LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
Year:2010 | Volume:12 | Issue:3 (47)|Papers Count:15

Input library statistics in the easiest statistics to be gathered and reported. In a survey study conducted during 2003-2006 Iranian university libraries were asked to report the number of books kept in their libraries as well as the number of books added in each subsequent year. It was though that these kinds of statistics are the readiest one of be reported. But the comparison of the number of books reported for each year indicated a vast discrepancy. This article aims to demonstrate the shortcoming and inconsistency in statistics reported for both Persian and English language books kept in more than 50 University libraries.

The objective of social networks is to promote knowledge through providing connections among individuals and forming social capital. The aims of this study are: i. to acknowledge the type of knowledge communicated Library and Information Science Through Discussion Group (LISDG), and ii. to investigate the extent to which the LISDG is capable to establish social capital. To fulfill the first aim, content analysis was used to analyze 1400 messages sent to LISDG. Findings show that although most of the messages sent to the LISDG (about 82%) are of the “Know-What” type of knowledge, the numbers of “Know-Why”, “Know-How” and “Know-Who” types have increased during the two year period of study. Survey study and questionnaire were used to fulfill the second aim of the study. Results indicate that LISDG has required characteristics such as trust, reciprocity, social support, suitable environment, commitment, cooperation and efficacy for being regarded as a social capital.

This research investigated the extent and factors influencing the Users’ perception of the interface of E-articles databases developed by the Regional Information Center for Science & Technology (RICeST) and the Iranian Research Institute for Scientific Information and Documentation. The aim was to identify the important elements and features as well as the strength and weak nesses in the interface of the databases based on Nilsen’s model. The research method was a heuristic evaluation from the viewpoint of two user groups: 1) graduate students of Ferdowsi University as novice users and the professional librarians as specialist users. Data collection was performed by a checklist. Findings show that the degree of match between user interfaces of the databases with Nilsen’s model is average, therefore the databases have some shortcoming in this regard. Also the perception of users about the interfaces is at an average level. Regarding factors such as gender, age, area of study, familiarity with computer, familiarity with search techniques in the Internet and familiarity with databases of E-articles findings show that there is no significant relationship between these factors and the extent of perception. But there is significant difference between the extent of Librarians perception and novice users of these databases.

Observing scientific morale in research has always necessitated citation to others’ works when writing and researching. Ciration to the works used is the means of observing the others’ intellectual rights, and this observation is done by giving footnotes and/or endnotes. The existence of more than thirty styles for citation and bibliography is an evidence for the importance of the citation “methods”, but there has, always been a question for authors of research reports and papers, especially students and new authors: when to cite? The present literature review indicates that no research has so far been carried out on when to cite, either in Iran or abroad. The purpose of this research is therefore to recognize the reasons why the staff faculty of Shaheed Chamran University cite. The present authors hope the findings of this paper will help the researchers and authors to distinguish the proper occasion of the citation in their works.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the international visibility of the Iranian scientific journals indexed in Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) databases during 2000 to 2006. The statistical population of the research included 1298 articles derived from 7 international Iranian scientific journals indexed in Web Of Science database, along with their citations; furthermore it included 24873 Iranian articles published in international foreign scientific journals indexed in Web Of Science database of ISI along with their citations during the same period as the first group. To compare the collected articles with Iranian articles published in international foreign scientific journals, using the systematic random method, a sample of 1298 Iranian articles were selected out of the 24873 total ones. The needed data were collected through searching SCIE, SSCI, A&HCI databases of ISI. The results indicated that there was a significant differences between the visibility of the articles published in international Iranian scientific journals indexed in ISI and Iranian articles published in international foreign scientific journals indexed in IS!. In comparison with the first group, Iranian articles published in international foreign scientific journals were more cited and therefore had higher visibility.

The Emergence and development of management and organization theories have always played a vital role in attempting to improve efficiency and effectiveness in an organizations. The attempt of libraries and information centers in the correct and successful implementation of these theories has been ever-increasing. In addition to ServeQual and LibQual plans, The application of administrative strategies and approaches such as TQM, Conflict Management, etc. in libraries and information centers is the starting point of attention to administrative solutions. One of these approaches is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Since the user/customer is considered as the basic element of the organizational activities in libraries and information centers, introducing, recognition and implementation of this approach can be paid attention for functional improvement of these service-oriented and knowledge-base centers.On one hand, this article tries to study the status of user/customer, his/her loyalty and satisfaction as well as quality of library services.On the other hand, it tries to introduce the barriers to CRM implementations, such as lack of appropriate strategy, negative attitude of staff and their resistance to change. Furthermore, it, attempts to verify the staff and user’s/customer’s training, their complete recognition of CRM, create and develop suitable executive policies to define frameworks as the necessities of successful implementation of this approach in libraries an information centers.

This Survey research focuses on information seeking behavior of post-graduate students of Islamic Azad University in using the WWW based on Ellis’ model. A sample of 299 doctoral students studying in the Science & Research unit of Tehran, Ahvaz, Arak and Mashhad were asked to fill in the questionnaire. The results showed that the students realized Internet influencing their research and educational activities highly, although they are faced with some barriers and limitations in using it. They used different approaches and strategies in each phase of their information seeking behaviors but there are some frequently used ones as follows: using search engines to identify proper websites appropriate to their information needs, selecting and following cross hyperlinks to other related websites based on subject relevancy, differentiating useful sites from others based on their content quality and subject relationship, and using current Awareness services of their favorite websites and membership in electronic discussion groups to monitor their interested research fields. It was revealed that the students’ information seeking behaviors are similar to Ellis’ model, although there is significant difference among the behaviors of students in different educational departments.

Scientific periodicals are considered as significant tools in the exchange and sharing of scientific findings in academic communities and have attracted serious attentions in Iran Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology in recent years. In this article described, the history and role of scientific periodicals in Iran is and, their current situation is examined by a systemic approach. Based on this approach, scientific periodicals in Iran are involved with many entities and they have themselves many major subsystems. Here the relationships of scientific periodicals with four main entities and also six main subsystems have been examined in detail. Studying of current situations of these periodicals showed that the basic direction of this system is not toward developing scientific communications through this channel, facilitating the emerging of new periodicals, and the strengthening the natural selection for increasing these periodicals.Therefore, the system has taken some inefficiencies that take it away from main purposes, and results in decreasing efficiency and effectiveness of the system in the country. Finally, some suggestions have been made to improve the situation of scholarly periodicals in Iran.

The aim of this research is investigating attitudes of postgraduate students of Tabriz University toward open access to scientific literature concept. For answering this question we first measure their familiarities with related concepts of open access and asked about their use of free electronic journals. We used a questionnaire for data gathering. Validity of this questionnaire approved by referring to experts and its reliability was .75 by cronbach’s alpha. The population of this research was 2177 postgraduate student and we select 327 students as sample. Findings show that there is significant difference in 11 from 33 related names, services, and concepts to open access- between Tabriz university departments. But generally familiarity of students of all departments is low. Findings also show than there is significant difference from their use of free electronic journals between Tabriz university departments.

Nowadays various models are used to measure organizations' performance. One of these models which have been greatly a target of interest is Balanced Scorecard. The model has been improved and developed during years and proposed in forms of developed models such as Sears model. This paper aims to introduce and implement Sears model in the context of academic libraries. Using this model, the paper evaluates the performance of Yazd University Central Library.Statistical society of the paper includes librarians of Yazd University Central Library and also the students of this university. Findings of the paper indicate that putting attention to the indicators and measures of this model has a great impact in improving the performance of academic libraries. Results of implementing the model in Yazd University Central Library shows that the low mean of employees performance (with a mean of 2.73) which is resulted by low job satisfaction and organizational commitment (with the mean of 2.6 and 2.8 respectively), has led to low service quality level (with the mean of 2.5). This, as a result, has led to low students' satisfaction of library services (with the mean of 2.4) and caused the usage rate of library information resources and services to be lower than the medium. At the end of the paper, several suggestions for improving the performance and effectiveness of academic libraries specially Yazd University Central Library are offered.

Many aspects of websites and databases have been the subject of interest to researchers especially computer and library & information science specialists. Evaluating the interface of websites and databases is the one which attracted many researchers. They have invented different methods for evaluating the interface of databases and websites. This paper tends to introduce heuristic evaluation as a new qualitative method. Then, it explains evaluating steps and some considerations; and finally, it mentions the advantages and limitations of this method according to human-computer interaction (HCI) specialists.

User interface of digital libraries (DLs) has a critical role in optimal performance of these libraries. In fact, optimal performance of DLs depends highly upon the appropriate interaction between DLs and their end-users. In spite of the importance of user interface in DLs, few studies have been done in relation to evaluating DLs user interface, in general, and specially in regard with criteria evaluating them. On the other hand, most of related studies deal with "usability".In some of these studies, user interface is eonsidered as a sub-part of usability. As a result of variation of criteria posed in the literature and lack of special criteria for evaluating DLs user interface, the present study aims to identify as well as to determine such criteria via examining related texts and resources comprehensively. Using documentary method and content analysis, the study was performed.To do this, Web and some leading databases including ERIC, LISA, SagePub, Proquest, Emerald, ACM, and ScienceDirect have been searched. Thus, after scanning evaluation-oriented resources and other resources whether theoretical and empirical, 43 resources were categorized. Based on the contents of these resources, 3 sections “user interface and DLs”, “DLs and usability”, and “other studies related to user interface” were identified. Finally, on the basis of occurrence of relevant criteria available in the literature, evaluation criteria of DLs user interface have been determined and proposed for evaluating DLs user interface.

Librarians need to explore their individual creativity. Creative thinking is an underutilized problem-solving skill that can be learned and applied to any situation. This article explains how librarians can understand, develop, and use their creative thinking abilities and skills in the workplace.