Information everywhere: Introduction to the special issue of LIDA 2023 (Libraries in the Digital Age) conference: Issue 1

This special issue of Education for Information (EfI) brings selected papers presented at the 2023 LIDA International Conference (Osijek, Croatia, 24th–26th May 2023). LIDA is an international biennial conference that brings together researchers, educators, students, practitioners, and developers from all over the world, providing a platform for personal exchanges, discussions, and learning. LIDA addresses the changing and challenging environment for libraries and information systems and services in the digital world. The conference is organized by two Croatian institutions in LIS (University in Osijek, University in Zadar) and an American (Rutgers University) university.

The 2023 conference’s theme was “Information Everywhere” and a large number of submissions (papers, panels, workshops and posters) were presented. In contrast to 2021 LIDA conference, which was held online due to COVID-19 pandemic, this conference was completely in-person, enabling participants to fully enjoy the conference experience. Although the authors had the possibility to publish their papers elsewhere, 24 LIDA authors submitted their papers to Education for Information journal. After a careful review process, as many as 15 papers were accepted for publication. They will be published in two issues – the first issue contains seven papers that deal largely with various aspects of LIS education whereas the second issue has papers on diverse aspects of digital library services.

This editorial introduces the first issue, providing a brief description of the first eight LIDA papers.

Two papers in this issue deal with the topic of Open Educational Resources (OERs) – one from the aspect of written heritage preservation whereas the second one brings the topic in connection to the latest pandemic the world experienced. In their paper Designing an OER course in the field of written heritage preservation – importance of content adaptation Ines Horvat, Marija Milošević and Damir Hasenay emphasize the complexity of the written heritage preservation. That complexity should be reflected in the model of comprehensive written heritage preservation management where five key aspects must be addressed: strategic and theoretical, economic and legal, educational, technical and operational and cultural and social aspect. Therefore, designing an OER in this field needs to include its complexity to present the content more efficiently and purposefully to the intended end-user. The authors propose the creation of the content framework that can facilitate and guide the effective creation of OERs in the field of written heritage preservation. The framework includes content areas derived from the key issues defined in each aspect of comprehensive written heritage preservation management model. The second paper on the OER topic entitled Professor’s and student’s perspectives on digital education in library and information science (LIS) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: online teaching, adaptation of courses and OER use provides insight into the experience of German LIS teachers and students with online education and the use of OERs during the recent pandemic. Lea Wöbbekind, Leonie Voland, Orhan Yener, Juan-José Boté Vericad, Silvia Argudo, Cristóbal Urbano, and Thomas Mandl conducted interviews and focus groups to identify, analyse and compare students’ and professors’ attitudes, experiences and problems in remote teaching and learning during the latest crisis. The results showed that professors were experienced and innovative regarding the use of digital education but encountered diverse obstacles for the use and production of OER for online education. Students’ initial difficulties with online learning were quickly resolved and they were able to adjust to the new teaching environment. Both LIS professors and students recognized the advantages of employing digital education and OERs in higher education.

Two papers discuss topics on information literacy. In her paper entitled Aligning information literacy terminology to STEM disciplinary language used in the scientific method, Brianna Buljung addresses the challenge of incorporating information literacy into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum for academic librarians, in part due to different terminology used by disciplinary faculty colleagues. In order to demonstrate the role of information literacy in STEM research, it is necessary to align terminology used in information literacy frameworks with the scientific method. The paper maps the knowledge practices of the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education with an example of the scientific method. The resulting model map provides an alignment of the different terminologies being used and visualizes the role of research skills throughout the process of conducting scientific research. Authors Maja Krtalic, Jennifer Campbell-Meier, Alison Susan Day, and Spencer Lilley provide unique perspective on the concept of information literacy. In their paper titled Literacies in everyday life: tattoo information needs authors identified the information needs of individuals in the process of tattoo acquisition in New Zealand and discussed those needs in relation to information literacy skills that support tattoo information experience. The data were gathered through 21 interviews and resulted in seven categories of information needs (information literacy): Health Information Needs (Health Literacy), Visual Information Needs (Visual Literacy), Legal Information Needs (Legal Literacy), Cultural Information Needs (Cultural Literacy), Societal Information Needs (Societal Literacy), Digital and Media Information Needs (Digital and Media Literacy). Eighth information need – Financial Information Need (Financial Literacy) was only indicated, but not explicitly stated by the interviewees.

An intriguing paper entitled Disability and surveillance: disability justice as a framework for educational technology by Alexandra Pucciarelli and Emma May takes a critical approach to data extraction and surveillance. The paper examines critical perspectives on surveillance and educational technologies from LIS literature, as well as those from disability studies that concern technology development more broadly. The paper aims to understand how a disability justice framework can interrogate both the overall expansion of surveillance technologies and justifications for increased surveillance that argue that data extraction and analytics lead to increased accessibility for disabled users. Using a disability justice framework, this paper argues against the expansion of surveillance technologies-especially in the name of increasing accessibility.

Another article in this issue tackled the topic of racial equality. Fidelia Ibekwe in her paper The whiteness of European library and information science emphasizes the lack of anti-racism initiatives and writings in continental European area. The paper dwelt on the use and abuse of “Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity”, in lieu of policies tackling racial equity. It then took stock of the research output devoted to this topic in the social sciences in order to ascertain European LIS’s involvement in it or lack thereof, and finally, analysed the results of a preliminary qualitative survey of some European LIS scholars on how racially and ethnically “diverse” their departments and student population were before sketching out some perspectives for future work on this topic

Tjaša Jug’s paper Exploring the role of games and gamification in academic libraries from the perspective of LIS educators delved into the attitudes of Slovenian LIS educators towards the inclusion of games and gamification in courses and academic library services. The result obtained through ten interviews showed that the educators rarely used games and gamification-related topics in their lectures. The interviewees, however, saw a potential of games and gamification, particularly in relation to the motivation of students to use the academic library.

The final paper in this first issue of LIDA 2023, Library and information science study program through the eyes of students: preliminary findings, addressed LIS program assessment. Authored by Sanjica Faletar, Kornelija Petr Balog, and Mirna Gilman Ranogajec, the paper described efforts to improve the curriculum quality at the Department of Information Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Osijek, Croatia. Authors conducted the research with the aim to determine how satisfied the students were with the quality of their study program and to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Findings of this study are relevant for the revision of the LIS study program at the Osijek Department. The study can also have larger implications for LIS education trends globally, for it confirmed some of the results from international studies, as well.

We believe that the papers in this issue will be of interest. However, we also want to remind readers that LIDA 2023 papers are published in two issues, and they may also wish to explore the papers in the second issue which will be published subsequently.