The Role of National Library of Iran Librarians and Information Experts in Advancing Research

The purpose of this research was to study the role of librarians and information experts in the National Library of Iran in the processes of research and their role in advancing researchers’ studies. Methodology/Approach: The research method was a survey and the data collection tools were two researcher-made questionnaires distributed among 80 researchers and 18 librarians of the information section. Based on the results of this study, researchers ask help from librarians in the information gathering stage more than any other time. There is no significant relationship between the librarians’ familiarity with research methods and the researchers’ asking for help. There is a significant difference between the viewpoint of the librarians and researchers about the effectiveness of the librarians’ help in advancing research: the librarians themselves consider the questions from the researchers’ to the librarians to be beneficial while the researchers themselves don’t state that the librarian’s help is useful. A significant relationship has been observed between the frequency of library use and willingness to ask for help from librarians. The more the researchers use the library, the more they tend to ask librarians for help. Moreover, there is a significant difference between the viewpoints of librarians and researchers concerning how often researchers ask for help from the librarian: the researchers ask less help from the librarians than the librarians themselves believe. The researchers don’t consider librarians and information experts in the National Library of Iran to be valuable resources in the research process. They believe that the librarians’ role in guiding the researchers in their study is no more than finding and providing resources. The researchers’ low level of acquaintance with the reference and information services of the library and on the other hand their lack of familiarity with the librarians’ skills are among the reasons for not asking for help from librarians. Lack of research experience in more than 50 percent of the librarians of the information section who communicate directly with researchers can be due to inappropriate selection of librarians or deficiencies in the educational programs for librarians.