New Perspectives in Science Education

Intellectual property can be considered as an element of information literacy in university information environment as to be successful students at the university, and in life, they must learn to use efficiently and effectively the wide variety of information and communication technologies for searching, finding, arranging, analyzing and assessing the information they need.

The State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (SULSIT) is one of the universities in Bulgaria appreciated the role and importance of Intellectual Property (IP) as a stimulator of innovation development and step by step carrying out the necessary steps to disseminate knowledge and information on IP. It conducts its activities in support of the initiatives of the two leading organizations in the world - the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Organization, and implement its initiatives.

SULSIT has contributed to the successful dissemination of knowledge in the field of IP, as there are already 18 years of experience in IP education and is university, which has defined excellence in preparing students for IP. Founder of teaching Intellectual Property in SULSIT is Prof. Dr. S. Galabova

The aim of the report is to make an overview of different project initiatives of SULSIT which are related to the stimulation of dissemination of IP knowledge.

First one is a project of SULSIT named "Analysis of the common practices in the use of products of intellectual property in university information environment.". DMU 03/3 is a project leaded by Dr. Teresa Trencheva funded by the National Science Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science in the competition "Young Scientists". The project aims to explore the mind and culture of behavior among young people in Bulgaria, particularly students about IP to protect intellectual property on the Internet. An extremely important moment of the project’s program is the visit of the WIPO which held in January, 2013.

Second one is a research project with international participation "Copyright Policies of libraries and other cultural institutions” (2012-2014) is financed by National Science Fund of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, Contract № DNSF-К01/0002-21.11.2012, and headed by Assoc. Prof. Dr Tania Todorova. The main objective is to examine the copyright policy of the library and cultural institutions in Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and others, and through comparisons and analyzes to reach: new research products and educational content in academic programs and continuing education; proposals for updating the copyright legislation; preparation of practical and applied models of copyright policy for library, educational and cultural institutions responsible for the modern information environment and specific needs.

These two initiatives aim to make a relation between the theory and practice in one hand and to explore the need of Intellectual property knowledge in a working environment.