RESEARCH ON INFORMATION SCIENCE AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES (PAYAM-E-KETABKHANEH (LIBRARY MESSAGE))
Year:2010 | Volume:15 | Issue:4 (59)|Papers Count:9

In this paper, the author presents the significance of denomination as well as the point that, name must contain the main functions of the scientific field and be of consensus. Name of a major indicates the unity of its subject, such that if the major's components are alongside each other as integration rather than annexation, they exhibit a single identity. In its new definition, librarianship is composed of two elements, namely resources and client; if these elements exist in an integrated combination joined by the human information needs, it can then be suitably an indicator of this field with its expected functions. In other words, believing in the difference between meaning and referent from a linguist's perspective, the function of librarianship and information sciences will be satisfied if the librarians and information disseminators consider the real needs of clients as real referents. In this case, euphony of name and its being under consensus is another factor of importance. The author reasons that, the name "sciences/management of information retrieval and dissemination" can properly express different functions of the major from different aspects and can indicate its operational characteristics; the second aspect, however, depends upon people's being used to it as well as its publicity. If people agree on it, this name can gradually be under consensus similar to many terms which are initially hefty for mind and people increasingly get used to them.

In the present paper, subsequent to expressing the theoretical approaches which explain the episteme-methodological basis of encountering and interpreting the social events, and by taking advantage of the social constructivism approach which culminated with publication of the well-known work by Peter Burger and Thomas Luckman, and combining its common aspects with those of other interpretive approaches and considering social linguistics topics and using citational method, function of public libraries has been elucidated in forming desirable structures such as national identity, self-belief, national unity, and preventing westernization with the aim of determining the strategic situation of public libraries for making policy in this field.

The present study aims to evaluate the quality of services provided in library of faculty of Psychology and Education in Allame Tabatabaee University and identification of those service components in this library which require promotion and improvement. In this study, LibQUALTM (final version) has been utilized. Using this tool, service quality is determined by evaluation of the existing gap between "minimum acceptance level" and "perceived level", and also the gap between "maximum acceptance level" and "perceived level". This indicates the significant difference between the levels, as well as weaknesses and strengths of a library. The current research has been carried out using survey method. Sampling method has been cluster random sampling technique and among library clients 346 persons have been chosen as samples. Results of the study indicate that, the library has been able to satisfy the minimum acceptance level of clients in the component "effect of service". Nevertheless, the library did not facilitate to satisfy this level in the components "information control" and "library as a place". Following the hypotheses testing in each of LibQUAL components, the researchers found out that a significant difference exists in all the three components between the "perceived level" and "minimum acceptance level", as well as between the "perceived level" and "maximum acceptance level" concerning service quality. Furthermore, it was specified that from clients' viewpoint, the component of "information control" is of higher significance compared to other components.

The current study has been performed with the purpose of investigating hot papers of Middle-East countries in database of Essential Science Indicators (ESI). Number of hot papers of each country was identified and the result showed that among 19 countries located in middle-east region only 9 of them have hot papers, and Turkey has been assigned the first rank in this region regarding the number of hot papers (27 hot papers, 48.21%). Hot papers of these 9 countries were scrutinized concerning number of citations, their scopes, publication strategies that countries have applied with the aim of publishing their papers, co-authorship patterns as well as regional and international collaborations. The obtained results revealed that the average number of citations of each paper was in the range of 13-73. The main scope of papers is engineering and the next scopes were chemistry and clinical medicine. Regarding the publication strategies applied by the countries in publishing the hot papers, our findings indicated that most of these papers have been published in American and British journals with relatively high impact factors, in the range of 5.0 - 53. Most of the countries in the region have had collaboration with each other in production of their hot papers. Furthermore, most of these hot papers have been accomplished through collaboration of several countries at international level.

Open source softwares are those which permit execution, copy, read, distribution, and improvement of the software without any restrictions. Also, automatic library systems can manage library functions. Commercial library sofwares are very expensive. Therefore, open source softwares can be appropriate alternatives for automatic library systems. In addition to providing the general concept of source code softwares, this paper attempts to introduce the most extensively used library open source software packages, including PhpMyLibrary and Koha, and perform a concise comparison with previous studies. Findings of our research indicate that Koha possesses more facilities and in comparison, PhpMyLibrdry is not of as much comprehensiveness.

Marketing is the search with the purpose of finding the most proper market and sections where the organization can provide more useful and effective services and satisfy the needs of its clients and visitors in the best manner. Library is a market-oriented organization whose all activities are directed considering client needs and besides satisfaction of existing needs, it intends to create new needs and requests. Marketing makes libraries capable of identifying the clients' needs on the one hand and satisfying these needs on the other hand. The present research has been carried out in order to investigate the application level of marketing principles in public libraries of Tehran. Study method is of survey-descriptive type based upon 4P marketing model. The population under study included public libraries of Tehran city, among which 30 libraries under supervision of Iran Public Libraries Foundation and 60 libraries under supervision of Cultural and Art Organization of Tehran Municipality were randomly selected, which subsequently filled the questionnaire. Data were collected in summer 2008 and analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results of the study indicated that public libraries in Tehran do not have proper status concerning the application of marketing principles and it is essential for them to provide a more comprehensive programming in this regard.

The present research investigates the perspective of higher education students in Shiraz University, as one of the greatest educational and research centers of Iran, regarding fulltext databases such as Ebsco, Elsevier, Science Direct, and ProQuest. Results of the current study reveal that, students' perspective towards accessing information through the two databases Science Direct and Elsevier is positive, while they have negative view regarding the two databases Ebsco and ProQuest. Furthermore, the achieved results indicate that the possibility of information storage on computers, access to most updated articles and journals, and the possibility of end-user searching have been the most significant satisfaction factors regarding the databases. Additionally, the problems of no possibility to access the databases at work place or at place of students' residence, and no possibility of connection to these databases due to traffic of connection lines and high number of visitors, are among the most important problems the students encounter when using the databases.

The present paper aims to investigate the status of inventions which have been internationally patented with association of Iranian inventors. This research studies the patents of Iranian inventors in quadruplet patent offices during 1990 - 2007. Based upon our findings, 365 Iranian inventors have collaborated in 218 patents and contribution of each of the quadruplet patent offices of Europe, America, Japan, and WIPO has been 48%, 39%, 2%, and 11%, respectively.