Law Students’ Information Literacy Skills and

Protection of EnvironmentKornelija Petr Balog

Ljiljana SiberUniversity of Osijek, Croatia

Protection of environment and access to information• 1998, United Nations - Convention on Access to Information, Public

Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention)• UNESCO - eight Millennium Development Goals • reducing biodiversity loss, decreasing CO2 emissions and reversing the

unsustainable use of environmental resources

• ‘Green Libraries’ movement• environmentally friendly (library) buildings • environmentally supportive library activities• promotion of sustainability through education, operations, and outreach

Green Libraries in Croatia• 2011 - Green Library project of the Library Association of Istria • 2014 - Working Group for Green Libraries, Croatian Library

Association• ‘The Green Library’ – collection of materials• Croatian government project Removing Barriers to Energy Efficiency in

Croatia” (EE project)

Faculty of Law Library in Osijek – green activities• projects on environmental protection: • Deepening University Cooperation Osijek-Pecs (DUNICOP)• from 2014 official European Information Centre

• the protection of environment one of the most important issues• ‘The Green Library’ - collectionof materials (EE project)• chief librarian – member of the Working Group for Green Libraries (Croatian

Library Association)

• cooperation with the elective course instructor (Environmental Legislation)• library organized a workshop on information materials available in the library,

but also outside it

Research • Goal:

• find out about the ability and skills of law students to find and evaluate the relevant information and/regulations in the domain of environment protection

• find out whether law students recognize the Law Library as a relevant source of information for this topic

• Hypothesis: • education and training is necessary to develop avareness about the relevant information sources for

the particular topic

• Methodology: • paper survey (Eurobarometar instrument)• sample (n=149)

• students enrolled in the elective course Environmental Legislation (n=39)• students working in the reading-room (n=110)

• March-May 2015

Attitudes toward protection of environment

Importance:• 4.33 Elective• 4.38 Library

Information sources on protection of environment

How informed: • 4.33 Elective• 3.33 Library

Information sources – level of trust

Should protection of environment become integral part of formal education in Croatia?

Familiarization with Library holdings

Elective Library0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90% 82%

18%

Position of 'The Green Library' in Osijek

In Law Library

Outcomes• better visibility of the Law Library at the level of the faculty• raised awareness for the complexity and importance of environment

protection and sustainability • new course in curriculum in academic 2015/2016

• inclusion of environmental topics in the information literacy workshops organized by the Law Library

Conclusions• students demonstrated high level of concern for environmental issues• hypothesis confirmed • education and training is necessary to develop avareness about the relevant

information sources in the field

• more efforts and initiatives by the library necessary