نشریه مطالعات کتابداری و علم اطلاعات
سال سیزدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 38، زمستان 1400)

Creating knowledge in the organization and transforming it depends on the skill and ability of the skilled manpower. The success of employee empowerment also depends on factors and obstacles. The present study seeks to empower librarians of Iran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences to create and transfer knowledge.

This research is one of the applied research that has been done by survey-correlation method. The study population consisted of two universities, Iran University of Medical Sciences with 76 librarians and Tehran University of Medical Sciences with 61 librarians, which totaled 137 librarians. According to Morgan's table, 104 people were selected. Data were collected randomly. Two standard questionnaires, Spritzer Empowerment (1995), and Newman & Conrad Knowledge Management (1999), were used for data collection. The Spritzer Questionnaire has five components (competence, affectivity, sense of meaning, choice, trust), and the Newman and Conrad model has four components (knowledge creation, knowledge retention, knowledge transfer and transfer, and knowledge utilization). In this study, two components of knowledge creation and knowledge transfer are considered. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis with Pearson (for normal explanatory data) and Spearman (for nominal qualitative data) tests. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 23, and the impact of empowerment factors on knowledge creation and transfer of community librarians' knowledge to the structural model of Amos software was used.

Findings:

The findings of the present study indicate that there is a significant relationship between individual factors and knowledge creation. There is a significant relationship between gender and education with knowledge transfer. There is a significant relationship between group factors (sense of trust and sense of meaning) and knowledge creation and transfer. There was no significant relationship between group factors (competence, choice, and affectivity) and knowledge creation and transfer. As empowerment increases, knowledge creation and transfer among librarians increases, and empowerment decreases as knowledge creation and transfer among librarians decreases. Many factors affect empowerment, but according to the results of the present study, individual and group factors (gender, level of education, sense of trust, and meaningful feeling) had the greatest impact on empowering librarians to create and transfer knowledge.

Findings showed that there is a significant relationship between individual factors and knowledge creation. But there is no significant relationship between individual factors and knowledge transfer.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between demographic factors and unplanned behavior of users in the use of academic libraries resources and services.

The present study is an applied research using a survey method. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The face and content validity were employed to measure the validity of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha for the variables was calculated and obtained higher than 0.7, so the reliability of the questionnaire was also confirmed. 69351students who were members of the central libraries in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Pardis of Tehran University, Tabriz, and Shiraz Universities composed the research population. The sample size was estimated 382 people according to Krejcie and Morgan tables. A stratified sampling with randomized strata proportional to the population was used to collect data. The data were analyzed implementing SPSS software.

According to research findings, age, educational grade and rate of referral to academic libraries have a significant relationship with their unplanned behavior in using the resources and services of this type of libraries. There was also no significant difference between gender, university and student educational groups with their planned behavior in utilizing university library resources and services.

The academic libraries must, in order to optimize use of resources and services, attracted audiences, and increased level of awareness and information of users pay special attention to be effective demographic factors on the unplanned behavior of users.

In today’s knowledge society, it is vital to use the experiences gained by directors and chancellors of organizations and their experts for success and educate new directors. But unfortunately, in higher education and especially in research centers and institutes, despite the important role of experience, documentation of experiences and the tacit knowledge are neglected for several reasons such as: lack of culture of writing, vagueness of the concept of organizational experience, lack of a proper method for documentation and sharing it, and lack of legal and supportive infrastructure. Accordingly, efforts should be made to extract accumulated knowledge in the minds of Chancellors and deputies of research centers and institutes, by documentation of experiences.  So, it will be possible to share knowledge and experience among new Chancellors and deputies. Therefore, the knowledge stored in research centers and institutes become a permanent usable resource. This study aimed to provide a model for establishing and improving of tacit knowledge sharing network in higher education. 

This research was developmental and applied research. In this research, according to the subject and nature of the research, the research method was exploratory mixed method and. Therefore, this research began with a qualitative method and continued with the quantitative method for the generalization of the findings to the statistical population. In qualitative section, interview was used for data gathering. The questions of interview selected through literature review and consultation with some experts. It is notable that the interviews were semi-structured. Participants in qualitative section were experienced experts (Chancellors and deputies of research centers and institutes), theoretical experts (experts in the field of higher education), and experts in the field of experiences documentation. Some participants were experts in two or three fields of expertise. After implementing the interviews, an open coding method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Then, by calculating the reliability and validity, based on the gathered data, a questionnaire was developed. In the next phase, validity and reliability (by calculating Cronbach’s alpha) of questionnaire were confirmed and the questionnaire sent to the statistical population of the study (including all Chancellors and deputies, Heads of Offices of Chancellors and deputies, and Heads of Public Relations in research centers and institutes affiliated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Research). Also, in quantitative phase, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the collected data. 

One objective of study was to establish and improve the tacit knowledge sharing network in higher education. The other objective was to develop a model for documentation of experiences of chancellors and deputies of research centers and institutes in Iran. The findings indicated that four basic steps were involved in the process of establishing a knowledge sharing network and experiences and documenting organizational experiences of research institutes chancellors, which were the main pillar of the model.According to the results, the model had four factors including: documentation policy-making, documentation planning, documentation implementation, and monitoring, control, and sharing. The factors divided to 11 steps and 31 activities. Each activities complete one-step in the process. The model had a circle form to show that there was no stopping point in documenting experiences and at the moment the documentation of the experiences was completed and shared, a new stage of documentation of experiences begin to complete the previous experiences. 

To document experiences in higher education, organizational and extra organizational policies should be reviewed and amended as necessary. Also, the documentation cycle of an experience never ends and is always reviewed and modified. In the issue of documenting experiences and sharing them, we are confronted with two related issues. But both have common prerequisites. The prerequisite for documenting organizational experiences and sharing tacit knowledge and experience in Iranian research institutes and centers includes: academic policy, legal support, organizational climate, academic culture, and individual culture. Research institutes and centers need policy and legal infrastructure to create contexts for documenting experiences and implicit knowledge sharing. Accordingly, efforts should be made to extract accumulated knowledge in the minds of Chancellors and deputies of research centers and institutes, by documentation of experiences. So, it will be possible to share knowledge and experience among new Chancellors and deputies. Therefore, the knowledge stored in research centers and institutes become a permanent usable resource. If Ministry of Science, Research and Technology would like to document organizational experiences, and to avoid trial and error at research institutions, it is suggested that the real will for documentation of experiences be developed in Higher Education Directors. Also, policy and legal and judicial issues in this regard be developed. It is suggested that the issue of documentation of organizational experience be included in the appointment of all chancellors of research institutions. Through the Board of Trustees, the subject of documentation of organizational experiences is cited as mission or vision. Finally, it is suggested to set up supportive and incentive laws (such as financial or spiritual, promotion laws, etc.) to support documentary makers and users of experiences.

Considering the importance of theory building in scientific progress and development, the Iranian policy-makers have focused on this issue in policy-documents related to science, technology, and innovation. But it seems that in spite of the importance of this phenomenon in Iran, theory building has not been able to make significant progress. The purpose of this study is to examine the extra-organizational barriers to the growth of theory building capacity in Iran.

Through a qualitative approach and Miles and Huberman method for analyzing qualitative data, 12 experts at Tarbiat Modarres University have been interviewed, and gathered data were analyzed and coded by MAXQDA software. Thus, extracted codes categorized in major themes to address research questions.

According to the findings, the barriers to the theory building can be categorized into organizational and meta-organizational groups. Since the focus of this study is on extra-organizational barriers, these barriers can be found in seven general categories, namely, the weak link between science and society, country's economic challenges, ineffective management of higher education, inefficient higher education, the difficulty of theory building, inappropriate educational policy, and inappropriate research policy.

Originality: 

Theory building is one of the key phenomena of higher education, which should not be neglected in the scientific progress; the first step towards realizing this phenomenon is identifying obstacles and challenges in this regards. The present study is conducted through a qualitative approach which provides an overview of the barriers of the theory building and allows policy-makers to think differently about the matter.

Information growth and recognition of its values is important in personal and professional life for everyone. Thus, it is important to learn special skills in information seeking process during formal education. This study aimed to examine Information behavior of users of public libraries on the World Wide Web.

The present research was conducted qualitatively, with a phenomenological approach, taking individuals as units of analysis. The research population was all users of public libraries in Saqez city. The sample size of this study was based on the saturation criterion of 25 people.

Analyzing the data revealed five main themes for users of public libraries in Saqez city experiences of the internet, each having some sub-themes.

The results of this research can be of benefit to the individual, families and authorities. An important issue in this research is the need to educate users to understand the positive and negative aspects of the World Wide Web to make informed choices about resources and information. As well as the necessity of increasing the speed of the Internet and computer systems in public libraries and sending current awareness services, listing the contents of specialized journals and ... to the users' mail.

This study examined the relationship between the properties and use of office automation system with the mediated role of system quality.

The tudy is applied research and has done by using analytical survey methods. Research population included all 10082 users of automation system. Using stratified sampling method by Morgan table 384 employees was selected. Data were collected using the questionnaire with validity (α =% 94).

The results showed that the observed values of attitudes in terms of users (90%), pleasure (94.4 %), confidence (76%) and expectations from information technology (91%); in terms of the quality system. (79%), Information quality (81%) and quality of service (73%) and the use of automation system (83%) at the P value level (P

The main purpose of this research is a survey the gap between their expectations and perceived performance of SAMAN capabilities based on the expectation-confirmation theory.

This research is functional and the method of the survey is descriptive-analytical approach. Statistical study of this research is All 220 librarians working in public libraries in the province of Khorasan Razavi that use SAMAN software. The data collection tool is questionnaire. In order to access the reliability of the data collection tool, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used.

Findings showed that the gap between expectations and perceived performance is -0/415. Although, the results showed that there is little gap between expectations and perceived performance, but librarians expressed their satisfaction higher than average (3/519).

The overall result indicates that SAMAN designers should try to fill this gap by the consideration of librarians changing expectations in order to cause SAMAN capabilities more usefulness.

In the nature of all people, there is a desire for beauty and order and discipline. People are tired of being unconsciously tired of bedbugs, as well as confused. Tidy and orderly as well as beautifying the environment can make the environment happier and therefore more pleasant for the staff and clients, and this makes the mobility, learning and passion for work and service and service more and more. Ultimately, it will satisfy both parties. Libraries are no exception. The library should be so attractive that it will attract people. In the meantime, there appear to be a number of factors that have prevented this attraction and, as a result, the appeal to public libraries. The exterior and interior of the library appear to be very effective in this appeal, though the primary responsibility for designing and implementing decent and convenient buildings for public libraries is not borne by librarians, but the chief authority is delegated to civil engineers but staff and librarians. Public libraries can also make use of the criteria and parameters obtained in this applied research to make the most of the limited opportunities available to them and to the extent possible to make the public library environment happierIn this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of juvenile public libraries on attracting users among public librarians in Kermanshah. The present study sought to test these hypotheses:. 1. Environmental sourcing has an impact on the attraction of users.2. Environmental makeup has an impact on the attraction of users.3. The environment has an impact on the attraction of users.4. The welfare sector has an impact on the attraction of users.5. Environmental elements affect the attraction of users

This research is a kind of applied research that has been done in descriptive-survey method. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the juxtaposition of public library environments on user attraction. The study population consisted of the public libraries of Kermanshah which according to the statistics of the Kermanshah Public Libraries Office by the end of September 1977 consisted of 24087 people including 9884 men and 14203 women. A stratified random sampling method was used to select the samples (each library was considered as one class). The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The required sample size was 378 based on Cochran's formula with 5% error rate. The questionnaires were then distributed to the public libraries of Kermanshah. It was collected directly by the researcher on site and finally 378 questionnaires were collected. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics (frequency distribution table, minimum and maximum score, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (simple and multiple regression).

The results of this research in the field of testing hypotheses are as follows:• The adjusted coefficient of determination for environmental sourcing is 0.103, which can account for 10.3% of the variation in the amount of users' absorption rate using the environmental sourcing variable. As a result, the first sub-hypothesis of the research is confirmed.• The adjusted coefficient of determination for environmental makeup is 0.144, which can account for 14.4% of the variation in the amount of user absorption using the environmental makeup variable. As a result, the second sub-hypothesis of the research is confirmed.• The adjusted coefficient of determination for the environmental space is 0.087, which can account for 8.7% of the variation in the amount of user absorption by using the environmental variable. As a result, the third sub-hypothesis of the research is confirmed.• The adjusted coefficient of determination for the welfare dimension is 0.224, which can be predicted by 24.7% of the variation in the amount of user absorption using the welfare sector variable. As a result, the fourth sub-hypothesis of the research is confirmed.• The adjusted coefficient of determination for environmental elements is 0.099, which can account for 9.9% of the variation in the amount of users' absorption by using environmental variables. As a result, the fifth sub-hypothesis of the research is confirmed.

From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the factors affecting the attractiveness of public libraries among the public librarians of Kermanshah affect the attractiveness of public libraries. Therefore, public librarians should aim to enhance the vibrancy of library environments. Some of the operational recommendations derived from the results of this study are:Managing book volumes on shelves, reducing congestion on the desk, increasing the number of desks and chairs, removing unused equipment and more.Proper layout of shelves, convenient access to the library repository, placing pots and decorative objects in the library, arranging sofas and chairs in the right place, signboard readability and more.Consider a convenient location for users to relax, appropriate library access conditions and the green space around the library.