The Cost-Benefit of Persian Books on Library and Information Sciences in Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz, Iran

Quantitative evaluations are considered as one of the appropriate criteria in accepting or rejecting the selection of information resources in libraries. Through these assessments, one can evaluate how much the selected resources meet the needs of the users. The present study aimed to review the cost-benefit analysis of the Persian books on Department of Library and Information Sciences in Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahwaz, Iran. This cross-sectional survey described the current situation, evaluated how much the books in the field of Library and Information Science are used and did a cost-benefit analysis of these books in Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahwaz. The study population included all the Persian books related to the Library and Information Sciences at the aforesaid university's libraries. Data collection tool was a researchers-made checklist, and the data were collected using the Library software. Descriptive statistics and cost-benefit formula were used for analyzing the data. Findings showed that average total cost for using each of the books once was approximately 4589 Iranian Rial rate (IRR) which was considered to be a relatively high price. The lowest cost for using each book once was related to those published in 2002 (2913 IRR) and the highest cost for using each book once was related to those published in 2005 (31413 IRR). Cost-benefit analysis of the books showed that the lowest cost-benefit was for the books related to the "library collection" (755 IRR), then in a growing rate for books related to the "references" (2777 IRR), "library management" (2877 IRR) and "organizing" (5693 IRR). The cost-benefit analysis showed that use of each of these books every time is expensive and is not affordable for the libraries. The Persian books related to the "library collection" had a higher rate of use by the users than other books in the field of Library and Information Sciences, and therefore have been more affordable.