A Study on the Status of Special Libraries of the Steel Industry of Iran in Comparison with the Standardsfor Iranian Special Libraries

This research aimed to study the current status of the special libraries of the steel industry of Iran interms of their objectives, duties, organization and management, human resources, collections, organization of resources, services, building, equipment and financial resources and to compare the results with the Standards for Iranian Special Libraries. The research was conducted as a descriptive surveyand questionnaires were used to collect data. Among 11 special libraries of Iran’s steel industry, 1 library did not fill in the questionnaire and the research was carried out based on the 10 questionnaires received (90.90 percent). The results were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Findings indicated that thespecial libraries of the country’s steel industry meet the Standards for Iranian Special Libraries to different extents, i.e. 51.66 percent in terms of objectives and duties, 70 percent in organization and management, 26.51 percent in human resources, 30.31 percent in collection, 45.35 percent in organization of resources, 49.92 percent in services, 58.13 percent in building and 38.11 percent in equipment and funding. In the end, the following suggestions have been made to improve the status of these libraries: (1) recruitment of staff holding degrees in librarianship (2) running educational classes to improve the knowledge of the library staff (3) allocating adequate and specific budget for libraries from the parent organization.