Factors Influencing the Development and Promotion of Personalized Services in Digital Academic Libraries in Iran

One of the features of the digital library is providing services to meet the information needs of users and personalized services are one of the new ways of providing services in digital libraries and an important process in the development of these libraries and attracting users. It seems that there is a major gap between the role and importance of personalized services and the use of these services in digital libraries, especially academic digital libraries. So the main purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the development and promotion of personalized services in digital academic libraries from the perspective of information science experts.

The study was conducted with a qualitative methodology. To collect data, semi-structured interview with information sciences experts in the field of digital library who familiar with personalized services was used. Sampling method was purposeful sampling. The interview protocol included the introductory text, questions, prompts and the end text of the interview. At the beginning of the interview, information was shared with the experts about the why, importance and steps of the research. In the interview, according to the main purpose of the research, three questions were asked: What is the status of personalized services in digital academic libraries in Iran? , What are the barriers to and factors for facilitating implementation of personalized services in digital academic libraries in Iran?, What are the proposed solutions to improve the current situation of personalized services in digital academic libraries in Iran? In this study, planned and informal prompts were used. The planned prompts include software, library management, librarians, users, and library services, which were obtained by studying sources related to personalized services and factors influencing the development of digital libraries. In the end text of the interview, the experts who participated in the interview were asked to state any matter or point that was neglected during the interview. The interview was saturated with 16 people, including 7 librarians and 9 faculty members. Qualitative content analysis with inductive approach was used to analyze the interviews. The criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba (1985) were considered for the validation of the interview.

Findings showed that regarding the first question of the interview, experts had similar perspective and declared the status of personalization in digital academic libraries is in the earliest development stages. Regarding the second question of the interview, 6 categories, 4 subcategories and 32 codes related to barriers to personalized services implementation and 4 categories, 4 subcategories and 27 codes related to facilitators of personalization of services were identified in digital academic libraries. In general, most of the barriers and facilitating factors that are related to the personalized services have been discussed at the general level about digital libraries. In relation to the third question of the interview, the experts suggested 16 solutions. The majority of experts' suggestions for the development of these services refer to the category of human factors.

This study showed that there are six factors influencing the development of personalized services in Iranian digital academic libraries include technical issues, legal issues, human factors, organizational structure and management, cultural and social issues and library functions. Therefore, according to the findings of the research, it can be said that the development of personalized services in digital academic libraries in Iran should be considered from multiple aspects.