فریبرز خسروی

Ontologies offer a structured framework for information sharing across various systems and fields. This framework facilitates data integration from diverse sources, enabling accurate searches based on semantic relationships between concepts. Additionally, ontologies allow for analysis and logical inference from datasets, improving information retrieval speed and accuracy in various scientific disciplines, including the humanities and Islamic studies. This research explores the creation of an ontology for weak narrators in the field of Hadith studies, specifically focusing on the book "Ma'refah al-Hadith" by Mohammad Bagher Behboodi, which examines the conditions of 150 weak narrators. By structuring and analyzing the information on these narrators, the ontology aims to facilitate faster and more efficient analysis of the "Causes of narrators' weakness."

Literature Review:

Several research efforts have explored the design and application of ontologies in various disciplines. These studies include:The necessity of creating an ontology of jurisprudence to manage jurisprudential information in the digital space (Hasanzadeh, 2018) 2.Basmaleh Ontology, a Window for Creating an Ontology of Qur'anic Studies (Hasanzadeh, 2021)A network approach in the interpretation of the Qur'an as an infrastructure to achieve the ontology of the Qur'an (Vaseti, 2023) Semantic Hadith: An ontology-driven knowledge graph for the hadith corpus(Binte Kamran. 2023) Creation of Arabic Ontology for Hadith Science(Abdelkader, 2021) Quran Intelligent Ontology Construction Approach Using Association Rules Mining(Harrag, 2013) Arabic Ontology for Hadith texts - A survey(Muhammed. 2024) Building Hadith Ontology to Support the Authenticity of Isnad (Baraka.2014) These studies demonstrate the benefits of ontologies in facilitating faster and more intelligent information retrieval across various fields.

The research method is content analysis using Protege software version 5.5.0. The steps of forming OWL ontologies according to the features of the Protégé software are as follows:Identify concepts, extract them, and document them to create terms.Place these terms in the form of main and sub-classes as well as examples or members in the respective views in the software. Create relationships (attributes) between classes and examples and between these terms and values. Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the ontology and its ability to support knowledge representation.

The initial data collection involved identifying two main classes in the Protégé software: "Hadith Narrators" and "Invalidation words". Under the "Hadith Narrators" class, the names of the 150 weak narrators were included. The "Invalidation words" class encompasses terms used by Hadith scholars and various expressions indicating the weakness of narrators. Sample sentences from Hadith scholars were placed as examples under each subclass. Object properties were then employed to establish connections between these classes and the specific narrators exhibiting the identified weaknesses. These object properties linked the sayings of renowned Hadith scholars such as Sheikh Tusi, Ayyashi, Allameh Majlesi, and others, to the relevant narrators.

Analysis of the collected data revealed diverse reasons for the weakening of Hadith narrators. Some terms point to the "weakness of the narrator and their character," including instances of deviant beliefs, affiliation with questionable sects, or the presence of negative personality traits that could potentially compromise the reliability of their narrations. Additionally, other terms may signify the "weakness of the hadith itself" narrated by a particular individual. The ontology construction process identified 107 terms representing concepts related to the weaknesses of narrators. Subsequently, 645 examples were incorporated into the Protégé software, all derived from the text of the book and the statements of Hadith scholars.

Ontologies provide a valuable platform within the semantic web, enabling machines to understand and process information in a more intelligent and nuanced manner. Their role in facilitating data sharing and information retrieval across diverse systems is crucial. By creating a structured framework for integrating data from various sources, ontologies empower researchers to conduct more precise searches based on semantic relationships. Furthermore, they enable analysis and logical inference from datasets, ultimately enhancing knowledge sharing within a specific domain. This research contributes to the field of Hadith studies by proposing an ontology for weak narrators. The ontology explores the words of established scholars and analyzes their statements regarding the weaknesses of 150 narrators in "Ma'rifa al-Hadith" by Mohammad Bagher Behboodi. Through this analysis, as many as 107 words or concepts indicating the weakening of the narrators and the number of 645 samples were obtained and by creating an ontology through the two classes "Hadith Narrators" and "Invalidation words" in the Protégé software, a meaningful connection was established between them. This engineered knowledge base facilitates efficient access to information regarding narrator weaknesses and will lead to the collection of extensive information in the field of hadith and the investigation of the causes of the weakening of the narrators, which will provide the basis for wider and deeper research.

Information dissemination is one of the most crucial services libraries and information centers provide. The increasing explosion of information, the necessity of keeping specialists up-to-date in various scientific fields, and the need to efficiently use users' time and resources underscore its importance. This research, which aimed to identify the components and indicators of digital information dissemination in the National Library and Archives of Iran, had the potential to affect the field of digital information dissemination significantly.

This qualitative research employed a meta-study approach using the comprehensive synthesis method based on the seven-step method of Sandelowski and Barroso (2007). The research population included Persian and English articles relevant to the topic, retrieved from domestic and international scientific databases. 37 entirely relevant articles were selected for analysis through the critical appraisal skills program method. Content analysis and open and axial coding were used to analyze selected resources. The inter-coder agreement was calculated to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings

Based on the comprehensive synthesis's findings, seven components and 34 indicators and sub-indicators in the field of digital information dissemination were identified. The main components include research files, information resources, collection development, standardization, information dissemination services, dissemination tools, and evaluation.

The identified components and indicators provide a practical roadmap for enhancing digital information dissemination. The most significant achievement of this research is the development of a new information culture that can be used to assess the status of services in this area. These insights enable libraries to improve the quality of their services, enhance information dissemination, and expand knowledge dissemination. This research can be valuable for researchers, librarians, managers, and policymakers in the field of digital information dissemination.

This article aimed to demonstrate the results of a study on the application of the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model for organization of non-book resources.

The content analysis method with a comparative approach was used. In this line, the UNIMARC Standard, the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, and the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model were reviewed. 116 works in 17 types of non-book materials found in the National Library and Archives of IR of Iran (NLAI) collection formed the statistical population. A checklist was developed and used as the data collection tool, and Microsoft Visio Software was used to draw the required chart.

As a result of this study, 37 data elements were identified. These elements were entered in the fields of zero to eight blocks of the UNIMARC Standard. The rules of description were also based on the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules in eight areas of description and analysis and access point parts. A description was provided based on the CIDOC Model for each data element. Also, 20 entities were selected from the CIDOC model, which were interlinked through 23 properties as was required. The "E22 man-made object" entity in the role of "domain" was intended for non-book resources physics. This entity was connected to the “range" entity in various ways. All in all, 24 descriptions were given for 37 data elements based on the CIDOC model.

Based on the result of this study, most of the data elements in the UNIMARC Standard and the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules were described based on the CIDOC Model. This result can indicate the adaptation of bibliographic standards structures to the CIDOC Model and ontological usability. Most of the elements used in bibliographic structures were compatible with ontological structure and CIDOC model. Some of the entities of the CIDOC model and the properties that defined their relationships represented an aspect of non-book resources organization which has been able to provide a structured and relevant description of non-book resources organization from both physical and content aspects. In general, it can be argued that considering the use of conceptual and ontological models to organize non-book resources can be considered as an introduction to the use of ontology to organize other library resources, including books and periodicals as well. In terms of applications of the CIDOC model and its focus on museum materials and cultural heritage, the examples of this research can be a step towards the convergence of methods and patterns used in libraries, museums, and archives.

 This paper aims at determining appropriate performance indicators based on the world’s national libraries and related ISOs. They are also chosen according to the NLAI’s experts comments based on Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM).

The present research is applied to the research purpose and uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The statistical society includes 2 categories: first, performance indicators of the world's national libraries (Library of Congress, British Library, National Library of Australia, National Library of Spain, Swiss National Library, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of France, and National Diet Library) adopted via emails to their national libraries.The second is through 14 top level managers of NLAI selected by a purposeful sampling. The research tool to conduct a Fuzzy Delphi technique involve a checklist whose validity were recognized according to expert's opinion. The final checklist includes two categories of general and specialized questions. General questions include the demographic characteristics of the respondents. These questions include gender, age, organizational status, work experience, and level of education. Specialized questions that are the main part of the checklist and include 192 performance indicators in 11 dimensions (Building the national collection, Making the services accessible: Cataloguing, Making the services accessible: Quick and easy access, Making the services accessible: Usage, Making the services accessible: Digitization, Offering reference services, Building potentials for development, Preserving the collection, Managing efficiently, Research, and Library Standards Development).

In this study, out of 192 indicators, 32 indicators were selected view point of NLAI expert's. In the dimension of "Building the national collection" out of 20 indicators, 3 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.In the dimension of " Making the services accessible: Cataloguing" out of 12 indicators, 2 indicators; in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Quick and easy access" out of 17 indicators, 3 indicators;in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Usage" out of 53 indicators, 6 indicators; in dimension of "Making the services accessible: Digitization" out of 21 indicators, 5 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.In dimension of "Offering reference services" out of 10 indicators, 5 indicators; In dimension of "Building potentials for development"out of 28 indicators, 3 indicators; In dimension of "Preserving the collection" out of 9 indicators, 2 indicators; In dimension of "Managing efficiently" out of 14 indicators, 3 indicators were among the performance indicators selected by the experts NLAI.Also, from the other results of this research, it can be said that in the "Research" dimension, out of a total of 4 indicators, no indicators were selected from the perspective of NLAI's experts.In the "Library Standards Development" dimension, the two tasks of cataloging standards and digital and technology standards were selected by the organization's experts.2 proposed items (Number of newly provided bibliographic data to OCLC, and New number of offerings authority data to VIAF), which was not the responsibility of the National Library's review staff, but because of its global importance. They were questioned by experts, not selected by NLAI experts.

In this research, for the first time, the performance indicators of the national libraries of the world and the ISOs related to evaluation of performance of libraries in order to determine and select the performance indicators for NLAI were studied in a coherent manner.From the other results of this research, it can be said that among the 32 selected indicators to evaluate the performance of NLAI, a total of 8 indicators are related to the two ISOs studied (28118 and 21248); That is, 25% of the performance indicators monitored in this study are in accordance with ISO.As Maurice Line stated, "no type of library varies so much in nature, size, and types of media covered, range of acquisitions, functions and services. But what matters is that the responsibilities of national libraries can differ from country to country as they are ‘subject to political agendas which change, often more rapidly than for public or academic libraries.Accordingly, the need to develop performance indicators for national libraries according to their goals and tasks is a very serious issue. Therefore, it is suggested that NLAI use the performance indicators obtained from this study and compare the results and methods used with other national libraries to finally, with frequent reviews and monitoring, achieve a consensus on valid indicators.Finally, given that indicators are defined at the organization’s top levels organization, managers can rely on the findings of the research to appropriately use the indicators to show a clear picture of the performance of the NLAI, and also be effective in allocate resources, make plans and policies of national libraries and prevent potential costs.

According to previous studies, Iranian publishers generally do not comply with national legal deposit laws and regulations due to the shortcomings in such laws and regulations. The purpose of this research is to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the mentioned laws and make some recommendation for improvements.

20 Iranian legal deposit documents issued between 1905 and 2016 were reviewed using qualitative content analysis method. They were categorized and coded based on IFLA “Legal Deposit Framework” in MAXQDA software. To ensure the validity of the analysis two faculty members and two students aware of the subject reviewed and endorsed the codes. To rate reliability, the percentage of agreement was calculated.

Legal deposit rules and procedures in Iran are spelled out in several laws, regulations, ratified bills, and circulars. However, the term “legal deposit” has appeared only in one document while “Comprehensiveness” and “depository” exist in all the documents reviewed. The elements of “origin of the publication”, “depositor”, and “number of copies” to deposit are mentioned in 19. National Library and Archives of Iran is the depository in 13, and 2 copies of each publication as the minimum number to be deposited is mentioned in 16. The element “time of deposit” has appeared by the words like “immediately” or “after binding” in 9 documents. That leaves the actual time of deposit ambiguous. Free deposit has been mentioned in only 4 documents. Music scores, Iconographic material, online publication, and audio-visual material are not mentioned at all. Also, depositing appropriate accompanying material of online and offline electronic publication (e.g., software) is not addressed in the document relating deposit of electronic publications. No penalty for non-compliance is predicted in 19 documents studied.

The mere existence of legal documents for the deposit of publications shows that cultural custodians and librarians have been aware of the importance of collecting national publications. Now, there is a need to have a law for online publications too. Also, according to “Legal Deposit Framework” of IFLA, a law for legal deposit should include a penalty structure for non-compliance; something which is missed in the 19 documents reviewed. In addition, none have addressed access and copy right condition for deposited material. Since the main goal of legal deposit is to preserve national and cultural heritage of the nation and make them accessible now and in the future, in addition to ascertain the place of preservation and protective facilities and security, the law must address the issue of making copy from the deposited materials.

Study was conducted to identify the standards of transcription and transliteration accepted by expert's linguistics and librarianship and information.

Research is practical in terms of object, survey in terms of how to collect information and descriptive in terms of type. The statistical population includes 31 professors of linguistics and specialists in documentation, cataloging of the resources of Islamology and Iranology, and experts of International Standard Serial Number center of the National Library. A checklist of tables of differentiating Persian characters into English according to transcription and transliteration standards that was made available to the statistical community.

According to the findings, the predominant writing form for transcription and transliteration is 16 Persian consonants, 20 English single phoneme consonants and two phonemes English consonants. According to standards, the statistical population has less dispersion in selecting English characters for short Persian vowels than English characters for long Persian vowels.

The national standard of ISIR 1822 was proposed for transliterating Persian characters into English and the ISO 233-3 standard was proposed for transliteration of Persian characters into English. Moreover, for short Persian vowels in English, two standards, ISERI 1822 and ISO 233-3 were proposed. Regarding the choice of English long vowels / I, u / for Persian vowels (ای، او), it is 100% in accordance with the 1822 ISIR national standard. But the interviewees for the long vowel (آ) suggested the English letter / ā /, which corresponds to 7 transliteration standards and 1 transcription standard.

This paper aims at propose appropriate performance indicators based on the world’s national libraries and related ISOs. These were grouped according to 4 perspectives of BSC involving (Resources, access, and Infrastructure; Use; Efficiency; and Potentials and development).

Firstly, performance indicators of 7 national libraries (British Library, National Library of Australia, National Library of Spain, Swiss National Library, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of France, and National Diet Library) were collected and categorized according to ISO 28118, ISO 21248 standards. The outcome then was viewed and commented for suitability by 13 senior professional staff of NLI. In total, the indicators were defined in 11 dimensions and 192 indicators based on NLIs goals and tasks. The research tools to conduct a Fuzzy Delphi technique involve a checklist whose validity were recognized according to expert's opinion.

32 out of 192 performance indicators were considered suitable. These were grouped according to 4 perspectives of BSC: 11 indicators on Resources (Percentage of National Publications Acquired by the NLI, Percentage of acquired books in any medium and multimedia resources entered by legal deposit, Percentage of acquired serials entered by legal deposit, Coverage of the national imprint in the new entries of the national bibliography , Percentage of national publication with Cataloging in publication; Number of searches for "National Bibliography Offering Service" of NLI-OPAC, Number of NLI Press Online titles, Increase the percentage of digitized titles and pages per 1 000 Documents in the Collection, Cumulative percentage of at-risk audiovisual material migrated from an obsolete to a current digital file format, Total m2 of surface in deposits of bibliographic funds with control of air conditioning and percentage, Percentage of Storage Space which has an Appropriate Environment); 8 on Use (Qualitative evaluation using case studies of use and value of the collection and services, Satisfaction with ease of finding information on the NLI’s website, Satisfaction level of NLI-OPAC- user questionnaire, Overall satisfaction level of user service (user questionnaire), Level of user satisfaction with the search of the NLI website, The number of active users of NLI, Number of views of digitized books and magazines, Number of views of Digitized press); 10 on Efficiency (Median time to catalog books entered by legal deposit (in weeks), Median Time of Document Processing, The rate of providing document reference services, Percentage of information requests submitted electronically, Percentage of correct reference questions answered electronically, Number of users to whom direct bibliographic information has been provided in the reading rooms with a maximum waiting time of 10 minutes and a percentage of the total, Number of users to whom general information has been provided with a maximum waiting time of 10 minutes and percentage of the total, Employee Productivity in Document Processing, Employee productivity in Cataloguing in Publication (CIP), Employee Productivity in Lending and Delivery Services ); 3 on Potential and development (Percentage of library staff involved in resource processing, Percentage of processing staff involved in CIP, Percentage of Staff in National and International Cooperation and Projects).

By extracting and proposing performance indicators and classifying them in 4 dimensions of balanced scorecard, it is possible for the National Library of Iran to evaluate its performance and compare itself with other national libraries in around the world and reach consensus on valid indicators through repeated reviews and monitoring.From the results of this research, it can be said that among the 32 selected indicators to evaluate the performance of NLAI, a total of 8 indicators are related to the two ISOs studied (28118 and 21248); That is, 25% of the performance indicators monitored in this study are in accordance with ISO. Finally, both ISOs related to national libraries (ISO 28118 and 21248) can be a good source for designing performance indicators of national libraries. .

This paper reports a research that has examined the extent that transliteration of Persian proper names at the National Library of Iran (NLI) complies with the national and international standards.

Data was collected from NLI Authority database and compared with existing standards.

On the average, the letters "ص" and "ظ" show highest level of compliance with the standards, whereas the letter "ع" shows the least. The corporate body and geographic authority files were found to be more in compliance than the Personal names one. Also, short vowels were more in line with the standards than the long vowels.

Unavailability of a manual that helps transliteration is a shortcoming. As a result, catalogers have generally relied on their variant personal experience and/or trusted forms proposed by unauthorized sources such translators, authors, or publishers.

Examines compatibility of seven national libraries’ performance indicators (PIs) against ISO 28118 standard.

The PIs of Library of Congress, National Library of Australia, National Diet Library, Library and Archives Canada, British Library, National Library of France, Swiss National Library, National Library of Spain were obtained by e-mail and grouped according to ISO 28118.

The national libraries have developed more PIs with regard to accessibility to resources and services, digitalization, developing a national collection, accordingly. It seems that accessibility is even more important for them than their depository mandate. Conclustion: ISO 28118 standard is compatible with requirements of national libraries.

This study is going to determine social media literacy status of librarians and users of Iran National Library and Archives and its impact on their Attitude toward promoting library services by using them.
This is a descriptive-analytical research with survey method which was done on 355 people consisted of 159 librarians and 196 active users of Iran national library and archives.
The information was gathered through researcher-made questioner. Descriptive statistics Mean and inferential statistics Pearson were used.
Findings: Most of librarians 51.6% and users 67.9% have learned social media themselves. Librarians have less than a half of the abilities of social media literacy such as social media ethics (3.63) and copyright (3.36). Totally their social media literacy is undesirable. Users have all the abilities except defend (2.86). Totally their social media literacy is more desirable than librarians. Users (4.14) consider social media use improves library services more efficiently than librarians (3.72).
Considering social media importance for libraries and the effects of improving social media literacy on librarians’ better viewpoints about using them for better library services; efforts for learning social media literacy, providing academic and vocational training, writing and preparing self-learning tutorials and brochures are recommended.

To conduct an SWOT analysis for the National Archives of Iran, evaluate its strategic position, and to provide suggestions for further improvements.
Method and Research Design: A questionnaire was designed to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by seven archive experts. The questionnaire was answered by 20 employees in the National Archives. The strategic position of the organization was studied using Internal and External Factors Evaluation Matrix.
Findings and The strengths of the organization are more than its weaknesses. The organization can control threats and improve weaknesses. Besides, it can make new decisions and improve its services.
Some of the provided suggestions are: developing digital services and accessibility, updating regulations regarding coding of different kinds of documents, closer coordination with other organizations, employing new specialists, more training courses for the staff, launching a web database, defining procedures and codes for collecting archival records.

This exploratory study considered the problem of evaluating quality in academic libraries. The purpose was to assessing the effect of user and non-user's views on the results of the LibQual tool's scores and, also, measuring the satisfaction of clients using services of the Islamic Republic of Iran National Library.
This applied research was conducted with analytical methodology. Statistical population of the study were all referred to the National Library (400 were selected as sample). For statistical data analysis, Excel and SPSS software were used and to test questions and assumptions, T test was used for both groups.
Findings: There was significant difference between attitudes of users and non-users, in measuring library service quality with LibQual. Results also showed that the mean scores of service quality at "perceived", "desired", and "minimum" levels, were 5.7865, 8.3125, and 6.7365, respectively; by definition, satisfaction level was equal to superiority gap, which was -2.526 that shows customers are unsatisfied with the services of the National Library.
When the LibQual for measuring the quality of library focuses solely on its findings, the results cannot be achieved. Because users are not homogeneous in using and familiar with the library and its services, so comments from real users can be extracted.

To identify the validity of factors affecting the "Brand" of National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) from the viewpoints of staffs and clients.
Survey using a self-designed questionnaire. The population consisted of 214 staff and 285 clients of the NLAI.
Producing national bibliography (mean 4.3) and being open in holidays and nights (mean 4.66) were the most important factors regarding staffs and clients’ views respectively. Considering services, staff believed that having RASA software (mean 3.52) is important and clients preferred access to digital version of theses (mean 3.52). Also, having faculty members affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (mean 4.1) was on top of services’ advantages category according to staffs’ views and access to hot meal and drink (mean 3.44) in client’s standpoint.
Staffs and clients viewpoints about factors affecting NLAI brand was highly credential except for service factor, which reveals the need for promoting services.

To examine methods of archival description in the National Archives of Iran during this period.
Method/ Research Design: In order to collect data, bylaws, archival arrangement and description manuals, and description worksheets designed during 1972- 2012 (11 worksheets) were studied and analyzed. Four professional archivists were also interviewed.
Findings: 11 description worksheets were are designed during 1972- 2012. Elements within them have gradually been standardized over the years. Description has mostly been at file and item levels.
Considering the nature of archives and factors such as the quantity and the extent of archival records, as well as their patrons, time, budget, personnel, and emphases of the International Council on Archives (ICA), upper levels of description such as fond and series is recommended. The first step is to brief authorities and design appropriate description worksheets.

Measuring differences between Information Literacy of LIS، and IT MS students in the University of Tehran. Design/Methodology/Approach: A questionnaire was distributed among the two groups for data collection. Both knowledge and skills of students، including using search and retrieval tools، familiarity with sources in their discipline، evaluating information resources، knowledge of ethical issues related to information، skills in the using Internet services and facilities، and knowledge of English language is high. IL among both groups is at a high level. Both hypotheses of the study were rejected as no statistically meaningful difference was found between LIS vs IT students، nor between male and female students.

Regarding the media literacy, this article examines the question of how aware the university and high school students in Tehran are. Using the theories of James Potter, political economy, social responsibility and education information, this study seeks to answer the above question regarding the media literacy of Tehrani students. We will also explain the degree of media literacy using variables such as age, sex, and level of education and the use of television. Methodologically, it is a survey research based on 440 samples from university students as well as 400 samples from high school students. Some of the findings indicate that university and school students in Tehran demonstrate some weak levels of cognition of the media literacy. Because of such weak dimension, the students are not able to make conscious choices between various media and they can not take independent action. Such phenomenon causes them to be in need of retraining measures that can help them take critical approach towards media choices and media consumption. We believe the retraining will equip them with the tools to analyze and evaluate media products. Some other findings indicate that the perception of sample group towards media literacy can be identified. For example, the school students considered the definition of media literacy as equivalent to traditional literacy, while university students found it as the training that makes an individual to be able to understand the media interaction process. The students also considered it as a process that can improve their ability to make sense of the media. Also, the perception of school students about media literacy relied on what they considered to be an understanding of the current situation of the media, rather than considering it as tool that improved their critical and independent thinking. This is while the university students stated that the main purposes of media literacy include critical and independent thinking, ability to choose and ambition to achieve a leading position. It should also be mentioned that the findings indicate that there has been a meaningful correlation between the age and media literacy of school and university students. The relation between age and gender of the university students with media literacy revealed that the boys have more media literacy compared to the girls. The relation between age and gender among school students were indifferent for the both genders. There was also a meaningful correlation between education level of university students and level of media literacy while such a correlation did not exist among school students.