LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION STUDIES (JOURNAL OF NATIONAL STUDIES ON LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION)
Year:2018 | Volume:29 | Issue:1 (113) |Papers Count:11

Introduction: Having been introduced to the SWIB through the searching for the section of literature review of my thesis earlier the year, I decided to attend in the conference when I would arrive in Germany to start my visiting research period in Cologne. Although I had forgotten the exact date of the conference I received an email from one of the mailing lists in November. I just jumped at the chance of a sponsored place at the conference. Because the SWIB conference gave me the opportunity to gather some useful information for my thesis topic on modeling grey archaeological literature. I was delighted that my grant application had been accepted successfully...

Purpose: Analyzing the relation and interaction between philosophy of information and Library and Information Science (LIS) in order to equip it with reflective knowledge and to constitute a reasonable intellectual foundation for it.Methodology: Conceptual analysis and critical assessment of Luciano Floridi' s thoughts about the relation between philosophy of information and LIS.Results: Philosophical reflection is a necessary condition to constitute a reasonable intellectual foundation for LIS. Philosophy of information can provide LIS with such a foundation. However, the relation between these two fields is not unilateral, but mutual. LIS as an applied philosophy of information can play an active role in further development of philosophy of information, especially in resolving practical and ethical problems of infosphere.Conclusion: Though we can find important insights in Floridi's viewpoints about the relation between philosophy of information and LIS, his approach is eliminative, in that he disregards other intellectual schools than his own philosophy of information. Philosophy of information could be regarded as one of the intellectual resources for constituting theoretical foundation of LIS, but it is not the only resource. In contrast to Floridi's eliminative approach, a more pluralistic approach is suggested. Luciano Floridi, Library and Information Science, Philosophy of Information, Social Epistemology, Semantic Information.

Purpose: To identify research trends in digital library domain from retrospective, current and foresight approaches.Methodology: Mixed method. To study the past and present state of digital libraries, related conferences topics were quantitatively reviewed and for the foresight study, qualitative approach and scientific imagination technique were used.Results: The past research issues are still a point of discussion today, however new issues have been posed in recent years. Future research trends will probably be on subjects like social networks of researchers, sharing research results, semantic sharing of information, digital library maintenance, big data and innovations.Conclusion: This study will help in designing a road map for guidance, evaluation and education and research improvement in digital library domain.

Purpose: To investigate the extent to which ResearchGate members as authors of journal articles comply with publishers’ copyright policies when they self-archive full-text of their articles on Research Gate.Methodology: A random sample of 500 English journal articles available as full-text on Research Gate was chosen (using a two-step random sampling) and the information of the articles and their authors were collected from Research Gate.Compliance of their full-text availability then was checked against journal publishers’ policy mentioned in journal’s site or SHERPA/RoMEO.Results: Of these, 64 (13.4%) were preprint, 26 (5.2%) were post-print and 407 (81.2%) were published (publisher) PDF. The key finding was that 40.2% out of 500 articles infringed the copyright and were non-compliant with publisher policy.Although social sciences had the smallest number of articles overall, their number of non-compliant articles was larger than those of other fields.Conclusion: Most of non-compliance cases occur when authors use publishers’ PDF for archiving. Given that two-fifths of Research Gate full-text articles are not aligned with publishers’ copyright policies, authors and Research Gate need to pay more attention to the issue and take measures for copyright compliance.

Purpose: To compare the browsing performance of users with different cognitive styles and experiences while searching shopping websites.Methodology: This is an applied research using quantitative content analysis to collect data from the transaction log files. The population consisted of all bachelor students of Shiraz University, 90 of which participated.Results: A significant difference was seen between experienced and novice users’ browsing performance, where experienced users spent less time and earned more success than the novice ones. There were no significant correlation between users’ cognitive styles and their browsing performance, but cognitive style and experience together indicated some difference, where verbal-novice users spent more time doing the tasks than verbal-experienced users.Conclusion: Verbal-novice users need more help and attention in web browsing and it should be considered during the design and training of interactive information systems.

Purpose: To measure the performance of Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation based on the Performance Prism Model.Methodology: This is an applied research using mixed approach and methods such as desk research, case study and survey. Using the purposive sampling, key well-informed staff were selected and indicators of Performance Prism facets were formulated. Based on self-designed questionnaires, the views of key stakeholders have been measured regarding five facets of the performance prism model.Results: Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation performance was studied in three levels of undesirable, fairly desirable and desirable getting the viewpoints of key stakeholders (board of trustees, faculty members, authors and financial supporters) and with regard to five facets of performance prism (stakeholder satisfaction, strategies, processes, capabilities and stakeholder contribution). All facets of the foundation’s performance were desirable regarding the board of trustees’ comments and fairly desirable regarding faculty members and authors’ viewpoints. The processes were desirable according to financial supporters but the other four facets were fairly desirable.Conclusion: A consistent balance exists among all facets of the performance prism. Based on stakeholders’ views, the foundation’s performance is fairly desirable and desirable, which indicates satisfaction of stakeholders and successful performance of the foundation. Such evaluation makes it possible for managers to compare present and desirable situation and identify strengths and weaknesses. Manager of the foundation can also use this research results to reach to a desirable level and success by improving undesirable or fairly desirable indicators.

Purpose: To assess the quality of the national archives websites with WebQEM and Fuzz-web methods and design a system using a fuzzy inference.Methodology: Applied research employing survey.65 national archives websites were evaluated using a checklist produced according to WebQEM method and weighted for the study population, as well as online tools of fuzz-web method. Based on data collected by fuzz-web method, a fuzzy inference system was designed in Matlab software.Results: The average score for national archives websites was 0.51 using WebQEM and 0.505 using fuzz-web. There was no significant difference between results derived from WebQEM and fuzz-web evaluation methods.Conclusion: Usability and performance were the highest deficiencies of the websites, which is an alarm for web designers. Using fuzzy inference system, websites can be evaluated regularly.

Purpose: To recognize Iranian children's search behavior and their technology and subject needs and expectations from the International Children Digital Library (ICDL). Persian books of ICDL were selected.Methodology: Qualitative approach and exploratory case study were employed.16 children and young adults’ members of Children Book Council (CBC) and Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults were observed and interviewed.Results: Although Persian books numbers are the second at the ICDL, Iranian children and young adults still require a more profound collection with easy and fact access. This collection needs to have Persian resources in preferred subjects and different formats.Conclusion: ICDL must develop its Persian collection to satisfy Iranian children. In this regard enriching the Persian collection and merging with Database for Children's Culture and Literature of Iran (DCLI) is recommended.

Purpose: To identify the driving forces which are affecting the future of Knowledge and Information Science (KIS) education in Iran.Methodology: This is an applied study using desk research and survey. The study population consisted of faculty members, PhD students and alumni and researchers in education domain of KIS. Final analysis was performed on 235 filled questionnaires.Results: The driving forces categorized in two groups: internal (11 cases) and external (5 cases). Among the internal driving forces, “specialization in curriculum development’’ with an average ratio of 4.48 and importance indicator of 89.62% was identified as the most important driving force and among the external driving forces, “policy making and management of the higher education system in Iran’’ with an average ratio of 29.36 and importance indicator of 73.39% was recognized as the most important driving force..Conclusion: KIS education policymakers and planners should consider all the internal and external driving forces affecting KIS education and thereby ensure its existence and dynamism.

Purpose: To identify important elements in designing children’s online catalog regarding their characteristics and to design and develop an online catalog prototype based on identified elements and study children’s behavior while working with it.Methodology: Mixed methodology using interview, think aloud, search files and log files to gather data from children while interacting with the self-designed prototype.Results: Features such as proper use of icons, color and page segmentation (sort of elements) help in better usage of the catalog. Also, children often use subject browsing to find books in online catalog. This study offers a list of features and elements for designing children online catalog.Conclusion: Children show reactive behavior when using the catalog and this should be considered in designing.

Purpose: To design and develop a system using LibQual model to evaluate service quality of university libraries around Iran.Methodology: The LibQual questionnaire was validated first and then a software was set-upped based on this standard model. Descriptive survey and system design were employed. First, similar research and systems were studied and then with regard to the committee's approach, LibQual questionnaire was translated and customized. The validity of the translated questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha. Finally, based on findings from similar systems and customization for Iranian libraries, software infrastructure was prepared and collected information was uploaded in the system.Results: A web-based system for service quality assessment of Iranian libraries was launched which could get users’ feedback online at intervals. This system analyses the users’ views and provides results for libraries’ policy makers and managers and scientific community. This is the first library service quality assessment in Iran available online at: http: //raf.irandoc.ac.ir Conclusion: This system output will provide library managers with a scientific framework of users’ views, make it easier to improve service quality and raise users’ satisfaction.