Iranian Journal of Information Processing & Management
Year:2008 | Volume:23 | Issue:4 (54)|Papers Count:14

The present investigation attempts to find out the present status quo by studying the strength and weakness of websites of online electronic journals for children and adolescents. By comparing them, it intends to provide a model for optimal use and more pragmatic design.Both library and evaluative research methods were employed. The latter was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics. An evaluation form based on five factors of content, visual design structure, technical structure and copyright and operational indicators was used as the primary data collection instruments. Each in turn was composed of 62 sub-indicators.  SPSS statistical software was used. The study found that the current fourteen journal websites lack the required effectiveness, ranging from unsuitable to totally inappropriate. The findings further indicated that the website designers for children and adolescent magazines do not pay the necessary attention to website design based on the aforementioned five factors.

The present study carries out a quality assessment of the library websites in Iranian State Universities in order to rank them accordingly. The evaluation tool used is the normalized Web Quality Evaluation Tools (WQET). 41 Active library websites were studied and assessed qualitatively over two time periods (Feb 2006 and May 2006) using WQET. Data were collected by direct observation of the website. The evaluation was based on user characteristics, website purpose, upload speed, structural stability, ease of searching, graphic design, availability of authors’ c.v., clear objectivity, update and internal links. Website ranking showed that the website libraries for the Iran University of Science and Technology and Mazandaran University ranked first by obtaining 82 points out of 82 points.  These were followed by the library websites of University of Tehran, Imam Sadegh University, Gilan University and Tarbiyat Moddaress University.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the economic, social and cultural factors relevant to Non-textbook readership (NTR) among youth. A survey was carried out on a sample taken from youth between 14 and 29 years old in Metropolitan Shiraz. A questionnaire was used in conjunction with interview. SPSS was used for descriptive and inferential data analysis. It was demonstrated that there is significant correlation between youth tendency towards reading with age, social standing, educational level of the individual and parents, ethnicity, family income, access to books and library, and membership in a given establishment or society. The most pressing matters regarding NTR among youths are shortage of cultural centers and libraries, suitable book titles, financial issues, costliness, and lack of interest or motivation for reading.

The information explosion of the latter half of the twentieth century, gave rise to online databases and various information media that gradually impacted on the very physical environment of the library. It transformed the librarians’ role. Reference librarians are no exception. The present study aims to investigate the need or lack of need to reference librarians within the digital domains based on the views expressed by LIS authorities in Iran. It would attempt further, to identify the qualities required for such librarian should a need for her/his expressed. The research, while descriptive in nature, was based on analyzing the results obtained by the checklist devised by the authors. LIS Specialist sample was composed of 57 people who filled the checklist. Findings show that there is a significance between employing ICT and need for a reference librarian. LIS experts in Iran believe that introduction of ICT, especially Internet and the WWW not only didn’t decrease the need for such librarians, but has caused the reference librarian to attain a more important and better status than before. Findings further demonstrated that while Iran is not a signatory to the international copyright conventions, the Iranian reference librarians are fully committed to observing author’s copyright and intellectual rights and frown on using software crackers.

Information visualization is a computer-assisted method for data representation. By processing the information into a visual framework, it enables the user to observe, browse, receive and understand information. Information visualization is a new research field that concentrates on using visualizing techniques towards helping people understand and analyze data. The fundamentals of visualization include GUI design, Computer Graphics, HCI, cognitive theories and graphic design. Based on Schneiderman’s classification, information visualization includes one, two, three ad multidimensional as well as time-based, hierarchical and network data.

The ever-increasing evolution of the Internet and the growing number of the resources accessible through this medium has turned the issue of resource evaluation of the internet-based information into a controversial and cogent issue. By nature, the internet milieu is uncontrollable. It concomitantly contains both verifiable and unverifiable information. Thus it behooves the internet users to develop resource evaluation and critical thinking skills in order to discern appropriate quality resources. Through review and comparison of the available checklists, the present paper endeavors to offer criteria for website evaluation.

This article provides an overview of recent developments relating to the application of thesauri in information organisation and retrieval on the World Wide Web. It describes some recent thesaurus projects undertaken to facilitate resource description and discovery and access to wide-ranging information resources on the Internet. Types of thesauri available on the Web, thesauri integrated in databases and information retrieval systems, and multiple-thesaurus systems for cross-database searching are also discussed. Collective efforts and events in addressing the standardisation and novel applications of thesauri are briefly reviewed.