Identifying the National Policy Issues of Iran’s Public Libraries from the Viewpoint of Policy Makers and Experts

Identifying key issues in an area is the first step in the public policy process. The purpose of this study is to identify the national policy issues of Iranian public libraries from the perspective of policy makers and experts in this field.

This research is an applied and qualitative research that was conducted using the grounded theory method. Furthermore, in order to reach a consensus in results, the focus group method was used. The research population consisted of experts and specialists in the field of public policy, cultural policy, as well as experts and specialists in the field of public libraries. The research sample included 27 members of the research population, who were selected using theoretical sampling method. In the final stage, six people were selected from 27 experts to form a focus group. The data required for this study were obtained from semi-structured interviews with members of the research sample, which were coded and analyzed using MAXQDA (a qualitative data analysis software) and Excel. In order to insure accuracy and reliability of this study, the criteria of validity, reliability, verifiability and transferability were used.

The research findings indicated that ‘lack of a common meaning of public libraries in the country (between experts, policymakers and the public)’, ‘the imbalance between decision-making and national policy-making and local policy-making’, and ‘the capability of weak managers in the field of public libraries (policy-making, decision-making and execution)’ are the national policy issues of Iran’s public libraries. Moreover, by examining the relationships between categories and considering the central categories, the issue of ‘conflict between national policy and local policy of public libraries’ was identified as the main issue of national policy of public libraries in Iran, on which the members of the focus group reached a consensus.

The positive point of this research is in that it made use of the views of both public policy makers and public libraries’ experts to identify key issues. It is one of the first studies to examine public library issues in the national policy of public libraries in Iran by using a qualitative method. Furthermore, it is original in subject and research method.