| Abstract [eng] |
The goal of the dissertation is by disclosing the key institutional powers of the external environment affecting academic libraries in Lithuania, identify the peculiarities of the framing of Lithuanian academic libraries’ roles and the influence of the process on the stability and variation of academic libraries. The object of the study – roles of academic libraries in Lithuania – is analysed from the perspective of new institutionalism, which affords the researcher’s ground for the identification and explanation of certain pressures of the institutional environment on organizations and their modes of activity. The discourse analysis of official documents of Lithuanian universities (long- and short-term strategic activity plans and annual reports) highlights the factors and agents which have the most impact on the stability and change of roles of libraries. It is stated that the entrenchment and stability of the framed roles of academic libraries is subject to the support and aid rendered by the institutional powers. The stability of the roles of Lithuanian academic libraries is to the greatest extent influenced by the support from various professional networks and authoritative financial agents, and the culturally established typical image of the activity of a certain library. Roles of academic libraries framed within the framework of the prevalent discourses of modernity, market and quality, reflect the institutional logics of the academic library which is based on the criteria of utility and efficiency, whereas the dominance of the same agents point to the existing common institutional environment restricting the entrenchment of new roles. |
