RESEARCH ON INFORMATION SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES (PAYAM-E-KETABKHANEH (LIBRARY MESSAGE))
Year:2013 | Volume:19 | Issue:3 (74)|Papers Count:9

Purpose: The aim of the current research is to write possible scenarios for the future of Iran's public libraries. Regarding the position and application of public libraries, they are considered as a communicative medium.Methodology: The effort is to offer scenarios that deal with the multiplicity and unpredictability of the future. The Two-on-Two model was used for determination of scenarios. This model is formed through intersection of two propulsions that have uncertainties. Thus, in the first step, two lists of propulsions were created. For extracting fundamental uncertainties, questionnaires were sent to experts and professions to collect their attitudes through Delphi method.Findings: Findings show that the most fundamental uncertainties of public libraries include physical space versus Cyberspace, physical resources versus virtual resources and localization versus globalization. The inherent nature of virtual resources is their dependency on cyber and virtual spaces. Thus, these two uncertainties were aggregated and the result was used as a single axis. Based on the following factors, four scenarios were determined: 1. "space and resources", this axis alone ranges between virtual and physical, 2." Direction of services", this one ranges between "promotion of local cultural resources" and "promotion of global cultural". These four scenarios consider a library as a local hub, a media center, a virtual library, and a virtual network of information. Originality/Value: The current paper establishes techniques of transdisciplinary and future studies to prepare backgrounds for the useful participation of public libraries among competitive media, specially emerging ones.

Purpose: The current study aims at determining concepts related to the methods of informing in Quran.Methodology: This study was conducted on the content analysis method. The statistical society of this research consisted of terms that are related to the concepts like ordering, gospel to, advertising, science, clarifying, inviting, mentioning, prophecy, know, tales, books, Nba’, vow, revealing, advising, proscribing, homily, and conducting. 5477 verses contain terms bearing informing concepts. Based on the Morgan Chart, 356 (7%) of them were randomly selected. Findings: The term "science" is the high frequented one among others with a ratio of 74.5 percent. The other finding shows that Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) with 87 percent, performed more informing task in comparison with the other prophets. Among the terms that address audience, human beings with 42 percent is more frequented one. To thank God, implementing justice, possession of knowledge, clarifying, strong reasons, discussing, to debate in a good manner, warning and gospel to are the most common methods for informing in Quran. Originality/values: To know the methods that Quran disseminates information leads to better understanding of Quran and helps to benefit it more.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the significant criteria for parents and children in selecting book for children.Methodology: The current work is an applied-evaluative study. The research population consisted of two groups: First, the parents for the children between 7 and 12 years old in Mashhad, whose children were either the members of public libraries or of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), second, the children who were identical with those mentioned above from age, location and membership points of view. The samples were selected through Cluster Sampling Method. Collecting of data was performed through two questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaires was evaluated by some specialists and their reliability was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha test. The alpha coefficient value in the parents’ questionnaire was 0.89 and in the children’s questionnaire, it was 0.84.Findings: The study determined the parents' and children's viewpoints and their common criteria along with their significant sub-components. Both of the parents and the children considered nine criteria. The findings also showed the most agreement between the Children’s Books Council criteria and those of children and parents respectively in language quality and writing style, and in illustration quality. On the other hand, the least agreement between children’s and parents’ choices was noticed in presentation quality. The first and the last priorities for the both of the parents and the children were the same: content quality at the top and presentation quality at the bottom of their ranking lists. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between the weight of the children’s criteria and those by the parents. But no difference was observed between the girls and boys and also between the fathers and the mothers in the weight of criteria for selecting children’s books.Originality/Value: The importance of the study is in elucidating the parents and their children criteria for selecting the children's books.

Objective: The current study aims at describing publication's information of rewritten stories from Shahnameh and Mathnawi for children and adolescents during the years 1369-1389 (1990-2010).Methodology: The method of study is descriptive. 234 stories out of 594 were selected from Mathnawi (63 stories) and Shahnameh (171 stories).Findings: findings show that the number of rewritten stories has increased over the years. The highest circulation of such books ranges between 3000- 5000. The publication place of 84.2% of the books is Tehran and the rests (%15.8) are published in other cities. %84 of the books are published one time. %65.4 contain colored pictures. %43.8 consist of 20 pages and %8.6 of them exceed 150 pages. 18 rewritten books from Shahnameh (%10.5) have editors and 6 of Mathnawi’s (%9.5) as well. No books from Shahnameh belong to the age group of preschoolers but one from Mathnawi. 145 of Shahnameh’s stories and 44 of Mathnawi’s have been rewritten in simple style rewriting while 26 and 19 ones have respectively been rewritten in creative style.Originality/Value: In the recent years the number of rewritten texts for children and adolescents has increased. They need to be precisely evaluated. There are not considerable researches in this field. The current study determines the lacks and deficiencies through reviewing information related to such works, and finally offer advice to the authorities and writers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the status of Mashhad secondary school students’ leisure reading habits and its affecting demographic factors (gender, parental socioeconomic status, parental education level, academic achievement and attitudes to the Internet).Methodology: The method of the current study is descriptive. 384 students (boys and girls) from the first three grades of high school were randomly selected through multistage sampling. The data were collected through a questionnaire. Face validity of the questionnaire was approved by professors and experts and its reliability (0.73) was estimated throughout Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed at two levels of descriptive and analytical statistics to answer basic questions and to test the research hypothesis.Findings: The results show that: 1- The rank of “free reading” among the favorite activities of students' leisure time was relatively low. 2- Students were more interested in reading fiction and fantastic books. 3- The reading barriers of "listening to music", " school assignments," and "watching TV" was more important than other activities. 4- Students mostly get their needed resources from "bookstores" and "Friends," and the "School Library" is the least important for them. 5- The students mainly access their information resources from internet. 6- There was significant difference between reading habits of boys and girls in some cases like, "reading enjoyment", "buying non-text book materials" and "frequency of reading". Some other factors significantly affect on the students' reading habits, factors such as parents’ education level, family socioeconomic status and academic achievement.Originality/Value: The novelty of the present paper is determining the relationships between variables "attitude to Internet", "parents' education level", "socioeconomic status" and "academic achievement" and "reading habits" of students in Iran.

Purpose: The Objective pursued by the current research is to evaluate the Qom Islamic Sciences software packages in the fields of Quran, Hadith, and fiqh & ahkam. The focus is on their search capability features. These features were derived from English & Persian authoritative sources.Methodology: The method used in this research is based on the Evaluation Methodology. The evaluation was conducted through 91 parameters in two parts: search options & features of the search results.Findings: The results indicate that the software packages for Islamic sciences are scaled 2.01 from the Likert's Scaling System point of view. This value is not considerable. The search capability of the following packages is respectively more: 'Jam Altafasyr Noor', 'Mujam Baharalanvar'& 'Nuralfaqhahe3'. On the other hand, the following ones respectively have fewer capabilities: 'Taranom Vahy', 'Mujam Ahadith Alamam Mahdi' & 'Resale'. Findings show that the search power of Hadith packages is more than Quran and Fiqh & Ahkam ones. The search capability of packages that are produced by different organizations significantly varies. Originality/value: The current research categorized the Islamic science software packages into three main areas: Quran, Hadith, Fiqh & Ahkam. In addition, its novelty is use of checklist as a tool for multidimensional evaluation of search capabilities.

Purpose: This study aims at the analysis of scientific publications that have been written by Iran Public Libraries Foundations’ employees and provides a picture of their research-scientific activities.Methodology: this work is an applied research with a descriptive-analysis approach. The research population consists of scientific presentations at the First National Festival of Scientific Research of Iran Public Libraries Foundation. Data were collected through the festival database. Analysis of data was performed with SPSS Software version 18.Findings: The findings show that the number of publications by the employees has reached 469 works since the establishment of Foundation up to 2011. In comparison to the other publication types, the most works were published in the form of article. The highest number of scientific publications belongs to the 2010 and the lowest one to the 2007. Except for 2004, the scientific publications of employees have had a positive growth rate. This rate ranges between -0.39 (in 2004) and 1.88 (in 2003). The Chi-square test showed a significant difference between gender and discipline of employees and the type of their scientific publications. On the other hand, there was not a significant difference between the scientific degree of employees and the type of scientific publications. Originality/Value: To date there is not any comparative research on the scientific publications written by the employees of Iran Public Libraries Foundations. Therefore, the results of this study might be useful for managers, planners, policy makers of Iran public libraries foundations.