Co-operative Cataloguing in the Internet Environment: the Case of Agricultural Libraries in Iran

This study has been conducted to evaluate the existing conditions of the organization of the agricultural data co-operative and the use of its catalogue by librarians of educational institutions and centers under the authority of the Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization in an internet environment.Design/methodology/approach:The study has been conducted using a descriptive survey. The data was collected by means of questionnaires and the results presented using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) in the form of tables and diagrams. The statistical universe of the study includes the 55 libraries which have been using the Simorgh web software for an average of four years each. The agricultural data cooperative is organized by cataloguing/classification (100%) and indexing (21.6%). For the sake of harmony in this electronic index, 100% of agencies use LC classification, observing international standards as well as 83.8% bibliography, and in 83.8% machine indexing, 35.1% mixed language has been used. Organizing a data cooperative resulted in saving more time for an amount of 43.2% cost and speed rate for a shared amount of 51.1%, and harmony in using software of the libraries under research for 100%.Full-time access of the catalogue is to a large extent possible. Ease and speed as well as the accuracy of the catalogue have been evaluated as “very high” and from “high to very high” respectively. As a result, the majority of the librarians have been able to present their information in the catalogue because of the advantages of using cooperative arrangements.