LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Year:2008 | Volume:11 | Issue:1 (41)|Papers Count:14

Since 2002, when weblogs were introduced to Iranian librarianship for the first time, They are well matured amongst Iranian librarianship and flourished in 2005 and 2006, entirely. The current research is about activities of Iranian librarianship weblogs and study them using webotmetrics method. AltaVista search engine was used for this research within April 2006. Findings demonstrate that only 28 out of 46 Iranian librarianship blogs are active which are being updated day in and day out. This study also indicates that there are only three cooperated weblogs and almost all of them use Iranian hosts, mostly blogfa. There is only one weblog hosted by Blogsky. The language assessment of the survey shows 25 Farsi weblogs, two English weblogs and only one bilingual (English & Farsi) are among those 28 active bloges. The survey ranks aforementioned webloge using 2 total links, 3 self-link, 4 in links and 5 web impact factor (WIF). Writing in Farsi, limiting to the Iranian library science society, presenting local information focused on Iranian librarianship and general library sciences issues; the Iranian librarian’s weblogs could neither find extended links so do exchanged links and the link exchanging is mostly limited to library weblogs in Farsi.

Assessment of the effectiveness of Products and services has always been one of the most efficient ways to study the extent to which organizations are successful in fulfilling their aims and missions. Resent research findings show that the method based on survey of interested groups known as "Interest Group" is one of the most efficient ways to study the effectiveness of products and services in organizations especially non for the profit ones. Using the same approach the present study aimed at surveying three Iranian national information centers. A combination of survey, case study and library research methodology was used to collect quantitative as well as qualitative information. Findings show that the Regional Library of Science and Technology has the most and the Research Center for Information and Documentation has the least effectiveness.

Information Services are a fundamental tool for cultural development as well as information for other areas of development. Improvement of information networks is a prerequisite of planning and decision making needed for development. This paper aimed at studying the development of cities in Yazd Province from the viewpoint of general information services indicators during the years 1991-1995. Research population included cities of the province. Data were collected from the yearbook of the Organization for Culture and Islamic Guidance. A numerical taxonomy including 11 indicators was used to measure the development. Findings show that about half of the cities in this such as Abarkooh, Mehriz and Ardelkan are considered rich, while Tabas, khatam, and Sadooq are deprived, and other cities are semi-rich regarding the development of information services.

Printed reference sources lave a major role in fulfilling user’s information needs. Finding information fast and easy is an important issue when preparing a reference source. This paper uses a content analysis approach to study the structural criteria used in Persian reference sources printed in four subject areas during 1995-2004. Seven types of reference sources were evaluated against a checklist developed by the researcher. Findings indicate that physical criteria such as layout, font and printing are addressed with good quality while criteria such as back-of-the-book indexes, which are used for finding information fast, are not treated well.

In other to evaluate the effectiveness of the methods used to promote scholarly level and to acquire to days knowledge by the researchers and experts in research section of Agricultural Research and Education Organization (AREO), those related sections, Education and Information Services were studied. Descriptive survey was used and 512 questionnaires were filled out in presence accompanied with interview. Findings showed that the methods used by education and Information Services were generally under direct effect of financial and human investments besides the extent of the managers and planners attention to the two sections. Very low allocated credit to research sector and especially to education and information services, high investment waste, weakness in management attention to the importance of these to services, relatively low level of educational courses, limitation in sabbatical leave for academic members, lack of sufficiency and continuity of in-service training, Lack of allocating budget for providing the most essential information needs of the researchers, i.e., access to inti information sources and today's knowledge through publishers online subscription were considered as major constraints. Finally some suggestion are proposed to remove obstacles and optimize the methods.

This research aimed at investigating the infrastructure of library services in fulfilling the educational needs of Payam Noor University, i.e, distance education. 10 large and 10 small PNU Centers were randomly selected for survey. Also 220 faculty staff were asked to fill in a questionnaire. Findings are: 1) there is a significant difference between large centers and small centers regarding the infrastructural factors, 2) there is no significant correlation between quantitave and qualitative growth of PNU, 3) there is a significant difference between the view of faculty staff and students regarding facilities, resources and services, 4) there is a significant difference between the faculty staff and students regarding the extent to which printed and digital information are accessible, 5) there is a significant difference between the faculty staff and students regarding the possible replacement of printed sources by datelines.

Marketing is an essential factor in the lifeline of organizations as well as in commercial and non-commercial institutions including the library. The conceptual framework of marketing in libraries seems to lack the sufficient understanding, clarity and unity of outlook it needs.Furthermore, libraries in Iran, in particular, fail to utilize this concept in an appropriate scientific manner. To this end, the present article dwells upon the theoretical insights on the issue of marketing in libraries and intends to take an effective step towards the dissemination of the idea in libraries in Iran while introducing the concept of "the Marketing Mix".

Book publishers as producers of the one of most essential cultural goods need to use methods of marketing. Marketing follows two main approaches: product-oriented and market-oriented. Regarding the market-oriented approach concentration on consumers and their needs on the one hand and book characteristics as cultural goods on the other, using market-oriented approach are recommended. Book marketing is feasible in different methods. Some activities and methods such as organizing book fairs, innovation in management of bookshops and using new technology in book distribution and selling, advertising, periodical publishers catalogs, book reviews in journals and newspaper, weblogs, public libraries and other cultural bureaus, further attention to book appearance, book launch ceremonies, so on, lead to development of book marketing situation in Iran. Based on available documents, some of the above mentioned activities were more frequent among children's publishers than adult publishers. Meanwhile, many Iranian publishers are not interested in heavy investment and activities in book marketing because they believe this business is not cost-benefit.

This Paper discusses the failure factors of IT application with a change management view. In this regard, after referring to national and international investments in this field, some evidences of its success and failure are provided. Reviewing literature in this domain is the next section of the paper in which 31 failure factors are referred to. Then, the necessity of classification of these factors and the criteria to do so is defined. Since IT is recognized as an important change agent, change models are applicable in conceptual classification of factors affecting its application. Two kinds of change models, content and process, are used for this classification. Content models are those that focus on content of change and divide organization to facets that change should be occurred in them. The second kind refers to stages and actions needed for a specific change. Here, the word and Elvin seven-facet model as the content model and Kotter's eight-stage model as the process model are used for classification and analysis of the failure factors of IT application.

During the process of subject cataloging, the cataloger uses subject heading(s) to represent the subject content of a work. The way a subject heading is placed in the analytical part of a catalog card maybe a different in various situations. A subject heading might be the only subject heading allocated to the card, or along with one or more subject heading(s). In the latter case, depending on the rank of the subject heading among other ones, it theoretically weights differently. In all cases, however, these headings are treated equally, affecting the efficient retrieval of information negatively. This article attempts to present some solutions for the problem in traditional subject cataloging, library software’s ends Iran MARC to improve the process of information.

Library is an open system that various elements and structure of communication process can be observed in its individual parts and as a whole. Studying on library from communication perspective would help us to identify its powers and weaknesses and then, lead to improve its performance and services. Focusing on the importance of library communication, delimits its scope and depth reviews communication theories and models and describes the communication elements and structure of library as an open system. Based on these, a communication model is proposed for the library pointing on some of it utilities.

Pricing is one of the basic concepts in economics and specially in marketing. It is very significant for library and information professionals to know about its principles, methods, objectives, challenges and solution (strategies), specially for the use of these concepts in providing information services and access. Since less attention has been paid to the pricing concept in LIS, this article attempts to study dimensions of the pricing concept with a particular emphasis on information services and sources. It presents a model of basic and effective factors on pricing this services and sources. Other subjects studied in this article are: importance of paying more attention to the economy of information, specially the pricing principles of information services and sources, pricing objectives, the effective factors of pricing, differences and similarities in pricing information services and sources in comparison to other economic services and goods, cost estimation, and strategies about pricing information services and sources to present effective services.