محمدجواد هاشم زاده

Nowadays, improving the productivity of libraries is very important for their survival, development and progress. It is of particular value to pay attention to the impact of the organizational citizenship behavior of librarians, which is related to their undefined frank duties and improves the performance of libraries. And it has a special value. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the situation of organizational citizenship behavior of librarians of Astan Quds Razavi in Holy Mashhad and the factors affecting it.

This research is a combination of sequential explanatory types. The statistical sample of this research is 127 librarians of Astan Quds Razavi libraries in Mashhad, who were selected by multi-stage sampling method from the 200-person population. Quantitative data collection was performed using the Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire. Data were analyzed in both quantitative and qualitative ways. The sample size of the statistical population in the qualitative section was 10 percent of librarians who had obtained a higher average score. In the Quantitative stage, it was set purposefully. A semi-structured interview method was used to collect qualitative data, this data was also analyzed by open, central and selective coding.

Findings in the quantitative part showed that organizational citizenship behavior among librarians of Astan Quds Razavi libraries in Mashhad was above average. Organizational information and organizational loyalty and individual initiatives significantly predicted organizational citizenship behavior. Organizational Participation - Helping behaviors and magnanimity did not play an effective role in predicting organizational citizenship behavior. Also, the findings of the interview in the qualitative section showed that organizational justice-organizational loyalty and organizational support, personality traits, commitment and job satisfaction have been the factors involved in the occurrence of organizational citizenship behavior. If the organization appreciates and values the librarians and their opinions, it will lead to the desirable organizational citizenship behavior of the librarians, which can be classified as organizational support. In other words, it causes the librarians to show a kind of cooperative behavior and share their opinions and suggestions in the organization's programs. Also, perceived organizational support from the librarians' side leads to desirable citizenship behavior in order to fulfill the library's goals. And the increase in organizational support leads to an increase in employee citizenship behavior.

So far, no research has been found to quantitatively and qualitatively examine the organizational citizenship behavior of librarians. The findings showed that the factors affecting and involved in the occurrence of organizational citizenship behavior can be exploited in various ways and of course can be specified.

Knowledge and information science specialists can succeed in creating and providing entrepreneurial services by using knowledge of the society, the needs of the audience and having an entrepreneurial attitude. In the field of knowledge and information science, entrepreneurship is a type of social or value entrepreneurship service. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of entrepreneurship education in changing the entrepreneurial attitude of public library librarians in Birjand city.

The present study is a type of applied research. In terms of data collection, it is a quasi- experimental study with a control group, a pre-test and a follow-up test to determine the duration over times. The statistical population of the study included 30 librarians of public libraries affiliated to the library of the city of Birjand; Data collection was done by Entrepreneurship Attitude questionnaire (Robinson et al., 1991) and SPSS software was used to analyze the information collected through the questionnaire.

The results of the tests showed that entrepreneurial training has led to a shift in the attitudes of librarians in the test group, and entrepreneurial training has led to a shift in the orientation of self-esteem, Succession, innovation and personal entrepreneurial control of the group librarians and the post-test scores of the two control and experimental groups were reported differently (F = 5/568, P > 0/05). The average of librarians’ desire for success in the post-test stage (M = 4/528) has changed compared to the pre-test stages (M = 4/313). Also, the test of the repeated measurement design, which included librarians in the experimental group in the follow-up stage, showed that that the change in the orientation of personal entrepreneurial control of librarians has become significant, which has caused stability and stability in them. Self-esteem components such as confidence in one’s ability, confidence in work results, ability to solve personal problems, ambition and self-belief can be influenced to a large extent by changing librarians’ views due to the increase in the level of advertisements and their knowledge about entrepreneurship.

Originality/value: 

The current research considers entrepreneurship in public libraries as a great opportunity for managers and librarians. Considering that entrepreneurship can be acquired in libraries, librarians can use the benefits of entrepreneurial training to raise their level of work and provide entrepreneurial services to users. According to the goals and social roles of public libraries, entrepreneurship training in the society of librarians and users should be considered and implemented as one of the special requirements based on the goals and functions of these types of libraries because entrepreneurship training causes a change in the direction of personal entrepreneurial control of people and increase the amount of their personal control.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the Expression of the True Self in the use of Instagram and selfies.

This correlational study used 4 questionnaires "Communication Apprehension", "Authenticity Inventory Scales", "Instagram Use" and "Taking a Selfie" (online) in a random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Birjand (357 participants).

Communication Apprehension and selfie use were higher in women than men, but the age of the participants had no role in the variables. Instagram Use was above average and sending selfies and edited selfies was below average. With the increase of most of the studied psychological variables, the use of Instagram, selfies, and edited selfies increased. However, with the increase in communication Apprehension, the Expression of the True Self on Instagram decreased.

In our study population, most people have a greater tendency to introvert and do not want to show themselves. Using Instagram may help reduce communication fears. People with high communication phobia experience more fear or anxiety in their relationships than others, so these people are more likely to avoid experiencing fear or anxiety in their relationships with others. Expression of the True Self in selfies is directly related to one's characteristics, but the expression of the True Self on Instagram is not necessarily related to one's characteristics.

Nowadays regarded to the importance of knowledge and its related activities in advancement of countries and organizations, scientific cooperation among the society elites and other groups can lead to unity and solidarity among them. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the role of knowledge sharing intention to unity among the faculty members of universities of Birjand and teachers of seminary schools.

The present research, through an applied method, surveyed the problem among university faculty members and teacher of seminary schools. Data were gathered by two validated and reliable questionnaires. The statistical population consisted of university faculty members and teachers of seminary schools. Among them, 198 individuals were selected as the sample of study through stratified random sampling method.

There was a significant difference among the two groups in control beliefs, total score of knowledge sharing, capability to tolerate the outsiders, and communication actions. Also, there was a significant relationship among the control beliefs to knowledge sharing with seminary (by university) and intention to unity. The results showed that attitude and norm beliefs to knowledge sharing with university (by seminary) significantly correlated with organization norms; control beliefs to knowledge sharing with university (by seminary) have significant relationship with sense of brotherhood; knowledge sharing behaviour with university (by seminary) significantly correlated with communication action, and organization norms have significant relationship with intention to unity. According to the results, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of knowledge sharing with outsider group and desire level. Total score of knowledge sharing with seminary (by university) had significant correlation with intention to unity and it components but total score of knowledge sharing with university (by seminary) just only was significantly correlated to organization norms and intention to unity. Also, the results revealed that attitude, control belief and intention to knowledge sharing with seminary (by university) were predictors of intention to unity and also, the knowledge sharing behavior with university (by seminary) was significant predictor of intention to unity. Knowledge sharing with academics by seminarians was not the only factor related to their desire to unite with academics, but factors such as technological factors, non-common specialized fields, organizational factors, etc. were effective in their desire to unite.

In general, knowledge sharing and scientific cooperation have important role in intention to unity among the two groups. Since belief control is affected by facilitating conditions and facilitating technology, creating specialized knowledge management software networks for both groups in the web environment will have a beneficial effect on knowledge sharing and unity between these two groups. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken in this regard.

The user interface is the first point of contact with a website. If the content of the website, especially its textual and graphic symbols, does not match with the ability of users to comprehend it, they will probably leave the website. This research has measured comprehensibility of the textual and graphic symbols used in the user interface of a portal designed for children and young adults.

The statistical population included 600 children and adolescents active members in three centers belong to the Institute for Intellectual Development for Children and Adolescents (IDCA) in Birjand (Iran). A randomly selected sample of 115 through a non-relative stratified method answered the researcher-made questionnaire, prepared after examining theoretical and research literature as well as examining user interface environments of children's portals. In the present study, the standard vocabulary of IDCA thesaurus was used to prepare a text-by-text questionnaire. The portal examined was “koodak24”.

The ability of children and adolescents to identify the textual and graphic symbols of the child portal was more than optimal. But their ability to combine symbols was variable (the significance level in the above test is equal to the value of 0.000 and smaller than the value of 0.05). Also, there was a difference in identifying textual and graphic symbols between different age groups (P<0.05). There is a significant difference between the two age groups (10 to 12) and (14 to 16) years, and the average ability to identify graphical symbols of the user interface in the age group of 10 to 12 years is 71.82 and this average in the age group of 14 to 16 years is 76. there was no difference between the ability of girls and boys to identify textual and graphic symbols.

The words used in the portal for children and adolescent are simple, understandable and standard. If the mental and cognitive abilities of children and teenagers as well as their needs are taken into account in designing the user interface, it will be easy and attractive for children and adolescent to identify the graphical and textual symbols of the user interface and use different parts of websites.

Today, social networks and smart phones have become very popular. One of the interesting topics in the field of information science and cognition is the study of userschr('39') information behavior in mobile-based social networks. In this area, this study examines the role of psychological variables: communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use from the perspective of undergraduate students of Birjand University.

This correlational study used 4 questionnaires "Communication Apprehension" (McCroskey, 1982), "Fear of Negative Evaluation" (Leary, 1983), " Instagram Use " (Lazebna, 2015) and "Taking a selfie" (Lazebna, 2015) (online) in a random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Birjand (357 participants).

Communication Apprehension and selfie use were significantly higher in women than in men. However,  there was no significant differences shown for  the other variables.  Instagram usage was above average and sending  and edited selfies were below average. The increase of most of the psychological variables investigated also showed the increase of use of Instagram, selfies and edited selfies. Also, with the increase of communication apprehension, the fear of  negative evaluation increased.

Review of the literature revealed that  there wasn’t any interest in the field of  knowledge and information science for the topic at the national level. Although, there were limited studies presented in the international arena.

The purpose of this study is to rank public libraries in Khorasan Razavi province based on Multi Attribute Decision Making Method.

The study was a descriptive survey. The sample consists of a total of 98 urban public libraries under the Iraninan foundation of public libraries in Khorasan Razavi, and 100 employees and librarians working in public libraries were chosen randomly. For collection data a checklist and a researcher made questionnaire were used. The questionnaire validity was verified by professionals and experts in the field of public libraries and the reliability of questionnaire was verified and confirmed through Cronbach alpha test and test-retest method.

The findings showed that the indicators in ranking public libraries through which the state of access to the libraries and collections, facility and speed of the process of membership were identified as important factors. And also overall indexes of human resources, access, services, acceptance, technology, space, equipment and resources were identified important indicators, respectively. The findings also showed that libraries of Shahid Bahonar Kakhk, Shahid Sayyad Shirazi Dargaz and Hasheminejad Bidokht were as high ranked libraries respectively. Meanwhile shohaday Mashhad, Beyt al Hoda Sabzevar and Nawab Safavi Mashhad libraries were at the bottom of the rankings list. The study showed that the rank of the majority of libraries (73 libraries) were lower than the foundation of public libraries ranking list. The results showed that there is no significant relationship between the scores of indicators used in this study. No consistency was found between the indicators of Iranian Foundation of pulic libraries and the proposed indictors used in this study.

It is not possible to achieve optimal scores in all evaluation indicators for a public library, and getting high scores in one evaluation indicator or more does not make it possible to identify a functioning library, so evaluating and rating public libraries should be based on multiple evaluation indicators and multi-indicator decision-making techniques that could be relevant in determining the ranking and effectiveness of a library. According to the results of the research, it is suggested that in the ranking of libraries, more attention should be paid to the quality indicators in the evaluation of libraries. It is also suggested that the decision makers of the Iranian Foundation of public libraries get the opinions of experts in public libraries, professors of information science and specialized librarians the field for collecting important indicators to evaluate public libraries. In order to make more objectivity and realizing the rating of public libraries, this study tried to rank them according to management techniques such as TOPSIS

Information behavior is the function of individuals after feeling the need for information. In the framework of social cognition, a person performs a certain information behavior. Understanding the variables of social cognition and their role will lead to the promotion of information behavior of individuals and society and the achievement of an information society. This study aimed to investigate the role of social goals (SG) as a social cognitive variable in the information behavior (IB).

This descriptive survey used a researcher-made questionnaire on a sample of post graduate students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (384 participants). For questionnaire’s validity, the experts’ opinions and factor analysis were used and Cronbach’s alpha was applied for its reliability (amounted to 0.74)

The rate of user’s SG in the IB was more than average. The field of study had no role in the SG associated with the IB of users, but educational level and gender had a role in this regard. Among the components of social goals, social concern had the lowest score and was less than average.

The results showed that the average of social goals in information behavior was higher than average. Also, the subjects' field of study was not effective in the degree of social goals in their information behavior, and there was no significant difference between the scores of the four subjects (humanities, basic sciences, engineering and agricultural sciences).

The aim of this study was handling of digitized old Persian periodicals based on METS according to experts’ opinion. The st udy was practical in terms of purpose and descriptive method used for analyzing the data. Data collection was conducted through a survey. The population of study consisted of 26 experts in the field of digital preservation. For validity of tool  expert's opinions in the field of digital preservation is used and to evaluate the reliability two methods of bisection and Cronbach's alpha test are used. The results showed METS is suitable  standard for handling of digitization of old Persian periodicals and its attributes applicable for preservsetion, transformation and management of these valuable resourses.The results of this research would help to handle digitized old Persian periodicals content and leading to the creation of a national profile for digitized old Persian periodicals in Iran.

This study aims to find information needs of users of the public libraries in Iran’s South Khorasan province based on Hill’s user study model.
survey method was used to perform the research. The population included all accredited members of the public libraries in Iran’s South Khorasan Province until the end of 2012 August 2 with an estimated number of 23594 members. Reliability of questionnaire was measured by Chronbach’s alpha and validity of it was approved by related faculty members of universities. The data were analyzed using independent two sample t-test and One-way ANOVA test.
Findings: Most users of the public libraries in Iran’s South Khorasan Province had high school diploma, B.A. and BSC degrees and one third of the total sample population received their ICDL certifications. The users claimed that their information literacy skills are above the mean level. Their most important needs were supplementary reading materials for education, literature, and religion. Most important motivations for using libraries were doing homework, classroom projects, and increasing their public information level respectively. Outdated resources, scarcity of information materials and the lack of internet access were the most significant obstacles to meet user's information needs. The libraries sources and services moderately satisfied the user's needs. Users’ information needs significantly vary in Gender and education level factors.
Originality/Value: This research shows the key points of emphasis in the resource provision. Public libraries should concentrate on the supplementary reading books for education, and services that help students in doing their assignments. Schools and public libraries should run mutual coordinated programs to help students.

The aim of this study is to assess the readiness of faculty members of Birjand University to adopt the process of knowledge management based on the integrated process adoption pattern.The study is a survey method and the data gathering tool was a questionnaire made by the researcher. Validity of the questionnaire was gained using the views of experts and professors and for reliability, Cronbach's alpha test (0/925) was used. The population investigated included all faculty members of Birjand University. According to non- proportional stratified sampling method, the number of selected people for sampling was 160. The overall readiness of Birjand University faculty members has been assessed as more than moderate (61%) and suboptimal (80%) based on the integrated process adoption pattern. Results showed that the readiness of faculty members of University of Birjand to adopt knowledge management process based on the components of the model was significantly different and lower than the desired level. The level of readiness was significantly different among faculty members in various subjects. Overall, there is a meaningful positive correlation between all factors of readiness and willingness of faculty members of Birjand University except for the structure factor in the former variable, considering separately.

The research aims to investigate the role of the public libraries of Kerman region on promoting three layers of user's reading culture.
The research was done through a survey method. The data were collected by a questionnaire tailored for this study. The population included all more than15 years old accredited users of grade 4 and above public libraries of Kerman region and the sample was determined 373. One sample T test, repeated measures, independent-sample T test and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings: The results showed that the role of the public libraries of Kerman on promoting the two layers of beliefs and effects was more than average and on promoting the layer of rules was around the average limits. Overally, these libraries could not meet the desired limit of %80 on promoting the reader's reading culture. No significant difference was observed between the mean scores of the two layers of beliefs and effects on the role of above said libraries. But the role of the libraries was different comparing the layer of rules with other two layers. According to the sex, various age groups and varied degrees of education variables no significant difference was observed.
Originality/Value: Very rare research sources were found on the role of public libraries on promoting the reading culture of library clienteles in literature survey. This study straightly focuses on three reading culture layers namely values beliefs and rules and the role of public libraries on them.

The research aims to investigate the role of the public libraries of Kerman region on promoting three layers of users'' reading culture. The research was done through a survey method. The data were collected by a questionnaire tailored for this study. The population included all more than15 years old accredited users of grade 4 and above public libraries of Kerman region and the sample was determined 373. One sample T test، repeated measures، independent-sample T test and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the role of the public libraries of Kerman on promoting the two layers of beliefs and effects was more than average and on promoting the layer of rules was around the average limits. Overally، these libraries could not meet the desired limit of %80 on promoting the readers'' reading culture. No significant difference was observed between the mean scores of the two layers of beliefs and effects on the role of above said libraries. But the role of the libraries was different comparing the layer of rules with other two layers. According to the sex، various age groups and varied degrees of education variables no significant difference was observed. Originality/Value: Very rare research sources were found on the role of public libraries on promoting the reading culture of library clienteles in literature survey. This study straightly focuses on three reading culture layers namely values beliefs and rules and the role of public libraries on them.

Personal Information Management (PIM) process consists of four activities; acquisition, organization, maintenance and retrieval. Obviously this process is due to human limitations and expanding scope of personal space of information which has become an exhausting and difficult process. Use of technology and tools related to PIM could facilitate this procedure.
This survey study aims to investigate PIM behavior and its four activities among graduate students in the University of Birjand and was performed on the basis of digital environment.
Population of this study was all graduate students at the University of Birjand in the 2013-2014 academic year. Self assessment questionnaire was used to collect information.
Results and The results show that the overall PIM and all four activities among graduate students at the University of Birjand were less than estimated desired rate and there were significant differences between PIM in various course studies, also among master's and doctoral students. Computer and laptop was most used tools for storage of personal collection, the most widely used method for organizing based on content and finally the most common method for retrieval of information was based on the explanatory notes.
Originality: personal information management filed is a relatively new area of research and yet little research was performed in PIM area in Iran. Meanwhile the studies perform, have less focused on the behavioral aspects of PIM and have been more observing PIM tools and affecting factors

the present paper aims to study the quality level of Razavi and South Khorasan public libraries office web portal using the survey and evaluative method. the present paper is of applied type, having been conducted first by the survey method using the Equal questionnaire. In second method the web portal quality was studied using the evaluative method, by means of the researcher-made checklist. The population included the librarians working at the public libraries of South and Razavi Khorasan provinces. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using the, and Wilcoxon and the Paired t-tests. Microsoft Excel was also used to describe the checklist data. studying the Equal aspects, i.e. information quality, transaction and safety quality, usability, and service interaction quality, the results show that there is a significant difference between the present quality and the expected one in the two web portals from the Internet user’s points of view suggesting that the desired quality level is yet to be achieved. The study of the checklist quality aspects, i.e. writing, attraction, and flexibility, also, shows that the writing and attraction aspects are at a good level, with flexibility being at a medium level. Originality/value: the findings of the research can familiarize the managers and the designers of the web portals with user’s needs and views, and weaknesses and strengths of the web portals, making them take actions regarding correcting weaknesses and reinforcing strengths in order to increase service quality and user satisfaction.

the aim of this research was to recognize and extract a systematic listof Stop Words in order to utilize it in the automatic indexing of Persian texts in the field of Library and Information Science We used content analysis. The research population was 56 articles from which 20 articles were selected on the basis of simple random sampling. Among 15557 words existing in the corpus, according to Zou model in the pre-adjustment list, 1368 words and in the post-adjustment list, 468 words were recognized as stop words. Also according to Zipf law, in the pre-adjustment list, 217 words and in the post-adjustment list, 607 stop words were recognized. The total number of words in the abstract of articles was 1989. In the Zou model, according to pre-adjustment style148 words and according to post-adjustment style173 words were extracted as stop words. Also on the basis of the Zipf law, in pre-adjustment style, 60 words and in post-adjustment style, 186 words were recognized. In the both applied method there was a direct relation between the frequency of words and probability of being stop words. The highest percentage of stop words (39/44 percent) was attained in the texts of the articles through the application of Zou Statistical Model. The results of this research can lead to increase efficiency of information store and retrieval, decreasing of input and saving in time and expense.

Object: The aim of this research is to study organizational effectiveness factors in academic libraries of Iran from viewpoints of managers and personal and is held based on Parsons’ model. The research type was an applied one and the method is survey. The study population consisted of central and faculty libraries belonging to universities of Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research & Technology. Cluster sampling method was utilized. A standard questionnaire was used as the data collecting tools. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by some specialists and its reliability was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha test. The obtained results showed that from managers’ viewpoints, while the difference was observed on three criteria, only on the area of "Goal attainment" no difference between the average score of respondents and optimal point was observed. From personnel’ viewpoints, there is difference between the average scores of all effectiveness factors and optimal point. "Goal attainment" criteria were first priority from manager’s viewpoints and "Legitimacy" criteria was first priority from personnel’s viewpoints. In addition, in all parsons’s effectiveness factors (adaptation, goal attainment, integration and legitimacy), the managers had a higher average score than personnel. Moreover, results showed that a significant difference found between viewpoints of managers and personnel in academic libraries of Iran based on parsons’ model. No significant difference was observed between the viewpoints of managers based on sexuality. Finally, managers and personal evaluated the effectiveness of the libraries respectively high and medium.

The Survey, based on content analysis method, was done to analyze the application of information architecture of open access full text journals covered by SID1.The number of journals covered was 88 and data were gathered through a checklist. This Survey was done in two categories: architecture of organization of information and document architecture. Results showed that in most journals, Website content to Topical method and structure of Website to network method was organized and in navigation system, use of textual bars were more than interactive ones. The use of supplemental navigation elements, specially in indexes was not in a good state. Search Formulation was mostly flat and basic and labeling of the contents of the websites were approximately acceptable. Elements related to the hypertext environment were rarely applicable in the article level. The status of the use of abstracts, keywords and figures was fairly acceptable. At the Table of contents level, page of 77 journals (87.5 %) and at article level, page of 49 journals (55.7 %) consistency in layout was applied. Failure to use the Dublin Core metadata and weaknesses in the information content of meta-metadata elements shows little attention by journals to the capabilities of these elements. At the start page level, websites of all journals and at the table of content page level of 82 journals, the HTML was used as storage format. Results indicate that the states of the application of information organization architecture elements were acceptable in contrast to the elements of document structure which were not hopeful.

This research is devoted to study the icons in graphical userinterface of Simorgh library software and analyze the users’ understanding ofand interaction with this software in Birjand University. The methodology of this research is of survey type and it isan applied study. To measure the responders’ understanding of icons indifferent pages of search section in Simorgh software, 32 icons from four pagesof search section which were available to the population under study werechosen and put into a questionnaire. Both descriptive and deductive statisticsmethods were utilized for data analysis. According to five-level Likert scale, the user’s perspectiveregarding the three elements of significance level, observing the criteria to beuser-friendly, and quality of icons in graphical user interface of Simorghsoftware were evaluated to be higher than average, higher than average, andmedium, respectively. Besides, users’ general understanding of these icons was38.5% which has a significant difference compared to the desired level ofunderstanding (60%). No significant difference was observed amongunderstanding of the icons by users of different educational level; however,users’ understanding of icons in different pages in search section of thissoftware was not identical. Furthermore, educational field and experience ofusers in using the graphical interface of Simorgh software influenced the levelof understanding of these icons.Originality/Value: Through designing a questionnaire for evaluating thelevel of understanding of icons in Simorgh library software based uponmentioned elements as well as making use of existing literature and experts’opinion, the present study has provided the opportunity for those involved inlibrary software development to alleviate the weaknesses and reinforce thestrengths; also, they can better get acquainted with existing criteria in this fieldand their importance to make use of them in their future products.

The present research, employing survey method, studied the extent to which 4 factors of “graduate student's background”, “libraries of the university”, “faculty staff”, and “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities of the university” impact the information literacy of graduate students in Birjand University as well as Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The results showed a significant difference between the levels of influence for each factor. By means of a Likert-type scale, 2 factors of “graduate student's background” and “ICT facilities of the university” were evaluated to be as influential on student's information literacy at a medium to high level; the factor “faculty staff” proved to be influential at a medium level, and the factor “libraries of the university” at a low to medium level. Statistical test of the hypotheses revealed that only for the impact of the “faculty staff” on the information literacy of students, there was a significant difference between the subject areas; none of the other factors proved to be significantly different in these regards. Also, in regards with student's background features and its impact on information literacy, there was a significant difference between graduate and doctoral candidates. In terms of “students’ background features”, comparison of the Mean ranks showed no significant difference between Ferdowsi and Birjand universities, however, the differences in terms of other 3 factors were statistically significant.

Advancement of communication and information technologies and their impact on the different aspects of life especially in higher education has made acquiring information literacy (IL) skills necessary in a knowledge-based society. In this paper the history and concept of IL is discussed along with an analysis of the required features and capabilities for information literates as effective factors on the development of IL. Then the paper takes an analytical approach to the role and functionality of members of faculty, librarians, university libraries, and information and communication technologies on the promotion of students’ IL based on different literature, with the emphasis on information literacy standards for higher education. These factors have axiomatic influence on the promotion of students’ IL