نشریه تحقیقات اطلاع رسانی و کتابخانه های عمومی
پیاپی 110 (پاییز 1401)

The current research was conducted with the aim of identifying the types of services, opportunities, capacities and challenges of public libraries in providing health information from the texts of this field.

The research method is a systematic literature review, and the systematic study framework of Kitchenham and Charters was used to carry out it. By identifying the databases and query terms, searches were conducted and finally, by refining the sources and applying the entry and exit criteria to the research, 37 sources in English and 3 sources in Farsi were entered into the systematic review. The research tool was a checklist type. The information obtained by summarizing the contents is presented in the form of a table.

The results show that the types of services include six general categories of health information, social determinants of health, health literacy education, direct provision of health services, promotion of physical mobility, and alternative and complementary care services. Capacities were categorized into four general categories: human resources, resources, library functions, and fundamental values of libraries. The opportunities included four general categories: using the capacity of other organizations, strengthening human resources, providing a place to provide health services, and increasing community resilience in crises. Finally, the challenges included: nature of the issue, libraries policy, budget, resources, equipment and technology, space, services, inter-organizational cooperation, specialized human resources, communication with clients, and client problems.

Originality/Value:

 Considering the status of providing health information services in Iran’s public libraries’ service portfolio, awareness of the types of services, capacities, opportunities, and challenges of public libraries in the world in providing health information to citizens is useful for designing or providing health information services in Iranian libraries.

Public libraries are faced with technological changes and unknown issues that can change their identity and mission in charting the future path for their role in social developments. In line with the use of new approaches to redefine the mission of libraries, the present research intends to provide a vision for Iran’s public libraries by using the implications of resilience theory.

This research was designed and implemented in the form of a three-step process: 1. studying the implications of the characteristics of a resilient system, 2. Environmental scanning through literature review by searching for research and review articles, books and reports in English language related to the subject indexed in Scopus and Google Scholar databases without applying time limits, and 3. prospecting.

A resilient library has the characteristics of diversity, changeability, modularity, acceptance of slow variables, intensive feedback, social capital, innovation, ecosystem services, redundancy and publics. Among the general examples of using these features in public libraries are: using technologies at different levels and updating resources and services and library space; intellectual and skill preparation of librarians and continuous monitoring of previous experience and knowledge and current conditions; dividing the library into different departments and its federal administration; Pathology in libraries and continuous identification and follow-up of changes, though small, in various dimensions of human, environment and technology; Follow-up by managers of the conditions of each department and continuous follow-up and analysis of users’ opinions in order to satisfy them; Providing a communication platform and providing social information services in order to strengthen social capital, social cohesion, and social justice; Innovation in the thinking and action of librarians and their decisions and services; and identifying and introducing the highlights of the library to attract more audience. The future library is a phygital platform and a built space for shared co-creation. Resilient library as an experience center is a point of access for citizens to emerging technologies and a platform for popularizing science and practicing civil epistemology. The future library has a modular management structure and is a place for learning, re-learning and more importantly going beyond previous learning.

Originality/value: 

Resilience theory has been developed to describe and address the inherent uncertainty and insecurity of major changes of systems, acknowledging that we live in a state of constant change and that there is no point in the future where we can expect everything to be static and optimal. take Therefore, libraries should not focus their energy on creating ways to continue the usual and traditional services in the future, but should look for ways to adapt intelligently to changes. The current research can be a good guide in this field for public libraries.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of leaderboard on the reading rate of elementary school students.

The research method is a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the present study includes all second-grade students in Karaj schools, from among whom 120 students of one school (80 for the experimental group and 40 for the control group) were selected as a sample using the available sampling method. and were randomly placed in two experimental groups and one control group. The control group received regular training without the intervention of the leaderboard; The first experimental group received training with an individual leaderboard, and the second experimental group received training with a group leaderboard. The research tool includes a researcher-made checklist made whose face validity was checked by the primary school teachers and its reliability was checked by the agreement between the coders using the intra-class reliability coefficient method and it was confirmed by 100%. At the end, the data of this research were analyzed by using one-variable analysis of covariance using SPSS software.

The findings of the research showed that the difference in the adjusted average of the three groups in the reading rate variable is significant (P<0.01, F=94.85). This finding means that there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the average score of the reading rate and after using the leaderboard, the reading rate of the students in the experimental groups has increased compared to the students in the control group. Furthermore, the difference in the mean of the reading rate variable between the two groups under training is not significant (P>0.05). As a result, the effect of two educational interventions, group and individual leaderboard on increasing students’ reading rate is almost at the same level.

Originality/value:

 The results of this research showed that both group and individual leader board educational interventions have a significant effect on increasing the amount of study of students. A good leaderboard supports competence and autonomy, and the connectedness and satisfaction that comes when you feel understood and loved by the people you care about, and a sense of closeness to the people you play with. In addition, another aspect of leaderboard as a gamification element is the collaborative atmosphere. This feature allows students to work collaboratively through pair or group work because all activities can be solved individually or in groups. In addition, this aspect of leaderboard makes students more involved in the class and participate in the class.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the privacy statements of the top public libraries based on the ranking of public libraries by the American Library Association and to present a user privacy statement for Iran’s public libraries.

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and is a type of mixed research in terms of method, in which library, Delphi, and descriptive survey methods were used. In order to answer the research questions, first by visiting the websites of the public libraries under review, their privacy statements or information confidentiality statements (if any) were extracted. In the second step, those libraries who had a privacy statement in the first step were identified, and then their statements were examined and the basic principles common to most libraries were extracted. Then, a list of various information collected by the libraries from users (based on the main criteria of the users’ privacy statement) was prepared. Then, using the Delphi method, this list was provided to 12 librarians and public library specialists who were selected by snowball sampling. Thus the main information that was provided to the libraries by the users and the reports of the users’ performance by library systems were determined. In the last step, according to the obtained results, the privacy statements of the users’ information were compiled based on the extracted information.

The findings showed that out of the 25 libraries examined, 24 libraries had provided user privacy statements on their website. Furthermore, the results indicated that the statement of the Chicago Public Library was the most comprehensive statement, and among the factors mentioned, the discussion of the library’s strategies regarding the use of records of the library systems, the records related to the user profile of the library users, and the reasons for presenting and publishing the users’ information were the most frequent. Finally, the main sections that should be included in the users’ privacy statement were presented, and strategies for public libraries in providing user privacy statements were suggested.

Originality/value:

 The results of the research showed the importance of the existence of the user privacy statement in the top public libraries, and finally, the basic principles proposed for the user privacy statement in public libraries were presented and 30 strategies were suggested to prepare a privacy statement for public libraries.

The role of public libraries as one of the infrastructures of the information society and an important center in lifelong education to the society and the development of information literacy skills to the audience; It is always very important. The present paper aims to conduct an exploratory study on the status of information literacy in upstream documents and curriculums of Iran public libraries institutions for public libraries.

This is a developmental exploratory-qualitative study in terms of purpose. Research data were collected using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with policymakers and officials of public libraries. Data were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis and Colaizzi methods through MaxQDA 12. Items validity was verified using content validity by information literacy experts, and the coding reliability coefficient was measured using the Holsty formula.

A total of 313 codes were extracted from interviews, among which 69 open-ended codes for the three items of information literacy significance, 39 open-ended codes for three items of upstream documents, 55 open-ended codes for the three items of information literacy training plans for the target audience, 118 open-ended codes with two main items, and two sub-items of information literacy gaps and causes of gaps, and 32 open-ended codes with four items of information literacy improved status strategies were categorized. Lack of coherent and integrated educational programs in the institution’s upper level documents, passing and limited references to information literacy skills, slow revision of upper level documents and notices, lack of presence of librarians and information literacy experts in the country in compiling documents, lack of upper level view of concepts Information literacy skill-oriented, in the institution’s upstream documents, are among the most important deficiencies in relation to information literacy skills in the programs of public libraries of the country.

Originality/value:

 Research findings showed that planning and implementing information literacy skill development programs in Iran public libraries suffer from poor status in practice and upstream documents. Hence, it is necessary to use a comprehensive plan to deal with information literacy skills in upstream documents of Iran public libraries. Therefore, it is necessary for the institution of public libraries of the country to improve its strategic policies, organizational structure and culture, operational plans and current measures in this field. Adding new issues to the upstream documents and revisions of relevant rules would lead to achieving the desired condition and deepening information literacy status in Iran public libraries. Thus, it effectively contributes to training and improving information literacy skills among Iran public libraries attendees. The result of these efforts will be giving place and creating value to the concepts and skill components of information literacy in Iran’s public libraries in order to empower the audience.

This study aims to design and implement a comprehensive database of the written heritage of science and technology in the Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICeST) and determine the metadata elements required to describe the manuscripts.

This research was carried out by the content analysis method to identify the metadata elements needed to describe the collection of manuscripts. The study population includes a microfiche collection of Arabic manuscripts in RICeST in science and technology, including Encyclopedias, Protosciences, Medicine, Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography, and Miscellaneous works (about 1203 manuscripts). Due to the study’s comprehensiveness, all manuscripts in science and technology were considered, and sampling was not performed. The data gathering method was structured or systematic observation (of non–participant type), and the data gathering tool was a checklist.

The metadata elements were first identified through a process including a review of the studies conducted in this field, an analysis of manuscript databases available inside and outside the country, and an examination of the specific needs, vision, and policies of the RICeST, and then design of the database was carried out in seven stages. These stages include identifying and organizing manuscript microfiches, identifying metadata elements to describe manuscripts, identifying appropriate software and developing the manuscript data entry form in the database, digitizing the manuscript microfiches collection, documenting and cataloging the manuscripts, data entry into the database, and uploading files, and evaluating and editing the information entered in the database. This collection is currently available at https://manuscript.ricest.ac.ir.

Originality/value: 

The mission of the RICeST in disseminating written knowledge and the need to organize, digitize and make manuscripts accessible to users made it necessary to conduct research in order to identify the required metadata elements and design the ‘comprehensive database of the written heritage of science and technology’. Given the emphasis of the RICeST on the fields of science and technology, in the first step, creating a database for these fields was prioritized. As an educational and research support for Iran’ universities and scientific centers, this database can solve some of the information needs of the scientific community at the national and regional levels. One of the features of the present research is the selection of required metadata elements according to the characteristics of the Iranian-Islamic context and relying on the studies conducted in this field to provide users with suitable access points for effective retrieval of manuscripts. The content coverage of the database and the variety of its metadata elements are such that different groups of audiences (including general users, researchers, students, copyists, etc.) can benefit from its services depending on the type of needs. This research brought valuable achievements and outputs in different phases, including preparing a manual for manuscript cataloging and data entry, creating a comprehensive manuscript database, equipping and launching a manuscript section in RICeST, training human resources for cataloging manuscripts, holding several workshops, interacting with other manuscript centers in Iran and creating areas for cooperation, and providing a bibliography for all references used in the process of documenting and cataloging manuscripts.