RESEARCH ON INFORMATION SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES (PAYAM-E-KETABKHANEH (LIBRARY MESSAGE))
Year:2011 | Volume:17 | Issue:2 (65)|Papers Count:7

Purpose: Through analysis of different types of web links, it is aimed in this study to evaluate the status of links in provincial websites of Iran Public Libraries Foundation.Methodology: Link analysis as a webometric method was used in the present research. Data collection was accomplished by LexiURL software and Yahoo search engine. The population under study included the Provincial websites of Iran Public Libraries Foundation (30 websites). The collected data was put into a database in Excel software. According to the questions, the data were subsequently enumerated, ranked, and sorted for further analyses.Findings: According to the results, the websites of public libraries in the provinces Khorasan Razavi, East Azerbaijan, and Qom have the highest number of inlinks and so the highest level of visibility. Regarding the number of webpages, being actively present in the web environment and the number of self-links, the websites of public libraries in the provinces Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran and East Azerbaijan had a better status compared to other websites. Concerning domain type of the received links, 61.21% of the received links were the “ir” domain. With regard to impact factor, the websites of public libraries in the provinces Tehran, Kurdistan, and Qom were assigned the first to third ranks with impact factors of 0.422, 0.362, and 0.345, respectively. Regarding the link exchange, collaboration was made among only 8 of these websites (26%).Originality/Value: No separate research has been so far conducted concerning the analysis of links in websites of public libraries or websites of Iran Public Libraries Foundation. It has great advantages for libraries to evaluate their websites by means of webometric tools in order to identify the status of websites’ links, evaluate their presence in web environment, and impact of the websites, as this can lead to recognition of their strengths and weaknesses and assist their effective presence in internet and improvement of internet services.

Purpose: This research was conducted with the aim of evaluating Iran’s scientific populations in the field of library and information science during 1994-2009.Methodology: Citation analysis was used. The population under study included all documents (paper, report, critical paper, etc.) presented by Iranian researchers in the field of library and information science which have indexed in “Web of Science” website during 1994-2009. In order to search for these documents in this database, initially all journals related to LIS which are indexed in the JCR unit of the “Web of Science” website were identified (61 journals). Then, Iran’s scientific publications in these 61 LIS journals were investigated. Besides, annual growth of Iran’s publications was calculated based on exponential regression.Findings: According to R2 value related to annual growth of scientific publications, Iran’s rate of scientific growth during the mentioned 16 years has been significant (P<0.05). The results indicated that Iran has gained a 33% growth rate during the years under study. Investigation of the document types showed that the Iran’s 96 records were presented in four different formats and only in English, and the highest populated format was “paper”. Furthermore, evaluation of the journals’ impact factor revealed that Iranian researchers have published their papers more in journals with low impact factors. The highest impact factor belonged to the “Journal of Informatics”, in which only two papers from Iran were published. Also, the clusters in the historiography mapping based on LCS and GCS are depicted, as well as the top researchers in this field. The results showed that the geographical location, speaking with the same language, and working on the same topic are effective on the number of citations at global and local levels.Originality: It is an effort to study the scientific publications of Iran in the field of LIS, so as to provide an insight for policy-makers and research managers.

Purpose: This study was carried out to determine the level of precision, recall, and searching time for “Nama” and “Namayeh” databases, as well as to find out which of the indexing tools (thesaurus and Dewey decimal classification) helps us more in improvement of information retrieval.Methodology: This study is an analytical survey in which the necessary data was collected by direct observation of the resources in “Nama” and “Namayeh” paper databases. The population under study included the articles which were indexed in both “Nama” and “Namayeh” databases in the two fields of LIS and history (610 papers), among which 240 papers were chosen by random partial sampling.Findings: The obtained results indicate that the level of precision (in the two mentioned fields) in “Nama” and “Namayeh” databases is 56% and 40%, respectively. Also, the level of recall (in the two mentioned fields) in “Nama” and “Namayeh” databases is 58% and 35%, respectively. In addition, the searching time in “Nama” and “Namayeh” databases is 1 minute and 13 seconds and 2 minutes and 13 seconds, respectively. Applying t-test to independent samples in this study showed that there is significant difference between the two databases regarding precision, recall, and searching time; correlation among these criteria is direct and significant between the two databases. The obtained results indicate that, in comparison with “Namayeh” database, “Nama” database has a more desirable status concerning the level of precision and recall, as well as searching time, and these good retrieval results may be attributed to use of thesaurus in indexing “Nama” database.Originality/Value: Based upon the study results, those who search information can better make decision in choice of a database proportionate to their needs; besides, database designers can find out which controlled language is better for database development in organizing the resources.

Purpose: We have studied in the present research the citation impact of the papers published in Iranian Farsi scientific-research journals in the three fields of medical sciences, agricultural sciences, and human sciences, which have been indexed in SID citation database.Methodology: This study used citation analysis. The population under study included all papers with two or more citations in Farsi scientific-research journals in the three fields of medical sciences, agricultural sciences, and human sciences which were published during 2002-2007 and indexed in SID citation database. To choose the papers, purposeful sampling was used. The bibliographic information of each paper as well as that of its citations was extracted from SID database. Also, SPSS software was utilized to analyze the data.Findings: Considering the results, citation mean value in the three fields under study was calculated to be 3.08 citations. Additionally, based on the results yielded from inference analyses, there is no significant difference among the three mentioned fields regarding the citation impact. In total, findings of the research showed that the citation rate is very low for the papers published in Iranian Farsi scientific-research journals, such that many of these papers have not received any citation. Therefore, care should be taken when using the citations of these papers in evaluation of the researchers’ scientific impact.Originality/Value: The number of citations received by papers in scientific journals is used as a significant index in evaluating the impact of a country’s publications on scientific community; therefore, the present study makes clear the status of citation impact of the papers published in Iranian Farsi scientific-research journals in the three fields of medical sciences, agricultural sciences, and human sciences.

Purpose: This research is devoted to find out the level of self-archival pattern among Iranian researchers with high rate of publications, based upon the ISI citation indices in the scopes of science and social sciences.Methodology: This research is a descriptive survey based on observation. The necessary data was obtained through observing the websites of the 80 Iranian researchers with highest number of publications, in four fields of science (chemistry, biology, mathematics, and computer sciences and information systems) and four fields of social sciences (social sciences, economics, psychology, and management). Excel software was utilized for data analysis.Findings: According to results of the research, the Iranian researchers with high number of publications are rarely familiar with the concept of self-archival pattern, such that among the four fields of science, the researchers with highest number of publications in mathematics had the highest level of self-archiving (3.25%) during their research. Furthermore, the study revealed that the researchers with highest number of publications in social sciences took no measures for self-archiving. Besides, the ratio of possible self-archiving to the real self-archiving is remarkable in all the mentioned fields. The highest level of possible self-archiving among the science fields related to biology, while the lowest level of it pertained to computer sciences and information systems; however, the least difference between the possible self-archiving and the real self-archiving was observed in computer sciences and information systems. Moreover, the highest level of possible self-archiving among the science fields corresponded to economics.Originality/Value: Though self-archiving has been among the most effective approaches of information dissemination, it seems that this concept has not been considerably employed by Iranian researchers with high number of publications. The results of this study provide an opportunity for researchers to get acquainted with this concept as well as the status of self-archiving in the mentioned fields and give new insights for making the scientific publications accessible.

Purpose: This research tries to study and rank the Shi’a Farsi websites based upon the researcher-made checklist designed by the criteria of Silberg, SMRT, and Action For Health, in order to introduce the best websites in this regard.Methodology: The research is evaluative, i.e. the information of 75 Farsi websites related to “Shi’a” was extracted by searching the internet and this information was subsequently evaluated through its comparison with the designed checklist.Findings: As this study showed, total mean value of the agreement of these websites with the checklist is 57.17%; among the features, access to materials got the highest rank (100% agreement) whereas being up-to-date was assigned the lowest rank (23.68% agreement with the checklist). Among the websites under study, “Tebyan” was the best one (score = 35) while he websites “Ghadir” and “Jolgeh” were the weakest ones (score = 11). In total, mean score of the 76 websites under study was calculated to be 22.18 (maximum possible score was 47) with standard deviation of 5.32, which reveals the weak performance of the websites under study.Originality/Value: As the evaluation of religious websites in Iran has not been made so far, the present study can be considered as a starting point which makes the designers of these websites acquainted with the standards in this scope and assists them in finding the existing strengths and weaknesses in these websites. Furthermore, through showing the distance between the existing status and the desirable status, this research can help in improving the quality of presenting religious information as well as satisfying the users.

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the level of information literacy and its role in e-learning of university students in Shiraz University, Amirkabir University of Technology, and Iran University of Science and Technology.Methodology: The research is an applied one and was performed as survey. Data collection was accomplished by a researcher-made questionnaire. The population under study included 1400 B.A. and M.A. students at their last educational year in e-learning B.A. and M.A programs in the three mentioned universities. According to Morgan’s table and through single-step cluster random sampling, 300 of the students were chosen.Findings: As the results of data analysis by Chi-square goodness of fit, Student t-test, and Pierson’s and Spearman’s correlation showed, 1) the level of information literacy is low; 2) there is difference among different levels of information literacy; 3) there is a positive significant relationship between the level of information literacy in e-learning departments of the three mentioned universities and the students’ educational performance.Originality/Value: Due to characteristics of e-learning as well as its differences from traditional education, the significance and necessity of information literacy is higher in this educational process. To best of our knowledge, no prior research has evaluated the role and level of information literacy of individuals in e-learning processes.