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Knjižnica 54(2010)1-2, 59–77 60 Original scientific article UDC 027.7:37.091.212(043.2) Abstract An academic library is supposed to provide quality services to the students, faculty employees and others. The students, who constitute the majority of the users, often seem to lack the skills and knowledge necessary to navigate and locate items within the library during this crucial period of life between education and employment. University librarians play a key role in explaining all the services of an academic li- brary. A library is used by students mostly as a place to study, wait for their classes to start or search for the necessary literature. A question arose: how well do the stu- dents know the duties of academic librarians and how to encourage them to learn more about their work and find out what these information technology experts can offer? Students of the University of Ljubljana have been interviewed to determine that. 98 students of the average age of 23 years were interviewed in December 2008 and January 2009. The results showed their poor knowledge of academic libraries as most of the students do not know how many people are employed there and what their skills and everyday duties are. They do believe, however, that the professors encourage them to visit the library, but sadly do not perceive the librarians as quali- fied assistants of the faculty and only seldom credit them for their part in achieving their scholastic performance. We can therefore conclude that academic librarians are not key persons to the students during the time of attending the university. The aca- demic library should try harder to emphasize its prominence and role in tertiary edu- cation as a key factor in information literacy – an important part of lifelong learning. Keywords : students, academic librarians, relationship, faculty 1 Uvod V današnjem času mora vsakdo imeti možnost obiskati knjižnico, si priskrbeti informacije s pomočjo računalnika, dostopati do elektronskih informacijskih virov ali vsaj do informacij o tem, kje lahko dobi iskano literaturo. Zato bi se morali zaposleni v knjižnici in strokovnjaki, ki se ukvarjajo s tem področjem, zavedati, da visokošolska knjižnica večinoma deluje za in zaradi uporabnikov (Kerec, 2002, str. 56). Vendar pa, kot pravi Jeričeva (2001, str. 3), je uporabnikov, v našem primeru študentov, pedagoških delavcev in raziskovalcev vedno več, česar pa ne spremlja tudi večje število zaposlenih v knjižnici. Hkrati narašča tudi število t. i. netradicionalnih študentov (npr. starejših, izrednih, tujih študentov), ki imajo drugačne potrebe in pričakovanja, kot jih imajo mladi, ki so šele končali srednjo šolo. Visokošolski knjižničarji se tako znajdejo v nezavidljivem položaju. S hitro rastjo količine informacij in njihovo dostopnostjo postajajo tudi zahteve uporabnikov knjižnic vse večje, ki od knjižničarjev ne pričakujejo le pomoči pri