Status of Preparing and Purchasing the Electronic Resources in Tehran Governmental Specialized Libraries from Viewpoint of Library Manager

The present research has been devoted to study the status of preparing and purchasing the electronic resources in Tehran governmental specialized libraries from viewpoint of library managers, and it surveys current status of electronic resources, how they are prepared and purchased, and problems of preparing these resources in Tehran governmental specialized libraries.The methodology of this research is of survey-descriptive type, in which data collection was accomplished by a questionnaire. The population under study included 86 managers of Tehran governmental specialized libraries, among which 60 of them (70%) filled the questionnaire and hand it out, so the findings are based on data collected by these 60 questionnaires. Analysis of this study by descriptive statistics was achieved using Excel and SPSS software.The findings that no electronic resources existed in 10 libraries; 28 libraries possessed all three types of electronic resources (books, journals, and databases); one or two types of electronic resources existed in 22 libraries. In most specialized libraries the electronic resources existed, but their amount is very few for specialized libraries considering the increasing growth of such resources in libraries worldwide as well as the advantages of electronic resources. Major problems in preparing electronic resources were expressed as cost of purchasing them, cost of purchasing equipments necessary for using these resources, and making decision for choosing the type of electronic resources. In most specialized libraries in Tehran less than 10% of the library’s budget is allocated to preparing and purchasing the three types of electronic resources.Though numerous studies have been performed concerning electronic resources and related issues, the status of preparing and purchasing these resources from viewpoint of library managers have not received much attention. The obtained results of this research helps the organizations and institutions which make decision in publication of electronic resources to gain more understanding of the current status of electronic resources and the level of purchasing these resources in specialized libraries, so as to make changes in their policies for production and providing the electronic resources. Furthermore, the findings of this study can be regarded as a criterion for evaluating how much the specialized libraries are updated and efficient.