Purpose The massive growth in the number of book titles has made publishers think about how to attract a customer’s attention to particular books. This is the reason why the book cover plays an important role as a tool of communication with the reader. The research question of this exploratory study is whether the preference given by readers to book cover colors is different across genders and age groups when they choose the book in an online bookstore by its cover. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The experiment in a bookstore and a library was done. Each respondent was asked to choose one book from our sample of 18 books and a mobile eye tracking laboratory was set up in order to find out the respondents’ basic gazing data. After conducting an experiment with bookstore and library visitors, the results showed that younger women tend to select a book by its cover (when the time for selection is not limited) statistically significantly faster than men of the same age group. The difference disappears with age. Findings The data of the experiment suggested that women from the age group 18-35 prefer books with cool color covers and the preference disappears with age; accordingly, men in the age group 56+ prefer books with warm color covers. The preference was not seen in younger age groups. The analysis of data on the number of choices for each cover and the time spent looking at each of them revealed a significant positive correlation between the women’s preferences in selecting covers and the time women spend looking at them; however, there was no such correlation in the case of men’s data. Originality/value The study has shown that the reader’s book choice is at least partly influenced by the cover color. The preference given to cool and warm colors and the speed of decision making show certain differences across genders and age groups. The result contributes to knowing how to create book covers more adopted to reader’s needs.

The digital revolution has had a particular impact on the functioning of libraries: it has changed both the means of communicating with the users, and the nature of the service itself. In the case of academic libraries, an online presence is crucial due to the increased rate of Internet usage among their stakeholders, academics and students alike. From their perspective, library websites serve as digital gates to library services and resources. However, an academic library website may fulfil a wide array of functions and their importance can be variously prioritized. The purpose of our research was to find out which functions of academic library websites are viewed as the most important by a selected group of users: the students. To answer this question, we identified the main functions of academic library websites on the basis of desk research and designed a survey conducted among students of the University of Warsaw (Poland) and Vilnius University (Lithuania) ( n=680). The picture of users’ information needs with regard to content of the academic library website revealed by our research allows us to draw conclusions about the functions of the academic library website distinctive from those already mentioned in the subject literature. From the perspective of a user-centric approach we distinguished five functions of the academic library website: (1) supporting the usage of the collection (online and traditional); (2) promotion of culture; (3) gateway for locating information on the Web; (4) education; (5) creation of library’s online image.

The article reports the results of a survey conducted among the Polish and Lithuanian academics concerning their information needs and expectations regarding academic library websites. The survey was realized using the technique of Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) on a group of scholars representing sciences and humanities or social sciences and was preceded by desk research consisting of literature review and analysis. Quantitative analysis was carried out on the data provided by 460 respondents. Its findings are discussed in light of earlier research reports. Regardless of the users' research specialty, accessibility of online resources was revealed as the most important element of an academic library website, although information concerning the traditional or offline function of the library was also highly ranked. Minor differences in information needs were found depending on the age and nationality of the respondents. Access to online sources was revealed as the prevailing information need among the scholars. Moreover, differences in the information behaviors of the scientists and the humanists, widely discussed in literature, prove insignificant with regard to the expectations concerning the online presence of academic libraries. This could result from the development of digital humanities and the new standards imposed on the researchers within the humanities and social sciences, related to the evaluation of academic output performed by the government agencies in both countries. Digital presence of academic libraries still poses challenges, requiring observation of user information behaviors and a redefinition of the librarian's duties.

Nowadays, when the flow of fake news in traditional media and on social media plat-forms has increased dramatically, media and information literacy (MIL) skills are more important than ever. MIL promotes the critical thinking skills that enable people to make independent choices, in particular how to evaluate and choose different information sources and channels, as well as how to interpret the news and information received through those channels. This article explores how young people in Lithuania evaluate the trustworthiness of news. Two groups of students were selected for the experiment: young people who had participated in a basic course in MIL, and young people whose learning was minimally related to MIL. The study was conducted using a survey and eye-tracking device that enabled researchers to record and analyse readers’ real behaviour and to identify the dis-tribution of attention, i.e. the concentration of sight and time spent on particular news elements. The research results show a clear difference between these two groups and thus confirm the importance of media literacy education.

Recently, the smartphone has become the key device in families and workplaces, changing people's habits and ways of interaction in our liquid and hyperconnected societies. Little research has been done on the use of smartphones for reading, since the telephone was not associated with reading until very recently. This paper presents an overview of digital mobile reading in the digital literacy context and tries to answer different research questions, such as: how do people read on the smartphone? Do people have an addiction to/misuse of mobiles? Its objective is to offer empirical data about people's experiences of digital mobile reading and to analyse how we depend on our smartphone through a small-scale qualitative study including SMARTPHONES: READING HABITS AND OVERUSE. A QUALITATIVE STUDY IN DENMARK, LITHUANIA AND SPAIN

Naujosios muziejininkystės įtaka šiuolaikinio muziejaus raidai muziejumi vadinama institucija, kuri mokslo, edukacijos ir laisvalaikio organizavimo tikslais įgyja, kaupia, tyrinėja, populiarina ir eksponuoja žmonijos ir aplinkos materialųjį ir nematerialųjį paveldą (Keršytė, 2009). LR muziejų įstatyme teigiama, kad "svarbiausia muziejų veikla yra kaupti, saugoti, restauruoti, tirti, eksponuoti bei populiarinti materialines ir dvasines kultūros vertybes bei gamtos objektus" (LR muziejų įstatymas, 2010). Nors ilgai muziejai buvo suvokiami tik kaip kolekcionavimo, konservavimo ir tyrimų institucijos, XX a. pab. pradėta kalbėti, kad muziejai turi rūpintis savo socialine funkcija visuomenėje ir edukaciniais bei kultūriniais veiksniais. 1974 m. Kopenhagoje įvykusioje tarptautinės muziejų tarybos Generalinėje asamblėjoje buvo priimta rezoliucija, kurioje skelbiama, kad muziejai turi transformuotis ir keistis, atsižvelgdami į savo bendruomenės poreikius. Rezoliucijoje teigiama, kad tyrimai, eksponatų konservavimas ir išsaugojimas turi ir toliau būti tradicinės ir svarbios muziejaus funkcijos, tačiau sparčiai kintančio pasaulio aplinkybės verčia prisiimti naujų įsipareigojimų ir formų (van mensch, 1992).Šiame kontekste atsirado naujosios muziejininkystės terminas, kuris, olandų profesoriaus Peterio van menscho manymu, siejasi su kintančiu muziejaus vaidmeniu visuomenėje. visas dėmesys nuo muziejaus objektų ir kolekcijų perėjo muziejaus lankytojams ir bendruomenei. Naujosios muziejininkystės atstovai teigia, kad bet kokia muziejininkystės metodologija ar koncepcija pirmiausia turi prasidėti nuo visuomenės poreikių išsiaiškinimo.Kaip teigia P. van menschas (mensch, 1992), naujosios muziejininkystės teorija remiasi trimis pagrindinėmis paradigmomis: 1) bendruomenine

Internetas suteikia naujų galimybių politinės komunikacijos vyksmui, gerokai išplečia tradicines komunikacijos ribas. Kasdien populiarėjančios socialinių tinklų svetainės užima svarbią vietą daugelio žmonių gyvenime, todėl politikai ir partijos stengiasi jas išnaudoti kaip dar vieną politinės komunikacijos įrankį. Šis straipsnis skiriamas socialinių tinklų svetainių naudojimo politinėje komunikacijoje galimybių analizei. Jame detaliai aptariami socialinių tinklų svetainių veikimo principai ir kategorijos, pateikiamos jų populiarumo priežastys, glaustai pristatomos pasaulyje ir Lietuvoje daugiausia vartotojų turinčios socialinių tinklų svetainės. Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos naujos politinės informacijos sklaidos galimybės, aptariamos dėl virtualių socialinių tinklų atsiradusios politinės komunikacijos segmentacijos ir personalizacijos prielaidos. Taip pat pristatomas Lietuvos politikų komunikacijos socialinių tinklų svetainėse tyrimas, atskleidžiantis internetinių socialinių tinklų naudojimo aspektus rinkimų ir nuolatinėje politinėje komunikacijoje.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: socialinių tinklų svetainės, virtualūs socialiniai tinklai, politinė komunikacija, internetas ir politika, Facebook.

In the context of “pop politics” and “politainment,” the irruption of TikTok has changed the landscape of social media and become the fastest-growing application among young people. Based on the peculiarities of the social platform’s affordances and the political personalization approach, we explore the differences between political parties and political leaders in terms of digital persuasion on TikTok in Spain and Poland. This work contributes to the scarce knowledge about the strategic use of TikTok for political purposes. It also attempts to fill the gap in the comparative research into the practical uses of TikTok in different political contexts. The study explores the three classical persuasion appeals—pathos, ethos, and logos—based on a visual, quantitative analysis of <em>N</em> = 372 videos posted on the official TikTok profiles of the main political parties and leaders from January 1st to March 31st, 2022. Differences were found in how political parties and political leaders used TikTok’s affordances as well as in the main rhetorical resource they use to persuade. We noted the use of more rational resources (logos) in the case of political parties and more emotional resources<em> </em>(pathos) for political leaders. Further, the rare presence of the personality in the videos of the political actors (ethos), along with their unusual privatization role, indicate that personalization on TikTok is far from being considered as part of their digital persuasion strategy.