Journal of Studies in Library and Information Science
Year:2009 | Volume:1-15 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Libraries and information centers, as service organizations, need standard methods to measure and evaluate their services in order to enhance the quality of their services in support of improving the performance of their mother organizations. The present article describes the application of the Excellence model of the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) to study the quality of the IT management in Shahid Chamran University and Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences libraries. The results of the study revealed that: first, the model (with some modifications) is applicable in library environment; second, the libraries under study, scoring 499.681 points out of a total of 1000, are on a fairly middle level of quality of IT management. Enablers received 275 points out of 500, and Results gained 224 points out of 500. Strengths and weaknesses are identified in detail.

Based on the characteristics of a research program introduced by Karen Fisher, and known as information Ground, the present study aimed at identifying the Information Grounds for Shahid Chamran University (SCU) staff, and analyzing their dimensions (factors), as well as investigating the relationship between these factors and the staff s socioeconomic status. The research population comprised of those who were employed in SCU during the year 2007, of which all the available 243 female staff were included in the study, while the male sample was randomly selected to reach 243, so as to reach a total of 486 individuals.The results showed that the staffs main Information Grounds are: university (workplace), houses of friends and relatives, and parties. Also, using Factor Analysis Method, environments were categorized in four factors. It was also revealed a significant negative correlation between the third factor and the socioeconomic status, and that the same factor is the only factor which can be predictive of the socioeconomic status.

The purpose of the present article is to investigate philosophically, the cause and necessity of services in libraries and similar organizations, in a dialectical fashion. The study, as any other dialectical study, follows answering two questions: 1. Is information, like matter and energy, one of basic resources of the universe, with impacts similar to that of the latter two, on the human civilization? 2. Can the uneven distribution of information lead to social categorization and development of social divide, such as uneven distribution of the matter and energy and production tools that, according to some sociological theories, leads to uneven social differences? In the light of answering these two questions, and on the ground of conceptual relationship that exists between "information" and "society", the philosophy of library services and alike organizations will be explained in the framework of the author's proposed theory of even function of libraries and information centers. In this view, the major mission and the philosophy of services in libraries and similar organizations is defined to be development of balance in the social categorizations caused by uneven distribution of information in society; a theory which can form a basis for declaration of the professional ethics for librarians.

Expression of 120 gifted students of Allameh Helli High School was studied in 3 levels 1 through 3 as well as in 2 branches of Science and Mathematics & Physics, in three aspects: Expression Type, Between Words Relations, and Non-verbal Behavior. Three kinds of questions were asked at classes: factual closed question, indefinite open question, and Reference questions. Three types of expressions were studied in this research. A Chi-square test on the data revealed that there were significant differences between expression types regarding branches of studies, whereas there were no significant differences in expression types in regard with their class levels. Students mostly used writing to express their information needs. The most frequently used relationship between words was the "word" itself. The average scores in non-verbal behavior were 2.35 for the first question, 2.53 for the second question, and 2.65 for the third question out of 5.

The aim of this article is to study the information infrastructure of governmental banks in Tehran city to suggest an information network for them. The relevant libraries were studied with respect to equipments, resources, personnel, and, cataloguing, classification and retrieval system. This research as a descriptive- applied study, has used survey method for which the required data were collected by a checklist. Research population included libraries of 12 governmental banks situated in Tehran city that are active in subject areas like Economics, Money and Banking.Results of the survey revealed that target libraries are in different levels in terms of strengths and weaknesses. The main problems in these libraries are shortage of space, shortage of specialist personnel and varied organizational positions. Also, some of them have rich collections while others don't. To solve these problems and make provisions for effective use of resources and information' services, it is suggested to establish an information network for these libraries. Considering conditions and situations of the libraries, the most suitable topology for the proposed network is a compound topology in which some network functions like bibliographic control, referral services and educational services are performed as centralized by the Central Bank Library, and some other functions such as current awareness services and interlibrary loan, will be rendered as decentralized by each library. Also, some suggestions are made for extending the network services.

The purpose of the present article is to probe into child computer games and examine different views presented in this regards. It also identifies the place of these games in school libraries and whether children's interests and enthusiasm could be used in their education and improvement of their intellectual abilities. In this respect, computer games are categorized in two classes: scientific-educational games, and recreational games. Computer games are defined, their negative and positive impacts on children are discussed, and their role in improving children's scientific, cultural and literal capabilities is discussed, too.Criteria for selection and utilization of child computer games in school libraries are also presented.

The present study aimed at the survey of the present state of the Islamic Azad University Provincial Central Library Homepages. First, three groups of criteria were identified in relation of the evaluation of the homepage content, search, and user loans.33 items were provided in these regards. As the next step, the target library homepages were retrieved and downloaded for examination against the criteria. The survey results revealed that from the 33 libraries studied, 11 had library homepages in which 33.60% of the criteria were followed. All in all, the Kermanshah Islamic Azad University ranked first, Rasht ranked 2nd, and Tabriz and Zanjan ranked third.