نشریه تحقیقات اطلاع رسانی و کتابخانه های عمومی
پیاپی 111 (زمستان 1401)

Considering the proliferation of technologies in all aspects of the library, its development in the field of organization and cataloging should not be neglected. Social catalogs and their software are integrated into all user-oriented and advanced libraries in the world. Social cataloging software enables users to contribute to the promotion of library service quality through their comments. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the rate and the factors affecting the acceptance of social cataloging software by librarians of public libraries in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province based on Rogersʼs theory of diffusion of innovation.

This research is a descriptive applied survey. The statistical population of the study includes all librarians working in public libraries of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province under the auspices of the Public Libraries Foundation, whose number was 130 people. The required number of samples for this study was 97 and these people were randomly selected. The method of data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire based on a questionnaire presented by Afshin Hamdipour in 2013. The questionnaireʼs validity was confirmed by 4 professors in the fields of knowledge and information science and education (educational technology orientation). The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed via Cronbachʼs Alpha, which was 0.824. The collected data were analyzed using Excel, SPSS23, and Amos23.

The results of the Social List Innovation Acceptance Rate showed that the majority of librarians were among the early majority. Women, people in the age group of 31-40 years, those having PhD or masterʼs degree, and individuals with 6-10, and 11-15-years working experience were the most members of this group. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that among all the perceptual features, including "relative advantage", "trialability", "compatibility", "complexity", and "objectivity", only "complexity" and "trialability" had a positive and significant relationship with the rate of acceptance of social cataloging software, but other features had no significant relationship. The relationship with different types of innovation decisions showed that the only relationship between optional innovation decisions and the rate of acceptance is negative and significant. The studying of the effect of demographic characteristics on acceptance rate indicated that there is no significant difference between librarians based on the two variables of "gender" and "work experience", but there is a significant difference in terms of age, education, skills in the rules of cataloging, English language, and up-to-date technologies and applications. Therefore, managers and authorities of public libraries can increase the rate of acceptance among librarians by holding workshops in the field of cataloging, the English language, and up-to-date technologies.

Originality/value: 

Social catalogs are being used in many libraries worldwide. Assessing the librariansʼ acceptance of this technology may facilitate the acceptance process in the future. Furthermore, the results of this research are helpful for library software developers and the authorities of public libraries in Iran.

The aim of this study is to achieve a conceptual model for the transformation of Iranian public libraries into social centers, based on the theory of the public sphere of Jürgen Habermas.

The current research is applied in terms of purpose, survey in terms of the data collection method, and is a mixed-method study of exploratory type in terms of the nature of the data, which was conducted with a systematic approach to grounded theory. In the qualitative section, first, by conducting 33 interviews and 2 focus groups, effective factors were identified and extracted. The validity of these factors was proved through the content validity ratio (CVR) and their reliability was also proved by the Fleissʼ kappa coefficient test. In the quantitative part, the reliability of the tool was confirmed using a 117-item questionnaire with an average of 0.86. Finally, the factors were ranked using the Shannon entropy method.

The seven factors of human resources, construction and equipment, social, political, structural, cultural and economic have an effect on the transformation of public libraries into social centers, among which the cultural factor has the greatest effect and economic factor has the smallest effect. All factors had a content validity greater than 0/33 and a kappa coefficient greater than 0/7, and thus had the necessary validity and reliability. The conceptual model of the research was also drawn in six sections.

Originality/value:

 The public sphere theory is one of the famous theories of sociology. Although the standards in this theory are related to public libraries, it has received less attention in Iran. Public libraries can connect the government and with the nation through the components of the public sphere, and while informing people about government and governance decisions, those decisions can be challenged and decisions can be made in the public profitability. In this case, library is one of the factors responsible for the growth and prosperity of society. It also becomes a factor promoting general welfare in the society and establishing peace and tranquility.

The language of science is one of the social types of Persian language, which is used by the educated classes in scientific works and contexts. The purpose of this research is to present an overall picture of the syntactic properties of the Persian scientific language. Thus the types of sentences, types of tenses, verb tenses, and syntactic constructions have been identified in the scientific texts, their statistics have been presented, and their content has been analyzed.

The research questions were addressed through documentary research method, which is one of the methods categorized into the qualitative approach. To identify the syntactic properties of the language of science, 90 articles in scientific-research publications in two research domains (humanities and basic sciences) and three academic fields (linguistics, geology, and chemistry) were purposefully sampled. These articles are entered into the "QDA Miner Lite" in the form of text, read, and coded.

Around 1390 codes were extracted and analyzed from these works. The findings of the research showed that one of the common syntactic properties of the Persian scientific language was the use of the indicative mood and the simple present, simple past tense, and present perfect. In addition, Persian-speaking researchers (authors) prefer to use simple sentences, and write their works in a passive voice. The indicative mood with 377 codes and the simple present tense with 325 codes were the most frequent themes in the coding process. Therefore, it seems Persian-speaking authors of scientific works have tried to use writing structure which is polite. For example, they prefer to write their works in a passive voice in order to say their thoughts and opinions politely. In addition, probably, Persian-speaking authors are following the writing traditions from past centuries, which is not compatible with recent science communication’s basics.

Originality/value:

 This study is the first attempt to identify the characteristics of the language of science in the Persian language through the empirical data. The findings of this research can be useful for teachers and educational institutions in teaching the language of science. In addition, institutions such as the Academy of Persian Language and Literature can take advantage of these findings in their policies. The findings of this research are also useful in computational linguistics.

Considering that health information has a fundamental role in increasing the level of health of people in todayʼs societies, it provides a suitable platform for the growth and development of health systems in different countries. This study aimed to investigate the health information needs and how to access health information among those referred to public libraries in Tehran.

The research is an applied study in terms of purpose that were conducted with a qualitative approach. In the qualitative phase, by using the method of content analysis of semi-structured interviews of three groups of health information specialists, librarians working in public libraries and researchers in the field of health information, the components of the service model based on health information in public libraries were obtained.

The proposed model for providing services based on health information in public libraries has five categories, which are: “Identifying user needsˮ, “Planningˮ, “Evaluationˮ, “Barriersˮ, “Promoting factorsˮ. The results of the qualitative part showed that the librariansʼ expectations from the countryʼs public libraries in the field of services based on providing health information are the following: the cooperation of the public libraries with organizations in the health fields, needs assessment and planning approach in the field of health information, use of extensive information methods, evaluation, organization of health information resources, infrastructural barriers, barriers related to librarians, and barriers related to library resources. The proposed model of health information-based services in the public libraries has five categories, namely: “Identifying the userʼs needsˮ, “Planningˮ, “Evaluationˮ, “Barriersˮ, and “Leading factorsˮ.

Originality/value: 

This article draws the attention of public library service managers to the issue of identifying health information-based services based on the proposed model and providing them with various facilities for using public libraries leading to the precise and optimal use of health information-based services in the society, which may cause the advancement of libraries in delivering reliable health information services to clients.

The purpose of the research is to investigate the interaction blind and partially sighted users with the public libraries of the country and their goals and motivations for visiting libraries and to determine their level of satisfaction with these services.

The current research is conducted with a survey method and a descriptive approach. The statistical population includes 365 active members who were selected by random sampling. A total of 233 questionnaires were completed by the participants with telephone and face-to-face follow-ups. The data collection tool was a questionnaire.  Statistical techniques and SPSS22 software were used to analyze the research data.

According to the research findings, most of the sections for the blind (29 sections) are in the central library or urban libraries in the center of the province and the rest of the cities do not have this section. In terms of gender, 54.1% of the users in the blind sector are women, and in terms of qualifications, most users (44.6%) have a bachelor's degree. 51.5% of users are completely blind and 48.5% are blind. In general, users' satisfaction with the current situation is above average (3.95 out of 5 on the Likert scale) and the highest level of satisfaction with the attitude, guidance, knowledge and expertise of library librarians and the level of satisfaction with the quality, quantity and up-to-dateness of library resources in It was moderate. Also, the lowest level of users' satisfaction was with the signs and guidelines for their guidance and the design and architecture of the blind section.

It seems that due to the significant deficiencies and shortcomings that can be seen in the research findings, it is necessary for the Iran's public libraries to improve services at different levels so that blind and visually impaired users can more easily and satisfactorily use the facilities and resources of libraries.

Originality: 

Numerous research have been done in the field of the blind section of public libraries and each of them has studied the blind section of a specific library, but this research covers all the blind sections of public libraries in the country.

Considering the importance of individual, professional skills and specialized knowledge in librarians to improve information services for children and adolescents, it is necessary that groups of knowledge and information science for training and practitioners and officials of public libraries for pathology and foresight in the children and adolescents sector, plan and act. Gaining knowledge about the current situation of the skills of librarians in the children and adolescents section of public libraries and identifying their strengths and weaknesses provide the basis for further research. In addition, the librarians of these departments will realize their job sensitivity with a more complete understanding of these skills. Considering the emergence of technologies in libraries and the diverse and growing needs of the society and the importance of evaluating the skills of librarians in the children and adolescents section, the present study aims was to investigate the skills of librarians in the children and adolescents section of the public library of Qom, Markazi, Hamedan and Zanjan provinces.

The present research is an applied study which has been carried out using descriptive-survey research method. The statistical population of the study included 100 librarians working in the children and adolescents section of public libraries under the auspices of the General Directorate of Public Libraries of the five provinces of Zanjan, Hamedan, Arak and Qom and a stratified random sample was used. The collection tool in this research is a researcher-made questionnaire, in which the skills of librarians in the children and adolescents section are categorized based on 9 components in three personal, professional and technical fields. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was obtained using Cronbachʼs alpha 0/959. To analyze data, Excel 2016 and SPSS (version 20) were used, and descriptive statistical methods and Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk and Wilcoxon tests were utilized.

The results indicate that the skills of interest and enthusiasm, communication, child psychology, familiarity with childrenʼs literature, collection making, information technology, management and service delivery are at a moderate (intermediate) level in these provinces. The skills of interest and enthusiasm with an average of 3/84, management with an average of 3/89 and service delivery with an average of 3/82 have been ranked first to third, respectively, and Zanjan with an average of 3/93, Arak with an average of 3/91 and Hamedan with an average of 3/61 are ranked first to third, respectively. IT skills have a significant relation with work experience, and the more work experience librarians have, the higher their level of IT skills are rated. The finding that information management and time management have a significant ralation with the education level indicates that librarians with higher education can have a better information and time management.

Originality/value:

 The present study was able to evaluate the skills of child and adolescent librarians in libraries in four provinces of Iran.