RESEARCH ON INFORMATION SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES (PAYAM-E-KETABKHANEH (LIBRARY MESSAGE))
Year:2012 | Volume:17 | Issue:4 (67)|Papers Count:7

Purpose: Lack of enough understanding of the Knowledge Management System (KMS), including the definition, components as well as the success factors in it, is among the main elements of failure in the knowledge management projects.The present work attempts to enlighten the concept of KMS and the related components.Methodology: This work in addition to detailed reviewing of the KMS, studies the concept of KMS extracted from 290 papers in SCUPUS database using content analysis method. It further identifies and classifies the definitions, approaches, elements and success factors of the KMS.Findings: Review of the related literature resulted in identification of 5 topics, respectively as: success factors of KMS, benefits of using them, components and elements of KMS instruments and technologies of KMS, and approaches to KMS. It we also revealed that there is a great overlap between the concepts of KM and KMS.Originality/Value: This is among the first researches that deals with reviewing the texts related to KM. Hence, it develops a new front in the field of KM.

Purpose: The present research aimed at determining the casual relationship between the variables of organizational atmosphere, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), and developing a model in other to improve the organizational citizenship through the management of organizational atmosphere and attitude variables in Iran’s public libraries.Methodology: The data required in this applied survey were collected by descriptive questionnaire based on structural equations model. The research population included personnel of Iran Public Libraries Foundation (IPLF).Findings: Organizational atmosphere of public libraries had a significant relationship with job satisfaction of librarians working in the IPLF. There was also a strong relationship between organizational satisfaction and organizational commitment as well as the librarian’s OCB. No relationship was found between organizational commitment and the organizational citizenship behavior of librarians working in the IPLF. Further, no significant relationship was observed between the organizational commitment as well as the OCB of IPLF librarians. In the structural equations model, it is necessary to take a clear-cut conclusion about the overall fitting of the model. Accordingly, our proposed model was in good situation in such indexes as RMSEA, AGFT, and GFT. Therefore, it can be concluded that the model is good one in terms of fitting.Originality/Value: This work is the first time that the relationship of organizational atmosphere with attitude variables such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior of IPLF personnel and a model is proposed aiming to improve their OCB through the management of organizational atmosphere and attitude variables in Iran’s Public Libraries.

Purpose: The aim of this work was failure finding in public library system using sensitivity analysis in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models.Methodology: This applied survey is a single-stage research in terms of time.The strategy applied was mathematical modeling based analysis strategy using DEA technique. The data required were collected by using questionnaire and related documents. The research sample included the public libraries of Yazd city that were studied in 2008. After data collection, a proper mathematical model for evaluating the libraries’ performance was developed and the data were analyzed using SPSS and WINQSB software.Findings: The results of data analysis using the researcher developed mathematical model (consisting of 11 variables) showed that 11 libraries (%55 of the whole libraries) had complete performance (equal to 1). In addition, the results of rating of inputs and outputs using SAW technique showed that the staffs among the input, and those members holding membership ID among the output were of the highest importance in the libraries performance. It can be concluded that, in spite of enjoying proper and enough infrastructural facilities, Yazd city public libraries could not be rated as suitable in terms of attracting the users to make use of library according to the number of books lent and use of public from the libraries.Originality/Value: With regard to the growth and importance of organizations in the society, evaluation of their performance has been in the core attention among researchers. The present work is an attempt to evaluate the performance of Yazd city’s public libraries using a quantitative method.

Purpose: The present work aimed to find out if the concept of paradigm in Tomas Kuhn’s Philosophy has any equivalents in the area of Library and Information Science (LIS).Methodology: After a comprehensive study of the book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", especially the concept of paradigm in it, the LIS related theories are critically investigated and recommendations on the necessity of having a paradigmatic attitude towards this area are offered.Findings: Kuhn considers paradigm as the main axis of consensus in a scientific society. Then one could not mix the meaning of paradigm with such words of "school", "approach", "theory", "pre-understanding", and alike. The presence of "conflicting intellectual schools" in a scientific area could not be taken as equal to "the existence of different paradigm", because by the Kuhn, the conflicting paradigms belong to the pre-paradigmatic situation. Accordingly, many of the theories given about the concept of paradigm in the area of LIS have gone far away from what Kuhn meant of it. Also, the debates on the meaning of LIS suffer from this fact that they have overlooked the consensus making feature of paradigm and lacking of it in LIS.Originality/Value: The value of this research is in helping to deepening in the fundamentals of LIS and especially the concept of paradigm with the regard to the LIS related problems.

Purpose: This work aimed to study the effect of organizational factors including organizational culture, organizational structure, education, human resources, flow of information and communication, information technology, and transparency of documents on the performance of knowledge management, and the components of knowledge production, saving knowledge, applying knowledge, and transfer and sharing of knowledge in the education system of Malekan city (Iran).Methodology: The research population of this applied survey included 214 personnel of Malekan city’s education system who were selected by stage random sampling. The data required were collected by questionnaire (the total of 143 questionnaire were finally collected) and analyzed by using the Multiple Regression Test.Findings: According to the findings of this research, the variables of organizational culture, education and information technology have positive effects on the performance of knowledge management, while other variables including human resources showed positive effect on this regard only in the component of knowledge production. The remaining variables had also statistically insignificant correlation with the performance of knowledge management and its components.Originality/Value: Since the majority of researches concluded on knowledge management so far have been in such areas as business and profit organizations, the importance of this research, which was concluded in the area of education, could not be overlooked.

Purpose: This paper assesses the goals of Iran’s scientific knowledge development networks and information technology from the viewpoint of 30 scientific and research centers.Methodology: This study, using questionnaire, aimed to survey the research community including the officials of Iran’s network of research centers affiliated to the ministries of Science, Research and Technology, an Health and Medical Education, having passed specialized courses related to scientific networks and having interaction with the audience.Findings: All the centers with a mean of 3.25 believed that the goals of Iran’s Scientific Network are achievable, which is a relatively high positive assessment.Additionally, the results of Chi-Square Test showed no significant difference in the evaluation conducted by the representatives of the study centers. Finally, some recommendations are presented for network improvement and further research in this field.Originality/Value: The results of this evaluation will hopefully lead to the Iran’s scientific networks effectiveness in the development of information technology and knowledge.

Purpose: The present research aimed to study teachers’ view on the content of textbooks of sociao-economic skills for mentally retarded pupils in prevocational guidance schools.Methodology: The research population included 35 teachers of the socio-economic skills textbooks teaching in the provinces of Ghazvin, Guilan and Mazandaran. The instrument used was a researcher made questionnaire. The data obtained were analyzed using Chi-Square Test.Findings: The results indicated that teachers evaluated the sociao-economic skills textbooks in the categories of goals, content, principles of content organization, time needed for teaching lessons, the role of pictures in understanding the concepts of textbooks, appearance of textbooks, assessment of educational progress of students, and active teaching methods completely relevant, and in the category of using the content in everyday life as partially relevant. Finally, the results of Chi-Square Test indicated no significant difference in the teachers’ view on the content of textbooks of socio-economic skills.Originality/Value: It is obvious that for enhancing both social skills economic skills of students, we need are needed good textbooks, therefore, the present study have provided some useful recommendations for the authors and policy makers.