20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

440 Octavia-Luciana Porumbeanucommunication technologies and the ensuing diversification of servicesand resources made available to users we have undertaken more research atthe level of the Romanian academic libraries. (Porumbeanu 2003, Buluţă,Mihăilescu, Porumbeanu 2008) We started our investigation on the usageof library collections in Romania with the medical academic libraries.This was undertaken in order to investigate the way in which Romanianmedical libraries succeeded in meeting the information needs of users andthe satisfaction level of users with the conditions of the current informationexplosion and the multiple ways of accessing that information.We had as a starting point the results of a previous study from 2007.In order to get as complete and exact an image as possible concerning theimplications of the use of electronic resources and new technologies inRomanian academic medical libraries, a survey was undertaken in threemedical academic libraries – those in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iaşi, thelargest and the most representative in Romania.The study showed that a rather small number of users of the threelibraries surveyed use and prefer electronic information resources. Despitethe fact that access to electronic information resources has been availablesince the 1990’s and that the number of resources has increased, thereare no significant changes in user behaviour and practice. Only 28%of the respondents came to the library to consult databases and 16% toconsult electronic journals. The majority (92%) still came to consultpaper documents, especially books (41%). Their preference for printedinformation sources was clear (77%), with only 10% preferring electronicinformation sources. Another finding of our study was that 43% consideredthey needed assistance to access electronic materials. (Porumbeanu, 2008)We considered necessary to continue our research in order to investigatein greater detail the main reasons for this low usage of electronic resources,the lack of user education, if something had changed during the last year,however minor, and to find out which might be the best way for libraries topromote the use of electronic resources.We decided to focus our research only on one of the three librariessurveyed in the previous study. We chose the Central Library of the “CarolDavila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. This is thelargest and the oldest medical library in Romania. It was established in1857 and it serves the users from the whole University that is: the Facultyof General Medicine, the Faculty of Dental Medicine, the Faculty ofPharmacy and the Faculty of Medical Assistance and Midwives, havingalso 97 branch libraries that exist at the level of university departments,chairs and clinics which are spread all over Bucharest. There are more