The National Library of Romania and its Users. An Approach to the Influence of the New Building on the Information Access

• Author: Tîrziman, E.
• Position: Ph.D., National Library of Romania, General Director
• Pages: 333-338

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ROMANIA

AND ITS USERS. AN APPROACH TO THE

INFLUENCE OF THE NEW BUILDING ON

THE INFORMATION ACCESS

Elena TÎRZIMAN1

Abstract: The role of a national library in society is to capitalize and to preserve

the national intellectual heritage by organizing it, processing it, ensuring the access

and availability of all media. The mission, functions and the specific prerogatives of

the National Library of Romania (NLR) determine special types of users. A specific

category of users are businesses coming from the publishing and media sector, or

public from education or research areas. Another category of users are the

libraries and the librarians from the National System of Libraries. The National

Library of Romania acts as an encyclopedic library, thus individual users are an

extremely heterogeneous group and come from various categories, environments

and ages.

Keywords: National Library of Romania - functions and competences, Business

users, Individual users, User strategy.

1 Ph.D., National Library of Romania, General Director.

1. Introduction

The relationship between a library and its

users is determined by a series of objectives

and factors that concern analyzing and

knowing the target community, the type of

library and its characteristics, as well as the

information resources, technological material

and human resources that the institution holds

available. There is a strong connection

between the purpose of a library and the

community they assist. When considering the

National System of Libraries (NSL) in

Romania, we find institutions that generally

define their mission, functions and attributions

in accordance with the user’s requirements. In

order to provide the most accurate

information to their users, a library must

acknowledge its community, must organize

its collections in such manner that they are

easily accessible, must select, acquire, and

evaluate the needs of their customers and

together with specialized personnel and

adequate resources to elaborate a sustainable

managerial plan for the institution. This

statement stands true for a national library as

for any other library.

2. Users of the National Library of

Romania

In many countries, national libraries are

unique institutions that have as main

patrimonial mission the task to preserve and

value the national intellectual inheritance

through its organization, processes, access and

availability via any media. The National

Library of Romania has similar tasks with any