STUDIES IN EDUCATION & PSYCHOLOGY
Year:2007 | Volume:8 | Issue:3|Papers Count:12

The aim of this research was to study the extent to which university students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) and Shiraz University (SU) were able to understand the vocabulary in the user interface of two Iranian OPACs namely Simorgh (SIM) and Pars Azarakhsh (PAZ). For the first phase, data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed among 380 students. In the second phase, and to acquire some qualitative information, an interview was administered with 30 Masters students in a real searching situation. Findings showed that the understandability rate of interface vocabulary in the subjective method was %35.1 for the SIM OPAC and %33.9 for the PAZ one. No significant difference was observed in the understandability of interface vocabulary among students of different grads. The understandability rate of vocabulary used in the SIM OPAC interface (in the objective way) did not show any significant difference with the same rate in the PAZ OPAC interface. However, there was a significant difference between SIM and PAZ with respect to the vocabulary understandability in the subjective method. Students believed that short phrases in the interface were easier to understand. The influence of users’ experience with SIM and PAZ OPACs on their understanding of the interface vocabulary in the two methods (objective and subjective) did not show any significant difference among students of different grads. The influence of students’ area of study on vocabulary understandability showed a significant difference among the three areas in Ferdowsi University (SIM OPAC), but in the subjective method, the difference was not significant. In Shiraz University, the results acquired through the two methods were vice versa. Findings, from the interview session, showed that the accuracy rate of anticipation about the function of various pages of the SIM OPAC was different from one page to another. %57 of students was satisfied, %25 were somewhat satisfied, and %18 were not satisfied with the interface vocabulary. %25 of the respondents preferred the use of general vocabulary, %20.8 the use of simple, comprehensible vocabulary, and %12.5 the use of explanation about the vocabulary.

This research aims at surveying evaluation of open access web based articles by Shiraz university faculty members. Six criteria and some related sub-criteria are extracted from credible resources and related researches. This research is to evaluate the rate of familiarity and use of these criteria by faculty members. Research methodology is survey and data is gathered by means of questionnaire. Data is analyzed by descriptive and analytic statistical methods using SPSS 11.5. The results of survey reveal that Shiraz University faculty members use open acess web-based articles in high amount. The results also show that most of faculty members evaluate retrieved articles but they declare that their familiarity with evaluation criteria is in medium range. The reasons of minority of faculty members who do not evaluate retrieved open access web-based articles are not having time and not needing to evaluate. This study also shows that all seven main criteria are important for faculty members. These criteria in sequence of preference are updateness, content quality, authority control, bibliography, in-content links, and reliability. Sub-criteria in sequence of preference are: In updateness of articles, date of publication; in authority control, author’s expertise and author’s name; in bibliography, accuracy of articles; in in-content links, link to resources in bibliography; and in reliability, accuracy of information. All respondents chose excellent for the quality of articles.

The present study attempted to compare the reading preferences of Ahwaz guidance school students with the subject distribution of suitable books for guidance school students published during 1376-1383 (1997-2004). To conduct this descriptive research, two methods were used: library method and survey method. In order to gather the topical reading preferences of Ahwaz guidance school students, a survey was used; however to collect data related to the suitable books' subject divisions, a library method was used. The first part of the study's sample was selected by multiple randomizations, then the related data about Ahwaz guidance school students topical reading interests, was gathered through a questionnaire distributed among the students in Ordibehesht 1383 (April, 2004). Second part of the study’s sample includes the books introduced by Children Book Council during 1376-1383 (1997-2004) as suitable for guidance school students (D-Age group) Chi-square test revealed that the number of books (frequencies) in the ten main subject categories is significantly different. Nevertheless, the Spearman's correlation test showed that there is no significant correlation between students' reading preferences and the frequency of books published in the ten main subject categores. The result of this study showed that in many subjects, there is no relationship within Ahwaz guidance school students' opinions and the frequency of suitable books for these students. This point was especially observed in topics such as Realistic (novel), Religion, Natural sciences, Art and entertainment, and reference books.

This article reports a research that surveyed the information literacy status of post-graduate students, and compared it against four national development documents. The research community included post-graduate students from four Iranian universities: Ferdowsi, Tehran, Shiraz, and Chamran. The needed data gathered through a self-reporting questionnaire from a sample of 650, 316 of whom responded to the questionnaire. In content analysis section, topics related to information literacy were extracted from the four national development documents (Iran 20-year Outlook Document, 4th Socio-economic Development Plan, Strategic Document for "National Scientific Development System", and "Research and Technology Development Plan") and tested as well. Results indicated that although the resulted scores were nearly acceptable (with average above 3/7), there was a significant difference between the students of Humanities and non-Humanities disciplines, between the students from different educational regions, between male and female students, and between doctoral and master students. The scores for the students of humanities disciplines, female students, and doctoral students were higher than those of their counterparts. Content analysis of the National Development Documents also showed that this document’s strong emphasis on the role of information and knowledge in economic, social and cultural development necessitates to plan for development and promotion of information literacy programs and models, particularly for higher education students.

The growth of the Internet has impacted on virtually every aspect of society. Survey research is no exception (Solomon, 2001, p. 1). The use of the Internet for social science research is becoming increasingly common (Fox, Murray and Warm, 2003, p. 167). The Internet provides frequent and important opportunities in conducting social research. In this respect, although the Internet questionnaire is effective, no scientific Persian research that directly guides operators, students and researchers to design and implement the method has been found. This article aims to fill the gap. The results of this study demonstrate that the design and implementation of the Internet questionnaire notably web-based questionnaire require regarding both ethical and scientific considerations. These considerations vitally affect the collection of valid and reliable data.

Library anxiety is an obstacle in educational success in the universities around the world. Several studies have been conducted concerning this issue. The present article reports a study done at the University of Isfahan. The sample included 280 students, both male and female who were randomly selected from seven different faculties. A researcher-made questionnaire based on Bostick's Library Anxiety Scale (1992), and modified to fit the cultural milieu of the Iranian universities was prepared along with a number of questions on anxiety level of the participants. The analysis of the data on the SPSS showed that the participant’s level of familiarity with electronic resources and computer was below the expected level. The anxiety level, however, was normal among the participants. Factors such as library system, demographic status, and extent of familiarity with computer have been discussed in the present article.

The Semantic web aims to develop languages in which information is became much better able to process and understand. Communication between computers needs to Represent Knowledge in conceptual models-via ontologies-and increase reasoning ability-via inference rules language has the essential role in communications and on the other hand Cybernetics deals with Control and Communication in human and machine. Present paper aims to reveal the relation between the Semantic Web and Cybernetics through describing the semantic web and the role of Ontologies in Knowledge Representation Abilities such as self organization and automatic intelligent reasoning in semantic web using Conceptual Modeling has been mentioned.  Constructivist Epistemology in relation to second-order cybernetics and semantic nets is discussed.

The aim of this research was to identify factors influencing scientific and research activities of  librarians at Ferdowsi Mashhad, Shahid Chamran , Shiraz, Tarbiat Modaress and  University of Tehran. 162 employed librarians were surveyed using a  questionnaire. The results are as follows:From the librarian’s point of view, "the professional interest" has the most effect (89.1%) andincrease in salary" has the least effect (13%) among the factors influencing their scientific and research activities. From the librarian's point of view "lots of work and shortage of time" has the most effect with (83.3%) and "the political indexes in progressing the research" has the least effect (35.6%) among the factors preventing them from doing their scientific and research activities. There is a meaningful co-relation between "individual and personal incentive factors" and “the professional interest" Based on inferential analysis factors such as professional interest and administration responsibility has a meaningful impact on the librarian research activities.

The current study surveys electronic/print cited papers in library and information science (LIS) thesis of M.A degree. The main goal of the study was to find a unique and comprehensive pattern of resources used by LIS M.A students in 5 universities including: Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University, Tarbiat Modares University, Azade Shomal University and Azade Olome Tahghight. For that exploration, mainly, a citation analysis approach was conducted. 259 M.A this is of LIS in the five universities were chosen as statistical population. Findings showed that there was no unique and comprehensive citation behavior pattern among the students in the five universities. English print and electronic papers are high cited in the period of the study with exception of Iran and Olome Tahghighat universities. The citation behavior of the students in these two universities showed a little usage of print & electronic English papers in their thesis.

One of the most important factors challenging the issue of "information storage and retrieval" in the Internet environment is the lack of control on authorities, including subject authority control. The present research aims at examining the feasibility of subject authority control of Persian medical databases available on the Net. Based on research methodology, we have chosen 50 keywords by random from keywords utilized by users who searched databases for articles. In the pre-test stage, these keywords were searched in Iranmedex, a database for Persian medical articles. The keywords utilized by database users were compared with Persian medical thesaurus and those which exactly matched with the thesaurus words were entered in a designed database using Microsoft Access software. In the next stage, we entered these authorized keywords in Iranmedex. Findings of new search sessions revealed that control of authorities makes information retrieval more precise and accurate. It also prevents false drops. The research findings can be used for modifying the process of information storage and retrieval on the Internet. The research concludes with a model for applying thesauruses as authority control tools for other databases available on the Internet.