An Analysis of Content Management and User Status in Iranian Digital Library Software

Identifying the status of Iranian digital library software in terms of the use of various content management and user portlets.

This is an applied research done as a heuristic survey. The research was conducted to evaluate the capabilities of various portlets in the field of digital library management in two general areas of content management (collection process management, content production management, classification management, documentation management, loading management, content indexing management, link management and news management) and user management (user management, staff management and user security management) are used in digital library software. Statistical population of the study consists of five Digital Library Softwares Pars Azarsa, Simorgh, Tebyan, and Parwan Farakavash produced by five major library software companies in Iran (Pars Azarakhsh, Nosa, Tebyan, kavash, and Parvanpajooh). Their software products and know-how have matured over time in tandem with technological advancements in their field, with critical inputs from field experts, associated companies, organizations and institutions. They, in the recent ten years, have undertaken many landmark projects that include database and archive automation for their clients. Their knowledge base and software products are unsurpassed in the field of digital data management for libraries and document centers, and this includes the full spectrum of related requirements. All their software products are web based, integrated and user friendly Some of their major clients include the governmental institutions, private companies, national libraries and universities. The needed data was collected using a researcher-made check-list. Different types of descriptive statistical techniques in collaboration with Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Shapiro-Wilk test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used for analyzing the data.

In terms of content management, Simorgh had the best performance. The statistical population had the best performance in the "category management" section of the content management field and the weakest performance in the "link management" section. In the field of user management, "Azarsa" had the best performance. The statistical community had the weakest performance in this area in the "forum management" section. Test of research hypotheses showed that there is no significant difference between the digital library software in the use of content management portals and user management.

The performance of the statistical population was evaluated for 114 management portlets. The statistical population in the field of content management according to the check-list had an average performance of 80 percent and the average performance of the statistical population in the field of user management was below 63 percent, among which even "Farakavash" and "Parvan" had a performance below 50 percent. Therefore, in general comparison, it was concluded that the statistical community in the field of content management has performed better than user management.