were selected, reviewed and recommended by the members of the international editorial board of the similarly-named conference (UniLibNSD-2021).

This impatience was fuelled by the important news from Elsevier – the title “University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development. Conference Proceedings” has been accepted in Scopus! The Scopus Content Selection Advisory Board (CSAB) reviewed our application and approved it for coverage (November, 2021).

This is the highest assessment of the activities of the international editorial board, reviewers and authors! Congratulations to all of us, as well as our beloved and highly respected readers!

The global scenario of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how quickly educational and research ecosystems can join hands to respond and share results globally.

Libraries, as active participants in the development of digital academic infrastructures, have had to change their policies in order to provide assistance in the creation of educational and scientific information and, of course, its accessibility and dissemination.

As part of a complex research-and-education ecosystem, university libraries in any country understand that today, in the context of the crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, their activities have significantly transformed. Moreover, it depends not only on the preservation and transfer of fixed knowledge, but also on the joint creation of new knowledge.

That is why the VI-th International Conference "University Library at a New Stage of Social Communications Development" (2021) (UniLibNSD) had the theme – 2021 "Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects of University Libraries in the Global Scenario of Uncertainty".

The International Conference was initiated by Library of Dnipro National University of Railway Transport named after Academician V. Lazaryan (Director Tetiana Kolesnykova, Dnipro, Ukraine) and was held on October 7-8, 2021. Active co-organizers of the Conference are the Scientific Library of the Belarusian National Technical University, the Republic of Belarus (Director Inna Yurik) and the Nazarbayev University Library, the Republic of Kazakhstan (Acting Director Peter Laro). Strategic partners are Ukrainian Library Association, European Network of Open Education Librarians, Clarivate.

The UniLibNSD-2021 conference was focused on the world's most interesting library practices and ideas. At the same time, the most discussed services were those that are not yet common practice for most libraries of higher educational institutions, but very relevant for today's mixed and distance teaching, learning and research format.

And we continued to focus on engaging different perspectives, achieving greater geographic and gender diversity, providing a platform for new voices, and evaluating the contribution of each speaker equally – a practicing librarian, educator, researcher, publisher, IT representative, PhD student and LIS master...

The UniLibNSD Conference is one of the first in Library and Information Sciences to hold a hybrid conference (Kolesnykova, 2020) since 2020 — in person and virtually — since the pandemic pivot to fully online (http://conflib.diit.edu.ua/).

From the beginning, we decided that we wanted to enable at least a small face-to-face option if it was safe to do so. That is why the website has a notice "The Organizing Committee closely monitors the situation with the COVID-19 and restrictions to physical movement. That is why we will be glad to meet you in various formats (physically or online)". (http://conflib.diit.edu.ua/).

But at the same time, we required the participants to prove complete vaccination or a negative test result for COVID-19 for personal entrance to the Library conference room of the Dnipro National University of Railway Transport (October 7-8, 2021, Dnipro, Ukraine). And, of course, masks were required for those personally present at all conference events.

The International Organizing Committee planned to hold a fairly large-scale virtual event, but at the same time we dreamed of many happy moments of physical communication. We dreamt of meeting old friends in the corridors, of new acquaintances and the birth of creative ideas during a coffee break, of exchanging opinions with marketers and book suppliers while turning pages in the windows of publishers.

And our hopes were justified! Of the 198 registered participants, 150 were online, 48 were present in person in the conference room.

The main sections in the work of the conference: