پژوهش نامه کتابداری و اطلاع رسانی
سال دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 3، بهار و تابستان 1391)

The human being always attempts to find a way to improve his physical and mental abilities. History shows that, despite the many promotions in every branch of science and technology, we cannot see much improvement in thinking abilities. With the advent of the iInternet and WWW, many thought that the problem will be solved. But nowadays we can see that the main problem remains: the problem of Information Retrieval. In this discussion we try to outline and describe the theories that can be helpful in solving the above problem. These theories are: Gaia, General System Theory, Information Ecology, Collective Intelligence, Social Organism, World Brain, Noosphere and Omega Point. Based on these theories we need a foundation that the information integrity is a main concept in solving information retrieval problems. In this regard, web can be used as this foundation, if we can use its full potential.

This survey aimed to investigate the effect of student's need for cognition (NFC) on their information behavior (IB) based on their demographic variables. Out of 19965 students enrolled in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during the academic year of 2010-2011, 364 students were selected by using stratified random sampling method. They were asked to complete the "need for cognition scale" and the "information behavior questionnaire". Findings showed that the subject's NFC rates were significantly different based on their academic areas and levels. There was a significant relationship between the subject's NFC and IB. The student's information behavior was significantly different based on their NFC levels. As a consequence, student's NFC has an effect on their IB.

Knowledge management is the process by which its application leads to the growth in creativity, innovation and human resource development. Universities, like other organizations, need to clarify the role of knowledge in their development. The aim of this study is to investigate the human resource practices and the implementation of knowledge management relationship in the six organization units of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. A literature-based questionnaire was used to assess the level of knowledge management implementation. In addition, the university HR system was used to measure the human resource practices. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to analyze the relationship between them. We found a significant relationship between knowledge management components (i. e., creation, acquiring, organizing, storage, dissemination and application) and the human resource practices. Analyzing the correlation of the main variables showed a positive and significant relation between the human resource practices and the implementation of knowledge management in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Some managerial recommendations are provided according to the findings.

This study aimed to investigate the inputs and outputs of Iranian research Institutes. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire distributed among the Managers, Deputies, Researchers and Librarians of institutes affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT), Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and Azad University. Findings indicated that in the "input" stage, electronic materials were used more than Printed Materials but in Both "Process" and "output" stages non-electronic materials were major information formats in use. ANOVA test results also revealed significant difference between three types of information in research institutes. Overall analysis reported in the main article indicates that the input phase of information flow in research institutes works better than the process and output phases.

This study identified the most important effective factors in librarian's creativity at Isfahan universities. Research population covered librarians in four Isfahan state university libraries. Data were collected by questionnaire in five-option Likert scale format. Its validity (experts reviewing) and its Reliability were acceptable. Data were analyzed by SPSS software and t, ANOVA and LSD tests were used. Results showed that all personal and organizational factors are over mean effective in creativity. Effective personal and organizational factors showed a significant relationship on creativity and the effect of personal factors on creativity was recognized more important with 4.21 mean mark. The most important effective personal factors on librarian's creativity were science and knowledge and specialization of librarian with 4.03 mean mark and the most important effective organizational factors on creativity was reward system with 3.96 mean mark. Also the most important effective personal factors on librarian creativity was librarian’s nature and behavior with 4.23 mean mark, and the most important effective organizational factors on librarian innovation was organizational culture with 4.06 mean mark.

Purpose – this paper aims to describe the role of public libraries in bridging the digital divide. The paper firstly reviews the existing literature body in this area and then suggests a number of practical solutions. Digital divide is a concept which appears in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) since 1990 and refers to the existing inequality in accessing to ICT among various social groups of people. Method – A purposeful sample of 28 public libraries from seven English-speaking countries (The USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa) was selected. Then the researcher carried out a qualitative content analysis of their websites to evaluate their practical ways of addressing this issue and finally he incorporated all of these solutions into a number of practical guidelines. Findings – Based on the availability of ICT facilities in public libraries and the users’ proficiency of information literacy skills, four level of digital divide can be identified as follow: deep, semi-deep, average, and shallow digital divide. The results show the most important solution to fill out the digital divide is to enhance the educational role of libraries and to improve their information services. Moreover, public libraries can take more actions to address this issue such as: providing their users with more computer facilities and electronic resources, reconstruct their existing hardware and software, revising their policies, providing end users with more advanced facilities to access to the Internet and other electronic resources, launch remote services such as electronic reference desk, running information literacy skills workshops, development new library websites and maintain them updated, and finally having a more mutual and dynamic interaction with formal educational institutions and encourage library users to use more ICT facilities. Originality and Value – Despite the importance of digital divide and publishing a huge number of papers on this topic in English, there are only a few Persian papers regarding this topic and this paper would be a useful source for Persian readers.

This article aims to assess The impact of the work environment of the Iranian National Library and Archive (NLI) on creativity of its staff based on their opinion. KEYS standard questionnaire was distributed among all staff who had an academic degree. 183 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed using SPSS. Results showed that the work environment of NLI is currently not suitable for fostering and supporting creativity among staff. Among the influencing factors, managerial support, freedom and organizational support did not exist at a satisfactory level in NLI. There were differences among women and men and also among staff with different levels of education towards the work environment of NLI and its suitability for creativity. Staff with lower levels of academic education compared to those with higher levels of educations, and men compared compared to women had more positive attitudes towards their work environment and considered it to be more suitable for creativity. Staff belived that the most preventing as well as encouraging factors were related to procedures, structures and organizational attitudes. The authors suggest that NLI managers should try to modify the structure and procedures of the organizations.

This study aimed at evaluating the usability of central libraries’ websites of universities subordinated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) from the students’ point of view. 30 universities had independent pages for their central library website. After making use of a two-stage cluster sampling method, 5 universities and 92 students from each university were chosen. Then, the students’ views on different usability components of the central libraries’ websites were studied. The findings showed that, generally in the users’ opinion, the application of the usability components in the central libraries’ websites of universities subordinated to the MSRT was at an “average” state (between 40-60). ‘Content’ with 3.42 (about 57%) had the lowest and ‘user interface design’ with 3.5 (about 58.84%) had the highest mean score. There was a significant difference among the mean scores of the users’ judgments in using the usability aspects in an ideal state (80%). Furthermore, a significant difference was observed among the judgments of “different users from different grades”, “users having varied degrees of acquaintance with computer and the Internet” and “users with varied degrees of acquaintance with their central library’s website” on using the usability components of the central library websites of the chosen universities. However, no significant difference was observed between the judgments of “male or female users” or among the judgments of “users in different ages”.

This paper aims to evaluate the performance of two public search ensiges, including Yahoo and Google in terms of their indexing coverage and the effectiveness of Metadata elements on web page ranking. The effectiveness of the five metadata elements including HTML title tag, HTML Keywords and Description meta-tags, Title and Subject Metadata Elements from Dublin Core, which focus on subject representation of the web pages, were examined using the experimental method. The 93 web pages were designed and submitted in two different time periods; first on http://metadata.irandoc.ac.ir and then on http://metadata.um.ac.ir. The process of indexing of both search engines was recorded. Unique and repeated keywords embedded as metadata elements were searched, and the significant differences between rankings of the two groups were examined by non-parametric U Mann-Whitney Test. The Wilcoxon test was also applied to evaluate the Performance stability. Findings reveal the significant role of HTML Title tag and unique description Meta tags in web page visibility in both periods. Duplicate keywords actually harmed rankings in Google Public search engine and this was stable during the time.

Pupose: This research aims to investigate how users expand their queries when encountered with irrelevant retrievals and through examine the degree of match between user's expanded subject queries and the List of Persian Subject Headings. Furthermore, it compares the patterns of query expansion in two subject areas: 1) Agriculture (Applied sciences); 2) Education and Psychology (Humanities). Data were collected through observation of the process of query expansion and also through Transaction Log Analysis. Findings show that in more cases, there is not a significant difference between user's query expansion behavior in the two Faculties. In terms of how users expand their queries findings are: 1) Users use Lexical variable more than contextual variables; 2) Users often expand their queries through one change; 3) When users expand their queries, the change in the type of search field happens for General, Title, and Subject fields.

This research aims at investigating the role of ICT on improving organizational performance in academic libraries of state universities in Isfahan based on the balanced scorecard. The research method is descriptive survey study. The population consists of all 169 librarians of the University of Isfahan, Isfahan technical university and Isfahan Medical Sciences university. the sample was estimated 118 persons using Random stratified sampling. To collect the data a researcher-made questionnaire was used. The face validity of questionnaire was approved by the expert teachers in library and information science and management and reliability coefficient was calculated 0/97 using Cronbach’s alpha. Results showed that the role of ICT on every aspect of the balanced scorecard, including internal processes, user satisfaction, financial improvement, and growth and learning is above the average from librarians’ point of view. Based on the demographic characteristics, position, level of study and years of work, there was no significant difference between librarians’ viewpoints; but the people with the librarianship degree considered the role of ICT in improving organizational performance more than those librarians without a librarianship degree. The findings showed that ICT had the greatest role on internal processes and the lowest role on growth and learning.

Pupose: To use non-text books in the programmed educational systems is important to deep and stabilized the content of the textbooks in students. Therefore, it is essential to identify books that have the characteristics of a suitable book. The main purpose of this study is to provide a list of suitable non-textbooks compatible with the content of the primary school Social science and Science textbooks. We analyzed Social science and Science text book's contents in order to search, access and identify suitable non-text books. By these identified keywords, the online catalog and collection of the Central library of Astan Qods Razavi in Mashhad were searched. Identified non-books were analyzed by the designed checklists. The checklists were designed on the base of analysis of the related literature and the guidelines by the Children Books Council. By using these criteria, we identified 239 books as suitable non-textbooks, consistent with Science textbooks, 97 books as suitable non textbooks consistent with the Social sciences textbooks and 62 books as suitable reference books consistent with all textbooks. At the result of this study, we provided the list of suitable nontextbooks compatible with the concepts and key terms of textbooks.