Despite various global and local economic crises, the shift of some readers to screen reading, growing online shopping habits, and the shorter time spent on reading books, physical bookstores are ...able to change and retain their customers. This research is a continuation of a 2013 study in order to capture the current situation and identify the changes that have taken place in Lithuanian physical bookstores over the past five years. During the research, the list of bookstores operating in Lithuania compiled in 2013 was updated and clarified, and an analysis of the collected data and comparison with the data of 2013 were performed. The results showed that from 2013 to 2018 the number of bookstores in Lithuania decreased by 18.8%, to 168 units. On average, the number of inhabitants per Lithuanian bookstore increased by 16.2% and reached 16,720 inhabitants per bookstore; the number of municipalities with no bookstores at all increased to 15 (9 in 2013). The largest Lithuanian bookstore networks remained the same: Vaga and Pegasas, which maintained almost the same number of bookstores – 33 bookstores at the end of 2018. The number of medium-sized bookstore networks decreased, and only one of the nine small bookstore networks (2–3 bookstores), which owned two bookstores in 2013, remained. Such changes show that the two major bookstore networks Vaga and Pegasas are strengthening their market position. Calculated by the number of bookstores, in 2018 they already ran 39% of the market. The range of available books in physical Lithuanian bookstores has decreased – from an average 9 thousand titles in 2013 up to 6 thousand titles in 2018. It seems that the 2004–2008 race between physical bookstores for the largest range of book titles in the past is now witnessing an increase in the choice of additional goods in bookstores, sometimes even exceeding their book sales. The decrease and change in the number and range of physical bookstores in Lithuania since 2008 was due to several reasons – from the economic crisis at that time, the continuing decline of the population to the decline of book reading habits, and the transition of some readers to on-screen reading and online shopping.
PurposeThe current study aims to identify and explore causes and consequences of unauthorized use of books from readers', publishers', and authors' points of view. The case of Lithuania also ...assessed, especially historical background (banned alphabet, book smuggling, theft as the social norm in Soviet times) of the country.Design/methodology/approachAiming for more understanding why readers, authors and publishers are using or not using technology for unauthorized access of books, technology acceptance model approach was used, a total of 30 respondents (publishers, authors and readers) were interviewed in semi-structured face-to-face interviews and thematic analysis of collected qualitative data was conducted. Interviews were coded in English with coding software for further analysis.FindingsFindings indicate that the main cause for the unauthorized use of books is a lack of legal e-book titles and acquisition options. This mainly points at publishers, however, instead of using unauthorized sources as opportunities for author promotion or marketing, they rather concentrate on the causes of unauthorized use of books which they are not in control of, including access to unauthorized sources, habits and economic causes. Some publishers believe that the lack of legal e-book titles is the consequence of unauthorized use of book rather than its cause.Originality/valueThis research contributed to the body of knowledge by investigating unauthorized use of books from readers', publishers' and authors' points of view which renders to have a better understanding of the causes and consequences of such behavior, as well as differences between these roles. The authors suggest that these causes lead to the intention to use and actual use of technology which is easier to use and which gives more perceived advantages – technology for unauthorized downloading and reading of books vs legal e-book acquisition options.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2021-0133.
This was the first time that the annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) has been held outside Europe and North America in its 25-year history. ...The conference took place at Western Sydney University on its historic Parramatta South campus, in the multicultural heart of Western Sydney. More about SHARP 2018 can be found Online: http://sharp2018.sydney.
This was the first time that the annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) has been held outside Europe and North America in its 25-year history. The conference took place at Western Sydney University on its historic Parramatta South campus, in the multicultural heart of Western Sydney. More about SHARP 2018 can be found Online: http://sharp2018.sydney.
Curiosity and interest may drive engagement in digital literacy programs and contribute to overcoming digital inequalities. Curiosity triggers and features influenced digital literacy training of ...vulnerable groups of older adults, children from low-income families, and individuals with hearing impairments in Lithuania. A theoretical framework combining psychological and social perspectives helped to observe the phases of interest development and explore factors influencing the transformation of situational curiosity into sustained interest. Qualitative content analysis of data from graphic questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews with participants and trainers revealed that curiosity triggers, including novelty and surprise, fostered engagement, while physical and epistemic curiosity modes played key roles. The study highlights the value of perceived utility in sustaining interest. The results inform instructional design, emphasizing the importance of appealing objects, resources, and social support in promoting digital inclusion and fostering long-term interest in digital technologies for vulnerable populations.
•Curiosity triggers like novelty and surprise sustain interest in digital literacy training.•Physical engagement and epistemic curiosity drive learning among vulnerable groups.•Digital literacy training serves as a mental resource, aiding future digital tool use.•Resource limitations, including mental and material aspects, impact engagement.•Accessible resources and public infrastructures are vital for sustaining interest in digital tools for vulnerable groups.
The study analyzes legal and illegal access to e-books in Lithuanian language as one of the small language publishing markets in order to better understand the digital transformation of books in ...Lithuania. The range of legally and illegally publicly available online e-books in Lithuanian language was identified and analyzed in few aspects, revealing the range of choice of legally and illegally available e-books in Lithuanian. The results showed that at the end of 2020, there were about 6 thousand in legal access and over 15 thousand in illegal access unique titles of e-books in Lithuanian language. Analysis of the data showed that only 10–25% of legal e-books have become illegally accessible. The rest is “published” by users of illegal websites themselves, mostly by scanning and OCRing printed books. Four main channels for accessing legal e-books have been identified: online bookstores, libraries, subscription service platforms, and academic online bookstores. Choice to read legal books on the screen in Lithuanian language is small, and illegal access channels offer several times larger choice of e-books. The decision of some large Lithuanian publishers not to publish (or publish only symbolically) e-books does not prevent them from appearing in illegal access, and readers who are becoming more and more accustomed to reading on the screen are likely to encourage the demand and emergence of illegal supply.
Non-intrusive experimentation and measurements can be obtained from the latest neuroscience scanning techniques and technologies. Such technologies are now quite affordable and could possibly be used ...for the reading process research in information and communication sciences. The research experiment focuses on measuring the changes in attention while reading the text on different media (devices). The pilot experiment showed that cheap and easy to use brainwave measuring devices can be used for testing reading processes by measuring attention (concentration). The results revealed that a reading medium (device) affects the level of attention and suggested that less attention is needed to read from paper compared to any size or type of screen. Reading books (in a foreign language) can mostly be considered neutral on the attention level scale (slightly shifted towards 53 on a 1-100 scale).
The survey on the training and professional development needs of Lithuanian publishers was designed and conducted. The pilot research showed that publishers in Lithuania have an interest in ...professional training. According to the results, the need for training among the employees of Lithuanian publishing houses depends on the previous training experience: the more training courses the employee had before, the greater need for training he/she expresses. 82% of publishing house employees from four different fields agreed and strongly agreed on the need for training. Very few employees would like to pay for training by themselves. The identified need for training appears to reflect the nature of the problems encountered in the publishing field in Lithuania: Copyright, Law & Rights is the most wanted training topic among managing directors. The list of preferred topics for training can be used as the grounds for creating a supply of publishing training courses.
The article analyses the quantitative changes in the Lithuanian scientific journal publishing in 2015-2022. The study reveals the problems of public bibliographic accounting and terminology in order ...to comprehensively analyse the public and private sector published print and electronic scientific journals. The gaps and uncertainties identified allow for the improvement of official publication records in the future, avoiding ambiguities in the assessment of the publication volumes of scientific journals. Science policy makers and implementers should take the initiative to standardise the definition of scientific journals, as this is the only way to achieve a clearer approach to this form of science communication. Although the annual volume of scientific journal publications has shrunk by 18.1% (from 265 (2015) to 217 (2022) publications), the decline itself has not been sharp. The decline has been stabilised by business involvement, changes in the evaluation of colleges, and the transformation of professional journals, book series and conference proceedings into scientific journals. Flexibility has been provided by electronic publishing instruments, which have reduced the dependence on external financial sources. The public publishing sector has tended to reduce the number of scientific journals in all scientific fields. This was mainly due to the reorganisation of the higher education network, the qualitative requirements for scientific articles and the reorganisation of scientific collectives. The publishing business has seen the greatest potential in the fields of technology and the medical and health sciences, and as a result, the number of journals published in these fields has not declined and continues to grow. Despite the private sector's growth trends, 50% of journals have 30 or more years of publication. This forms the core of Lithuanian scientific journals, which public sector publishers are striving to preserve and integrate into the international scientific environment.
Straipsnyje analizuojami 2015–2022 m. įvykę Lietuvos mokslo žurnalų leidybos kiekybiniai pokyčiai. Tyrime siekiant kompleksiškai išnagrinėti viešojo ir privataus sektorių leidžiamus spausdintinius ir elektroninius mokslo žurnalus atsiskleidė valstybinės bibliografinės apskaitos ir terminologijos problemos. Identifikuotos spragos ir neaiškumai leidžia tobulinti oficialiąją leidybos apskaitą ateityje išvengiant dviprasmybių vertinant mokslo žurnalų leidybos apimtis. Mokslo politikos formuotojai ir įgyvendintojai turėtų imtis mokslo žurnalų apibrėžties norminimo iniciatyvos, nes tik tokiu būdu atsirastų aiškesnis požiūris į šią mokslo komunikacijos formą. Nors metinės mokslo žurnalų leidybos apimtys susitraukė 18,1 proc. (mažėjo nuo 265 (2015 m.) iki 217 (2022 m.) leidinių), pats kritimas nebuvo staigus. Kritimą stabilizavo verslo įsitraukimas, kolegijų leidybinės veiklos suaktyvėjimas, profesinių žurnalų, knygų serijų ir konferencijų straipsnių rinkinių transformavimas į mokslo žurnalus. Lankstumo suteikė elektroninės leidybos instrumentai, mažinę priklausomybę nuo išorės finansinių šaltinių. Viešasis leidybos sektorius buvo linkęs mažinti mokslo žurnalų skaičių visose mokslo srityse. Tam daugiausiai įtakos turėjo aukštojo mokslo tinklo pertvarka, keliami kokybiniai reikalavimai mokslo straipsniams, mokslininkų kolektyvų persitvarkymas. Leidybos verslas didžiausią potencialą matė technologijos bei medicinos ir sveikatos mokslų srityse, todėl šių mokslo sričių žurnalų leidybos apimtys nemažėja ir toliau auga. Nepaisant privataus sektoriaus augimo tendencijų, 50 proc. žurnalų skaičiuoja 21 ir daugiau leidybos metų. Tai sudaro Lietuvos mokslo žurnalų branduolį, kurį viešojo sektoriaus leidėjai siekia išsaugoti ir integruoti į tarptautinę mokslo aplinką.
Introduction. This study investigates the adoption of professional scholarly journal publishing software in Lithuania, with a focus on the trends and patterns of its use in 2020. It underscores the ...limited research on proprietary software and the absence of comprehensive country-specific case studies.
Method. We compiled a list of sources by manually reviewing all journal websites and independently verified the collected data against other databases. Additionally, we contacted publishers individually via email to clarify the data.
Analysis. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis with the help of SPSS statistical package.
Results. The analysis reveals that the second or third-generation Open Journal Systems (OJS) software is the most popular open-source publishing solution, utilized by nearly half of the Lithuanian journals. The Social sciences and Technology sciences are the most frequent users of OJS, both in Lithuania and abroad. The use of OJS in Lithuania gradually decreases to 24% as one moves from publication towards production management, with a significant reduction in the use of OJS for manuscript delivery. The increased use of proprietary software for manuscripts may be related to pricing and the composition of the journal's authors.
Conclusions. The ecosystem of scholarly journals in Lithuania has not yet reached the minimum level of technological advancement where all journals use professional software for publishing.
Įvadas. Šiame tekste aptariamas profesionalios mokslinių žurnalų leidybos programinės įrangos naudojimo tendencijos ir dėsningumai 2020 m. Uždarojo kodo programinės įrangos leidyboje tyrimai yra riboti, o tyrimų, kuriuose būtų išsamiai analizuojamas konkrečios šalies atvejis, trūksta. Metodas. Sudarėme žurnalų sąrašą rankiniu būdu patikrinę visų žurnalų interneto svetaines, o surinktus duomenis papildomai patikrinome kitose duomenų bazėse. Be to, elektroniniu paštu individualiai susisiekėme su leidėjais, kad patikslintume duomenis.Analizė. Duomenys buvo analizuojami taikant aprašomąją analizę, naudotas SPSS statistikos paketas. Rezultatai. Atlikus analizę nustatyta, kad populiariausias atvirojo kodo sprendimas leidybai yra antrosios arba trečiosios kartos OJS programinė įranga, kurią naudoja beveik pusė žurnalų Lietuvoje. Dažniausiai tiek Lietuvoje, tiek užsienyje OJS naudojasi socialinių ir technologijos mokslų atstovai. Pereinant nuo leidybos prie gamybos valdymo, OJS naudojimas Lietuvoje palaipsniui mažėja iki 24 proc. Dažnesnis nuosavybinės programinės įrangos naudojimas rankraščiams gauti gali būti susijęs su programinės įrangos kainodara ir žurnalo autorių sudėtimi. Išvados. Išsamesnė analizė galėtų padėti praturtinti išvadas apie veiksnius, lemiančius profesionalios leidybos programinės įrangos naudojimo situaciją Lietuvoje.
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