EBIB — The Electronic Library, the electronic platform of the Polish Librarians Association
Iwona Sójkowska, Filip Podgórski, and Małgorzata Rożniakowska
EBIB — the “Electronic Library” (in Polish: Elektroniczna BIBlioteka at http://www.ebib.info/) refers to both the journal and the only professional electronic information platform for librarians in Poland. The platform was launched and is maintained by the group of active librarians from several libraries in Poland.
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EBIB is a complex platform, which serves interlibrary communication. It is the guide through World Wide Web sources, which can be useful in everyday work of active librarians. The collected information is divided in sections and hypertext enables easy browsing in particular parts and fast access to the interesting problems. The platform has very intuitive navigation.
The idea of creating a Polish library journal available on the Internet was discussed in 1998. This journal was supposed to fill the gap in the electronic access to knowledge in the field of librarianship, library and information sciences. The assumption was made that readers of the new journal would be librarians, staff of the scientific information and documentation centers and LIS students.
The first number of the EBIB Bulletin (Electronic Information Bulletin for Librarians — ISSN 1507–7187) appeared on the Web in April 1999 and broadly covered today’s library environment. Articles resulted in vivid and passionate discussion about the value and role of librarians both in Poland and all over the world. At the same time the EBIB Bulletin gained a group of devoted readers. Over time, readers have started to participate in the journal development by suggesting subjects for the forthcoming issues and by writing the papers for publication.
The issues explored by EBIB Bulletin correspond to the interests of the employees of modern library and information centers and strictly pertain to the librarian professional practice. The timeliness of the problems identified in the published papers is inspiring, read with pleasure and cited by the librarians. The range of problems reflects the directions of the librarianship development, progress in library and information sciences in Poland and worldwide.