A Survey on the services of the theses section of the libraries att5ached to Ministry of Health, and Medical Education in Tehran

The present study performed in a descriptive method investigates the status of providing services in dissertations and thesis section of libraries affiliated to Ministry of Health and Medical Education in Tehran; The population of the research consisted of 36 libraries including: 11 libraries affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences، 10 libraries affiliated Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences، 10 libraries affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences and 5 libraries affiliated to Islamic Azad University، Medical Sciences branch. The aim of this study is to find the answer to 7 major questions regarding the study of the status of services provided in dissertations and theses section of the above-mentioned libraries، including the space and allocated location (to keep the dissertations)، organization (indexing،…)، professional staff، computer and software facilities for the retrieval of information، current facilities to make dissertations and theses accessible (databases and published indexes). The instrument for data collection in this research is questionnaire (consisted of 24 open-ended and multiple-choice questions) completed by the heads or the staff of dissertations and theses sections. In order to analyze the data، statistical software، SPSS، has been used. The study results show that regarding the space and the location، 50 percent of the mentioned libraries have allocated a separate section for the dissertation and theses and the other 50، percent lacked such a separate place. 9 libraries (32، 2 percent) kept other faculty''s dissertations and theses، but not 67، 8 percent. Among174 staff working in the studied libraries’ dissertations and theses section، 100 persons (57/4 percent) are non-librarian، a major shortcoming for this section، which leads to organizing the dissertations and theses inappropriately and not being able to provide proper services to the clients of this section. Also، considering the manner of organizing and indexing، 82 percent of the studied libraries have performed these processes and 17/8 percent has not done that yet. About the computer facilities، this study indicates that in most of Tehran، Shahid Beheshti and Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences faculties، computer facilities are available and only most of Iran University of Medical Sciences faculties lack these ones. 22 libraries (78/5 percent) have any software facilities in their dissertations and theses section and 21/4 percent of these sections lack any software facilities. So، based on these findings it can be claimed that most of the studied faculty libraries are relatively in an acceptable status. 75 percent of these libraries conveyed that their dissertations and theses available to all Students form state، Azad، Payam-e-Noor and… Universities. In 17. 8 percent of them، the dissertations and theses are only available to the students and faculty members of their affiliated universities. And 7/14 libraries have mentioned they only give dissertation services to the students of state universities.