AN ACADEMIC LIBRARY OR A LEARNING AND RESEARCH RESOURCES CENTRE (CRAI)? A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO THE LIBRARY AS THE CENTRAL ELEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY STRUCTURE IN POLAND AND SPAIN

Abstract

Thesis/Objective – The article aims to present and compares four libraries: The Academic Library of Pope John II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska (PSW), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) Library Service, the CRAI of Pompeu Fabra University and the CRAI of Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona. Research method – The comparison is based on statis tical data from the Academic Library of PSW and data collected during Polish librarians’ educational visit in three abovementioned Catalan libraries. This comparison accounts for many aspects, such as infrastructure, user visits, the size of collections, expenditures, number of library training programs, circulation, and research output of the university staff . Result/Conclusions – Although analyzed libraries diff er in size, organizational structure and user population, all of them increase their collections, off er similar services and document the research output of their employees which is an increasingly important library activity