Evaluation of Back of the Book Indexes of Persian Medical Books (2010-2014) According to ISO 999:1996

As for the main role of the back of the book index (BOB Index) in retrieving the concept of a book, the aim of this study is to evaluate the BOB indexes of Persian medical books published from 1389 to 1393 according to ISO 999-1996.
This study is a descriptive survey. The research population consisted of all first-published medical printed books in the mentioned period from which 227 titles were selected randomly by means of Cochran's sample size formula. The data collection tool was a checklist based on ISO 999-1996. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the data using SPSS tool.
It was showm that only 3.75 percent of the books has BOB index. The highest frequency belongs to simple (73.6%) and fundamental (93.8%) indexes. In terms of content and coverage, on the one hand, and index level, on the other, the highest proportion belongs to subject index (87.24%) and single-level indexes (73.56%), respectively. The maximum compliance with the criteria related to the content and organization belongs to those of singular and plural with frequency of 223 (98.23). Also the highest rate of compliance with the criteria related to presentation and entry setting is the alphabetic order with the frequency of 225 (99.11%) and the lowest compliance belongs to the observation of indentions (6.6%). The mean compliance with ISO in books under study is 49.3%.
It is necessary that publishers of medical books pay attention to BOB index and, in this regard, “Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance” and “National Library of Iran” should develop appropriate programs and policies.