Intranet for making the life of library staff easier: the case of Lithuanian academic libraries

The successful information flow and communication are the key tasks for a library of any type. Academic libraries operate in the information intensive environment, where timely and efficient communication between library staff impacts the quality of information services, ensures creative decisions and effective teamwork. However, to manage internal information flows an efficient information sharing infrastructure is crucial. For these purposes intranet, a technology which is widely applied for managing information sharing in business and also employed in libraries, can be used. Intranet offers a variety of tools that enable timely and convenient creation, sharing, communication and management of the internal information in academic libraries. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of Intranet as an infrastructure for managing internal communication and information sharing in the Lithuanian academic libraries. For this purpose a theoretical grounding of intranet application for information sharing and communication in academic libraries was developed. It allowed creating the framework for evaluation of Intranet potential in the Lithuanian academic libraries. Interviews with managers of the Lithuanian academic libraries were carried out to determine a strategic approach to Intranet application and development. The survey of the personnel of academic libraries, applying this tool, was performed to explore the nature of utilisation of this technology. The findings revealed that the library managers recognised the importance of Intranet functions. However, Intranet systems of the academic libraries were mostly oriented to one-way informing practices. Similarly, the staff of the surveyed academic libraries acknowledged the value of Intranet for their work but employed it mostly for efficient discovery and work with organisational documents. Finally, conclusions about the necessity of expansion of Intranet application in academic libraries and considering strategic, human and technical success factors while developing the system, were made. This paper is based on the findings of the Julija Zemcova’s bachelor thesis “The role of Intranet in managing internal information sharing in the Lithuanian academic libraries” (2009)