Investigating the Impact of Information Literacy and Communication Information Technologies on Knowledge Sharing among Public Library Librarians

What justifies the investigation of the effect of information literacy and information technologies on the sharing of knowledge by different sections of society is the widespread use of public and scientific media among different sections of society, different understanding of information literacy and the importance of sharing knowledge in different strata of society. Information literacy and information and communication technologies are the determining factors in today’s constantly changing conditions. This study has investigated the role of information literacy and information technologies in knowledge sharing among public library staff.

The current research is an applied research that collects information in a descriptive manner. The statistical population of the research includes 149 librarians of the public libraries of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces in the year 1400 SH. 108 people were randomly selected as the research sample using Cochran’s formula. Hosseini and Ghasemi (2019) questionnaire was used to collect data. The independent variable in this research is information literacy, which includes the components of identifying information needs, finding and evaluating the quality of information, storing and retrieving information, effective and ethical use of information, and creating and communicating knowledge. The dependent variable of the research is knowledge sharing and the mediating variable is information technology. The validity of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability. The value of Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability was greater than 0/7. In this research, partial least squares (PLS) method was used to investigate the relationship between variables. Using this method, the relationship between the variables and also the strength of the relationship between them were obtained.

The examination of the research hypotheses revealed that the standard factorial value of the effect of identifying the need for information, finding and assessing the quality of information, storing and retrieving information, effective and ethical use of information, and creating and communicating knowledge on knowledge sharing, was respectively 0/378, 0/517, 0/566, 0/566, and 0/493. Therefore, in all cases, the mentioned indicators have a positive and significant effect on the knowledge sharing of public library employees. Moreover, the standard factor loading value of the effect of identifying the need for information, finding and evaluating the quality of information, storing and retrieving information, effective and ethical use of information, and creating and communicating knowledge through information technology on knowledge sharing was calculated to be respectively 0/679, 0/93, and 0/639, 0/842, and 0/832. According to the calculated factor load, all the mentioned indicators have a positive and significant effect on knowledge sharing through information technology. Accordingly, the mediating role of information technology in influencing information literacy on knowledge sharing was confirmed. In general, according to the value of the standard factor of information literacy on knowledge sharing value of 0/870 and the value of t statistic (t = 46/144>1/96), one can conclude that the index of information literacy through information technologies has a positive and significant effect on the process of knowledge sharing among public library staff.

Originality/value: 

This research has investigated for the first time the effect of information literacy and information technology on knowledge sharing in the public libraries of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces. In this regard, the present research is considered innovative. Research findings indicate that information literacy affects knowledge sharing either directly or through communication information technologies. Thus, the impact of all dimensions of information literacy on knowledge sharing has significantly increased under the influence of information technologies.