LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION STUDIES (JOURNAL OF NATIONAL STUDIES ON LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION)
Year:2021 | Volume:32 | Issue:1 (125)|Papers Count:6

Purpose: This paper aims at gaining a deep understanding of representationalism in knowledge organization and information retrieval analyzing foundations of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. Method: The method used is logical inference. The approach is theoretical and argumentative. Accordingly, its feature and nature is speculative. Findings: Representationalism is the indirect realism rooted in seventeenth-century Cartesianism, in Locke and Hume's eighteenth-century empiricism, and in Kant's idealism. Language in this early period of modern philosophy, had no material existence and was fully used to regulate ideas. Since its main consideration is the subjectivity, it is not necessary to enhance the status of language that acts as an intermediary connecting subject with object and that expresses the meanings of the object; since early modern philosophy does not concern itself with the issue of intersubjectivity and the relationship between “ I” and “ the other, ” it is not necessary to pay heed to the function of language that serves as a bridge among subjects or consciousnesses (let alone among cultures). The emphasis of representationalism in the philosophy of mind is that ideas and perceptions are superior to language, and language is the only representation of thoughts. In the philosophy of language, representationalism means that language is like a mirror representing concepts, and meaning is fixed according to this representationalist view of language as well. Conclusion: Representation is an accepted principle in the field of knowledge organization and information retrieval. Accordingly, the issue of representation is addressed according to representationalist approaches. In order to understand representationalism in this field and its connection with language and meaning, it is necessary to pay attention to this theory and its prepositions in philosophy. Our study showed that the theory of representationalism was indicative and supportive of a marginal rather than a central view of language. Accordingly, changing the representationalist approach to language in information science, can help our field to improve its semantic information retrieval systems. We seek to retrieve relevant and meaning-based information. To present in detail the theory of representationalism in relation to language and meaning in these areas requires further study. Here, we only showed the presuppositions, origins, and leaders of the theory in philosophy of mind and language.

Purpose: This paper presents the results of research on the information science evolution, its concepts and problems, highlighting how the recent post-truth phenomenon raises new questions to the area. The objectives are related to the identification and characterization of the post-truth phenomenon to demonstrate that it represents a new informational reality challenging the categories hitherto existing. The discussion on information science starts from the mapping of three major study models in the area: the physical, the cognitive, and the social. The first, which arose at the beginning of information science, focuses on the technical aspects of the transmission of records and on issues of information retrieval. The second focuses on the design of information systems based on the users' cognitive needs and search processes. The third focuses on the social and cultural dimensions of information, its relationship with the action of the subjects and the contexts in which these actions occur. The discussion about the post-truth is presented in terms of its causes, characteristics and consequences. Its causes include scientific denialism, the human cognitive bias of confirmation, the disintermediation of information, the formation of the bubble effect as a result of the logic of the algorithms of social networks and search engines, and the hijacking of the idea of relativizing the truth produced by the philosophical movement of postmodernity. Regarding the characteristics of the phenomenon, the intentional and spontaneous forms of disinformation production stand out, through different platforms, mainly the instant messaging applications that work underground. Finally, in relation to the consequences, the strengthening of authoritarian regimes, the weakening of institutions and a greater submission of subjects are listed. Method: The methodology used in this research is literature review and epistemological discussion. For information science, books, manuals and articles produced by authors from different countries were considered. Their objective was to present or map the field from its theoretical currents and paradigms. Thus, for the analysis, works that only made a history of information science or those presented it only from a single point of view or theoretical perspective were not considered. For the question of post-truth, mainly recent books were considered for the depth of discussions and general analyses of the phenomenon and exploring its causes, characteristics and consequences. Analyses that correlated post-truth with other contemporary phenomena were also considered. The works selected to compose the theoretical framework were analyzed from an epistemological viewpoint in order to compose an interpretive framework to meet the proposed objectives. Findings: The result of the confrontation between the discussion of the conceptual framework of information science and the questions related to post-truth showed the need for information science to give centrality to the attribute of "truth" of information, in addition to those already studied, such as relevance, retrieval, relationship with knowledge. The phenomenon of post-truth has technical, human, and social dimensions. Information science has the tools and concepts to explore these dimensions. Conclusion: Post-truth phenomenon presents itself as the major contemporary challenge for information science, requiring further investigation for understanding it, and developing strategies to deal with it.

Purpose: This paper aims at propose appropriate performance indicators based on the world’ s national libraries and related ISOs. These were grouped according to 4 perspectives of BSC involving (Resources, access, and Infrastructure; Use; Efficiency; and Potentials and development). Method: Firstly, performance indicators of 7 national libraries (British Library, National Library of Australia, National Library of Spain, Swiss National Library, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of France, and National Diet Library) were collected and categorized according to ISO 28118, ISO 21248 standards. The outcome then was viewed and commented for suitability by 13 senior professional staff of NLI. In total, the indicators were defined in 11 dimensions and 192 indicators based on NLIs goals and tasks. The research tools to conduct a Fuzzy Delphi technique involve a checklist whose validity were recognized according to expert's opinion. Findings: 32 out of 192 performance indicators were considered suitable. These were grouped according to 4 perspectives of BSC: 11 indicators on Resources (Percentage of National Publications Acquired by the NLI, Percentage of acquired books in any medium and multimedia resources entered by legal deposit, Percentage of acquired serials entered by legal deposit, Coverage of the national imprint in the new entries of the national bibliography, Percentage of national publication with Cataloging in publication; Number of searches for "National Bibliography Offering Service" of NLI-OPAC, Number of NLI Press Online titles, Increase the percentage of digitized titles and pages per 1 000 Documents in the Collection, Cumulative percentage of at-risk audiovisual material migrated from an obsolete to a current digital file format, Total m2 of surface in deposits of bibliographic funds with control of air conditioning and percentage, Percentage of Storage Space which has an Appropriate Environment); 8 on Use (Qualitative evaluation using case studies of use and value of the collection and services, Satisfaction with ease of finding information on the NLI’ s website, Satisfaction level of NLI-OPAC-user questionnaire, Overall satisfaction level of user service (user questionnaire), Level of user satisfaction with the search of the NLI website, The number of active users of NLI, Number of views of digitized books and magazines, Number of views of Digitized press); 10 on Efficiency (Median time to catalog books entered by legal deposit (in weeks), Median Time of Document Processing, The rate of providing document reference services, Percentage of information requests submitted electronically, Percentage of correct reference questions answered electronically, Number of users to whom direct bibliographic information has been provided in the reading rooms with a maximum waiting time of 10 minutes and a percentage of the total, Number of users to whom general information has been provided with a maximum waiting time of 10 minutes and percentage of the total, Employee Productivity in Document Processing, Employee productivity in Cataloguing in Publication (CIP), Employee Productivity in Lending and Delivery Services ); 3 on Potential and development (Percentage of library staff involved in resource processing, Percentage of processing staff involved in CIP, Percentage of Staff in National and International Cooperation and Projects). Conclusion: By extracting and proposing performance indicators and classifying them in 4 dimensions of balanced scorecard, it is possible for the National Library of Iran to evaluate its performance and compare itself with other national libraries in around the world and reach consensus on valid indicators through repeated reviews and monitoring. From the results of this research, it can be said that among the 32 selected indicators to evaluate the performance of NLAI, a total of 8 indicators are related to the two ISOs studied (28118 and 21248); That is, 25% of the performance indicators monitored in this study are in accordance with ISO. Finally, both ISOs related to national libraries (ISO 28118 and 21248) can be a good source for designing performance indicators of national libraries.

Purpose: Scientific exchanges and easy access to the required information are necessary for the scientific growth and dynamism of society. Scientific social networks as platforms for scientific exchanges can play important role in the development of scientific communities. Today, with the expansion of the applications of information and communication technology in everyday life, we are witnessing the formation of a new generation of Internet tools that have provided countless possibilities for mutual relations, negotiation, dialogue and, in general, two-way communication. Scientific social networks are an environment for the introduction and promotion of scientific activities and in fact, the more relevant information they can provide, the more they will be welcomed by experts, and the gathering of more experts in these networks means more scientific dynamism. The purpose of this study is to describe the experience of information science professionals about the relevance of information in ResearchGate scientific network. Method: This research is a qualitative research with a conceptual phenomenological design. The reason for choosing this method is because experiences of people requires a deep description of a certain phenomenon to a specific group of people and also one of the suitable fields for conducting research. Interpretive paradigm of phenomenological method is research in the field of information retrieval, which is important in information science and epistemology. Participants in present study are 22 experts and faculty members (9 males and 13 females) in the field of information science and epistemology in Iranian universities who are members of the research social science network. Participants were selected using purposeful sampling. Data was collected from semi-structured interview method, then coded and analyzed using Dickelman method. Finding: The results of the interviews analysis led to the extraction 551 initial code and four categories: Relevance of the document, relevance of the successor to the document, the relevance of the requests and questions, and the lack of relevance feedback. Conclusion: The results emphasize showed that Researchgate network plays an important role in meeting information needs of users. The network is not an information system, a forum for meeting scientific needs and promoting science.

Purpose: The first objective of our study was to determine whether Encoded Archival EAD is compatible with IranMARC (local version of UNIMARC for Iran). The second objective was to explore EAD elements with high priority. The latter is highly important to the work of Archivists at the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) for converting archival records to EAD. Method: The research steps were as follows: 1) Development of a map to match EAD with both UNIMARC and IranMARC; 2) Quantifying EAD; 3) Weighting EAD elements; 4) Determining structural compatibility EAD with UNIMARC and IranMARC and identification of EAD elements with high priorities to value corresponding fields in UNIMARC and IranMARC. Findings: The developed map of EAD-UNIMARC-IranMARC showed that 77 EAD elements out of 107 have corresponding fields in UNIMARC and 72 in IranMARC. Structural compatibility rate of UNIMARC and EAD was 73% and 68. 7% with IranMARC. Also, 75 EAD elements out of 107 were found to be of high priority. Conclusion: This research primarily contributes to the improvement of information organization in Iran and to the development of a map of EAD-UNIMARC-IranMARC. This map not only will serve as a tool for measuring structural compatibility EAD with UNIMARC and IranMARC, but is valuable by itself. In this map we have used the fields of block 4 to establish connections among archives records. Currently, archivists of NLAI suffice to create most of the records at a file level. Our findings can be used to prepare a manual. In addition to structural compatibility of IranMARC with EAD, the method of arrangement and description may affect the readiness of conversion of archival records to EAD. High rate of compatibility EAD to UNIMARC (73%) may be promising for countries who have used UNIMARC to retrieve their archival materials and intent to implement EAD to move toward linked data and connection to semantic web. The lack of 30 EAD corresponding elements in UNIMARC is an issue. We will communicate with IranMARC Committee and ask them to prepare and forward proposals for this purpose, to the Permanent UNIMARC Committee (PUC). By identification of EAD elements with high priority, NLAI may generate enhanced records to convert to EAD by preparing a manual for required and high priority EAD elements. The reason for the difference in structural compatibility of UNIMARC and IranMARC with EAD is the failure of Integrated software of National Library of Iran (called RASA) to update IranMARC. Fields of 371, 631, 632 should be added to RASA immediately. Our findings may be useful to countries who use UNIMARC. The method of quantifying EAD may be applicable to other models and standards. Also, we found that some EAD elements have several fields in UNIMARC and IranMARC. Further research can be carried out to explore the value of each field. This helps archival centers to make decisions about the priority of fields when one element has several corresponding fields. We suggest that the content of NLAI database for archival records be reviewed based on the map we developed. This would be helpful in identifying possible required fields as well as fields with high priority once conversion to EAD is to be done.

Purpose: Social institutions, including public libraries, in connection with their duties and response to the growing changes in society, always aim to provide a platform for sharing experiences and social knowledge. This research seeks to identify important categories and components and items in platform thinking for the effectiveness of public library services from the perspective of experts so that it can be used as a model for implementing platform thinking effectively in public libraries. Method: Delphi and panel formation method were employed. Panel participants were 15 LIS experts and public library professionals. A questionnaire based on the review of the literature was designed and validited. Feedbacks from two rounds of the Delphi inqury resulted in developing categories, components, and items required for platform thinking for the development of Hosseinieh Ershad Public Library services were identified. Findings: The results showed that from the experts' point of view, what categories, components and items are important in shaping public library services based on the platform thinking model. A good increase in averages, so that only one component is below ninety percent and the other is above ninety percent, is an important point. Such a high percentage of agreement indicates the good attitude of experts towards each component and their suitability for inclusion in the research and the final questionnaire. The scores of the second round showed that the experts agreed with the changes. The results showed that the components of the model were closer to their views and the division of this round caused the experts to look at these components more positively and in their views were closer to each other than the first round. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, all categories, components and items required for role-playing as a platform, with an average score of 875%, which is very close, were approved by experts. After analyzing the data in two Delphi rounds, the main topics were categorized and in its sub-category, the components were divided and the examples of the initial questionnaire were separated and a number of items were compiled under each component and the possibility of using categories and components in drawing thinking model. A platform was created. Finally, 6 categories, 17 components and 89 items of platform thinking model for the development and effectiveness of public library services were identified, which can be evidence of greater validity for drawing the model and its greater equality with the views of experts, and can be used as a basis for designing platform thinking model.