LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Year:2010 | Volume:13 | Issue:3 (51)|Papers Count:15

The purpose of this study is to construct a model for measuring the strength and weakness of individual disciplines. The model is based on balanced approach, and is tested on Malaysian social sciences publications during 1999 -2008 as a case study. Findings indicate that the differences in rankings for measures of publication output, citation distribution, and mean observed citation rate are large, which justifiy the use of scientific power index.

Context, as an essential component for understanding information seeking behavior, is receiving increased attention by researchers in this field. Although, more than one decade has passed since this topic was introduced, like information and information needs, many different definitions are given for it. On the other hand, context and situation are often used interchangeably. There is also much contradictions regarding its approaches. Some researchers use objectified approaches in their studies and the others believe interpretative approaches to be more appropriate. This article discusses context and its common approaches. The studies focused on this concept are also discussed in brief.

The purpose of this research is to provide an overview of the process concerning the publishing of the Library and Information Science Journal of Astan Qods Razavi from spring of 1998 to Spring of 2008. twelve parameters have been considered for study including: the participation rate of scientific institutions, ranks and degrees of the authors, the participation rate of scholars and professionals, methods and techniques used in the articles, resources and references of the articles, the cover and binding quality of different issues of the journal, how to access the journal issues, the percentage of non-Iranian articles published in the journal.A total of 339 articles from 39 issues of the journal were studied considering the 12 parameters. Results indicate a favorable qualitative and quantitative status for this journal.

Quality and price are two basic elements in management decision makings related to the acquisition of information goods. Many of consumers consider price as a criterion for quality. On the other hand, many of producers and sellers choose high price for goods in order to inspire the quality to customers. The assessment of the rate of correlation between these two variables in information goods such as books and journals can help managers for making decision in this case. The present article has evaluated the rate of correlation between the quality and price in information sciences. Findings show that there is not any meaningful relationship between the two variables and the price cannot be a quality criterion in information goods.

The Emergence of semantic theory of information was accompanied with rapid growth and explosion of information in the first half of the 20th century. Despite the mathematical theory of information that focuses on Shannon's views on information, the semantic theory emphasizes the content of massages in a phenomenon. In this theory, the extent of meanings received by human beings is a measure of semantic information. This paper reviews the difference between Semantic Theory and Mathematical Theory; meanwhile the history of the use of this theory in library and information fields, and manifestation of semantic Theory on theories of information seeking behavior are discussed.

The aim of this study is to investigate the quality of citations used in articles published in three Persian language library and information science journals. Two approaches were used: (1) the parts of articles in which citations are used. It was found that the literature review part included the most citations. (2) The type of citations and its impact on the subject being discussed. It was found that the most citations are those which provide historical and background information. The pattern of citations in three journals was different.

The purpose of this paper is to survey the situation of school libraries of Zabol, in Sistan and Baluchestan, in the educational year of 1387-1388. This research was done by using survey methods. Statistical population of this research was libraries of primary schools, guidance schools and high schools in Zabol. The findings show that 84% of the schools have libraries. The space of the libraries is less than 30 and most of them do not have study rooms. In general in the city of Zabol every student’s share of library space is 0.08. The acquisition in the libraries is weak. The result show that (99%) of the libraries have no librarians. 53% of the libraries studied are closed stack. These libraries have problems from the viewpoint of space, workforce, budget, resources, and etc. They are also unable to meet the information needs of teachers and students.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the rate and pattern of Internet use among Kabul University students and factors affecting the Internet use and challenges to and problems of Internet access. 325 Bachelor students of Kabul University were selected as samples in this research. Findings show that 72 % of students do not use Internet. Among the users, 65% use Internet to browse specific and scientific information through search engines, 59% of students use Internet because they cannot find what they need in other sources and 58% use Internet to do their assignments.Results also show there is a significant difference between the amount of use and students’ Internet use skills and their experience. However, such significant difference is not seen between the amount of use and having personal computer, the location where they live and the extent of satisfaction and sex.Lack of access to Internet is the main reason for students not to use it and lack of acquaintance with Internet skills, lack of permanent electricity, not having personal computer, high expense of access, failure of Telecommunication wires and slow Internet speed, are the factors mentioned by non-users as the reasons for not using the Internet.

This study surveyed the accuracy of citations in authored articles published in the 1387 issues of Library and information Science Quarterly Journal. The statistical populations of this study consisted of 585 books and journals citations articles published in 4 issues in 1387. By using random sampling method 230 citations were selected. The findings showed that: in 51.8 percent of English journals citations, 39 percent of Persian journals citations, 28.5 percent of English books citations and 48 percent of Persian books citations have errors and 21.4 percent of this error rates are major citations errors. There is not a significant relationship between error rate and type of document and there is not a significant relationship between error rates and language of citations. The results showed that sharing of responsibility between authors, editors, and reviewers and a assessment of a certain percentage of a submitted article’s references as part of the acceptance process can be potential solutions to the problem of citations inaccuracy.

This research examined the participation of Kerman University of Medical Sciences faculty members in scientific production and studied the effective factors based on ISI database and a questionnaire. In the first part of the study the list of academic staffs in KUMS searched through the Web of Science in order to find how many of the staff published papers on ISI Journals. In the second part of the study a questionnaire was sent to academic staff who published an ISI paper from 2000 to 2007.Findings showed that about 74 faculty members in Kerman medical university published around 153 ISI papers between 2000 and 2007. The greatest numbers of the papers were published in 2007 with 48 titles and the least numbers were published in 2000 with 3 titles. The results showed that the medical faculty members were very active among other faculty members in KUMS with 97 papers and their papers were cited more than 252 times by other researchers. The results also showed that the ability to use English language and research methodology had effects on faculty members to publish more papers in ISI journals.

Identifying the relevant position in the region and ranking the development levels are essential for planning and allocating funds and resources different regions. Due to the fact that cultural development is an infrastructure for political, social and economic growth, the development of special libraries and public libraries is an essential prerequisite of planning and cultural development of society. This article attempts to evaluate the degree of development of the provinces in terms of access to the library sector indices. To do this, by selecting 12 library Indexes, initially using the Numerical Taxonomy identified the status of the development of provinces in the country and provinces of the country developed in 3 classes (developed, moderately developed and not developed). Then, using the Shannon entropy method and SAW, the provinces in terms of the amount of these indices were ranked. The results about indices in the field of library showed that the 27 percent of provinces are developed, 23 percent are relatively developed and 50 percent are underdeveloped. Ranking results also showed that the provinces of Tehran, Yazd and East Azarbaijan have the best condition and Kurdistan provinces, Qom and Sistan-Baluchestan have highest deprivation in this section.

Libraries measure the outcome of their programs and services by quantifiable measures, such as attendance, circulations, and program participation. But reliance on quantitative measures alone is insufficient to enable librarians to answer the queostion of the impact on programs and services. The aim of this article is to study the more efficient library service evaluation approach, i.e. outcome evaluation approach. This approach measures the changes library services make in user’s life. Also, the four-step process designed by Durrance and Fisher to help librarians determine their services outcome is described. The challenge that librarians are facing at present is to develop an outcome evaluation tool which would take advantage of emerging research and on the other hand would satisfy the budgeters and proves the value of library.