A Survey on the Status of Manuscripts Departments of Iran's Libraries Based on Principles of Knowledge Management

The main purpose of this study is to survey how knowledge management principles in fields such as collecting, organization, human resources, distribution, and conservation have been observed in manuscript departments of Iran’s libraries. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research population is comprised of all present 44 manuscript departments in Iran’s libraries. The required data was gathered from all officials, experts, and staff of manuscript departments via questionnaire. Finally, the data was analyzed through SPSS software. The findings show that the average of indices in collecting manuscripts is 37/92 from 45, in organizing manuscripts is 28/90 from 33, in distributing data of manuscripts is 36/11 from 57, in human resources is 46/74 from 60, and in conservation of manuscripts is 37/22 from 42. This statistics represents that the average of obtained indices are lower than the expected standards of knowledge management. The studied indices of knowledge management are applied to an average level by manuscript departments of some libraries but several others observe them to a very limited extent. This study represents some solutions to achieve the optimal conditions.