Determining cost-effectiveness of electronic resources in special libraries in Metro Tehran

The present investigation deals with analysis of cost-effectiveness of electronic resources of special libraries in Metropolitan Tehran. It seeks to identify the type, cost and efficacy of electronic resources in the said libraries. An evaluation survey was conducted using a questionnaire. 63 special libraries in Tehran were surveyed. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS. The libraries hold nine kind of electronic resources, with Internet at 21.4% has the largest share and Multimedia with 7.2% has the least share. 84.1% of these libraries acquire electronic resources within their annual budget allocations. Regarding cost overheads, 36.5% consider it to be minimal for electronic resources, while 25.6% consider cost overheads for storage and transmission of the said resources to be minimal. 33.3% consider cost-overheads per each user to be minimal. 65.1% of the libraries consider user satisfaction of information needs by electronic resources to be high while 55.6% consider patron access to up-to-date information to be high. 49.2% of studied libraries considered access to accurate information to be high. Based on results, effectiveness of electronic resources was to be high.