Should we change the name of library and information science discipline in Iran? (A Comparative Study)

The name of each field of study is a label that demonstrates functions and features inside and outside of the discipline. The aim of this paper is to reach an agreement about the name of the discipline by investigating selected names for it in the 3 continents of America، Europe and Australia. this research is an applied descriptive survey. The population consists of universities that provide "library and information science" education. Data were gathered by a direct visit of these university’s websites. The findings suggest that among 20 universities surveyed in Europe، the most frequent names are information management (14. 7%) and information science (11. 76%). The most frequent names of the school of are Information Studies، school of Information and Computer studies and the faculty of Humanities. Among 49 universities in the continent of America، most of the major names are Library and Information Science (58. 97%) and Library Science (28. 2%). The most common name of the schools in America are school of Information and Library (42. 58%)، school of Information and Library Studies (18. 36%) and school of Information (12. 24%). Among 19 universities in Australia، the most frequent names are Information management (17 %)، Knowledge management (15 %) and Information Studies (12 %). The most frequent names of schools are Information Studies (16 %)، Information management (12 %) and Knowledge management (10 %). Among the universities in America، Europe and Australia the most frequent name for the field of Library and Information is Library and Information Sciences (29. 88%) and the most frequent school in this field is Library school (25%). It seems that the name of "Library and Information Science has the higher rank in terms of precision and recall. Therefore the name of "Library and Information Science" is a more appropriate name for this field in Iran، like other universities in the world. If there is an independent school for this field in Iran، Library school is the preferred name.