The Investigation of the Librarian's Mental Model Completeness Scale of the Icons in the Circulation and Cataloging Modules of Azarakhsh, Simorgh and Nika Digital Library Applications

The present study intended to investigate the librarians’ mental model completeness scale of the icons in the circulation and cataloging modules of Azarakhsh, Simorgh and Nika digital library applications. Following a survey research design, The population of this research consisted of the librarians who were familiar with at least one of the digital library applications. Since the number of them was limited (174), they were selected using census. According to the results, in both circulation and cataloging modules, the librarians’ mental model of the icons was more complete in Simorgh application than those of Azarakhsh and Nika. Furthermore, a list of icons in the circulation and cataloging modules of the three applications, in which the librarians’ mental model of the icons’ functions was complete and incomplete, was provided. Since the users’ mental models of the icons in both circulation and cataloging modules might be incomplete or incorrect, one can determine the required instruction for the librarians by investigating the mental models’ completeness scale. Furthermore, providing a list of icons in which the librarians’ mental model of the icons’ functions is complete helps designers to design user interface in such a way that it corresponds to the users’ mental models as much as possible.