Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to create a profile of the modern American academic librarian through the content analysis method of job advertisements. Design/methodology/approach: – One hundred thirty-four advertisements were analyzed in various ways, e.g. salary, skills, qualifications, duties, followed by a multivariate analysis. Findings: – Most significant findings include the importance of communication skills for all academic librarians, the significance of the Library and Information Science (LIS) degree and that applicants should expect a salary of $40,000-60,000. Originality/value: – This paper builds on the previous studies in the field to verify that communication skills are among the most, if not the most, desired skills for a modern librarian, and that an LIS degree is still an asset.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to expand the knowledge of student computer competencies and IT self‐efficacy in two LIS departments in Greece.Design/methodology/approach: The participants in the study were students in the two LIS departments of the Technological Educational Institutes (TEI) situated in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece. The survey was addressed to sophomores, juniors and seniors, because IT courses are taught after the first year of study. The instrument of the survey was a structured questionnaire comprising three parts, measuring a total of 48 variables.Findings: The levels of students' IT self‐efficacy is rather high, while the mean score of computer competence indicates a rather low level of perceived ability in using computers. Students were more competent in using e‐mail and Facebook, as well as using the internet for personal purposes. IT self‐efficacy and perceived computer competence were positively related to the frequency of use of certain electronic activities and previous PC/internet experience. In addition, the frequency of IT use was a strong predictor of IT self‐efficacy, and both frequency of use and experience were predictors of computer competence. The findings also suggested that increased levels of self‐efficacy and computer competence were associated with higher grades.Originality/value: By being aware of the factors that predict self‐efficacy and perceived ability, educators in both LIS departments can design instruction or other interventions in a way that will boost self‐efficacy beliefs. Such an approach is likely to increase the acceptance and use of IT and help LIS students meet the learning objectives of IT courses.

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University’s central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software.

This research examines the level of information literacy skills in high school teachers and the extent of information literacy instruction in the western province of Thessaloniki. A census survey was conducted, which resulted in 500 structured questionnaires that were processed and analysed statistically using multivariate methods. The findings indicated that most of the teachers did not use any electronic sources, especially e-sources, and they were probably poor at helping children attain a level of information literacy. It was also found that men, teachers with a Masters or a PhD and teachers with less working experience were more likely to be frequent users of sources and especially e-sources. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should attend information literacy training seminars.