The Status of Public Libraries Affiliated with the Cultural and Art Organization of Tehran Municipality in Providing Health Information to the Elderly

One of the most important needs of the elderly is information. Public libraries are among the centers that can play an effective role in providing information services year after year. The purpose of this study was to investigate the situation of public libraries affiliated with the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality in the Health Information Report for 2020 in Tehran province.

The present study was descriptive-analytical in nature and with applied results. In this study, due to the comprehensiveness of the work, sampling was not done and in other words, the research sample was with the research community. The research community of Tehran Province Public Librarians was affiliated with the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality (87 people). The validity of this questionnaire was confirmed based on the opinions of seven experts in the field of library and medical information. And its reliability was calculated 0.9 through Cronbach’s alpha. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test.

The situation of resources, tools and technology as well as the services of public libraries affiliated to the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality in providing health information to the elderly are unfavorable and below average (P>0.05). Findings show that services can be provided Health services in public libraries affiliated to the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality for the elderly, respectively, insufficient budget and lack of facilities and equipment for the elderly and lack of up-to-date, lack or reporting of information sources.

According to the results, the situation of public libraries affiliated to the Cultural and Artistic Organization of Tehran Municipality in providing health information to the elderly in Tehran province was unfavorable. Due to demographic changes in the coming years, it is necessary for the public libraries of their country to prepare to provide appropriate services to the previous years.