نشریه تحقیقات اطلاع رسانی و کتابخانه های عمومی
پیاپی 58 (پاییز 1388)

The present research studies the level of information literacy among librarians of public libraries in Khuzestan province with the purpose of identifying their potential strengths and weaknesses. The statistical population in this study includes all librarians of public libraries in Khuzestan province. To collect information, a questionnaire made by the researcher was used which was composed of 44 questions. The research was performed by survey method and the obtained data was analyzed via SPSS software and descriptive statistics. Results of the study showed that, most of the statistical population under study is composed of women, the persons with the age under 35 years old, and technicians. The findings indicate that the mentioned librarians are at desirable level in following skills: correct understanding of their information needs; the ability of combining new information with previous knowledge and generating new knowledge; evaluating the result of search process with regard to satisfying their information needs; and level of commitment to copyright and to legal and social limitations for making use of information. On the other hand, they are at medium level in following skills: information search strategies in printed form; creative and suitable use of the technology with the aim of creating novel productions and functions; organizing as well as making notes in concise form from information resources and documents; and determining and identifying the main points existing in the information. Additionally, the librarians under study are at undesirable level in following skills: information search strategies in electronic format; taking advantage of online and offline information databases; making use of facilities and characteristics of search engines, discussion groups, and news groups in internet; referencing printed and electronic resources; design and selection of the most appropriate and effective method for access to information; and determining the level of consulting with other librarians and subject specialists in information retrieval. Research findings also indicate that, information literacy of mentioned librarians is not in suitable and desirable conditions. Finally, several suggestions have been made to improve the existing status.

The present study aims to determine and investigate the contribution of serial publications in scientific output of faculty members in human sciences departments (departments of literature and human sciences, educational sciences, social sciences, management, and economics) of Shiraz University indexed in “Web of Science” during 1998 and 2007. The statistical population included 1067 citations in 51 articles indexed in citation indices SSCI and A&HCI. This study has been carried out by citation analysis method. In the present research, contribution of serial publications in comparison with other information resources, language of the cited publications, amount of referencing to journals with ranking in journals citation report (JCR), determination of core journals based on Bradford law, and concordance of the list of journals with highest number of citations with the similar list of Shiraz University. The obtained results showed that the serial publications have a significant role in generation of scientific information by faculty members of human sciences departments in Shiraz University, such that citing these resources is 68%.

Taking advantage of survey method, the present research investigates the study needs and interests of young members in their free time in the public libraries under supervision of Iranian public libraries institution in Tehran. The main goal of the study is to identify and determine the study needs and interests of the mentioned population, and aims to recognize the study purpose, motivation, and interests of young members of the public libraries, as well as to determine the most significant facilities for their free time. Among 53251 young members, 600 of them were selected by clustering sampling method proportionate to size of each zone. The questionnaire was used to collect data. Findings of the study indicated that most members, i.e. 39% of them, visit the libraries in order to pass their free time. Therefore, it can be stated that the libraries have a critical role in filling the free time of library members. In addition, more in-depth analysis of the study findings reveals that in all parts of Tehran, especially in its south and central parts, the libraries play a crucial role in filling the free time of young library members. With abundance distribution of 44.2%, novel is the subject to which most members show interest and pay attention. Sport subjects, art topics, and comic subjects are at next levels with abundance distributions of 20.1%, 15.1%, and 13.6%, respectively.

Especially in research centers, evaluating the quality of web pages from client's point of view has a constructive role in their design and development, since it makes the web developers familiar with client's perspective and assists them in designing client-oriented web sites in scientific and research environment. As a model for assessing the quality of web pages, "webQual" attempts to provide a picture of web site's quality from client's standpoint in existing and expected status. In current research, we have tried to evaluate and study the quality of web pages of research centers dependent to Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology located in Tehran through survey-analytical approach using the newest version of "webQual" model which is called "eQual". Based upon "webQual" model, "eQual" model seeks to evaluate the existing and expected quality of web pages from client's perspective. Findings of the study indicate that, there is a significant difference between the existing and expected quality of these web pages from client's viewpoint. As a final point, ideas and suggestions have been provided so as to improve the quality of these pages.

The current study is devoted to investigate softwares for managing and providing Persian thesaurus. Therefore, using survey-descriptive method, we have analyzed five thesaurus management softwares, including the softwares “Islamic sciences thesaurus”, “Thesaurus Builder”, “Pars Azarakhsh”, “Ghamoos” and “Ebrahimpoor published version”, along with four softwares for providing thesaurus, including the softwares “Islamic sciences thesaurus”, “Thesaurus Builder”, “Ghamoos” and “Ebrahimpoor published version”, regarding the general and functional criteria existing in the survey list. The results obtained from this study indicate that with regard to observing functional criteria, the softwares “Thesaurus Builder” and “Pars Azarakhsh” gained the highest rank among thesaurus management softwares while the softwares “Islamic sciences thesaurus” and “Thesaurus Builder” ranked the highest among the softwares for providing thesaurus. On the other hand, the highest scores for observing general criteria were assigned to the softwares “Thesaurus Builder” and “Islamic sciences thesaurus”. In general, “Thesaurus Builder” software possesses the most facilities among the above mentioned softwares.

Nowadays, English publications are considered as one of the significant and essential resources in university libraries. Enhancement of the price of publications along with the increase in number of published journals has made it difficult for libraries to provide all the information needed by researchers. Therefore, the necessity of a criterion for selecting superior journals is increasingly felt. Making use of sciences citation indices and journals citation report, the journals with highest number of citations related to a scientific field can be recognized and utilized in making policy for collection development in libraries and information centers. Due to their interesting applications in analysis of serial publications, citation analysis studies are attractive to experts in selection of information resources. Ranked lists of publications yielded from this method are considered an appropriate resource for journals selection and are hence employed in numerous libraries. Besides introducing citation analysis and its applications and types of citation indices, the present paper attempts to make librarians and LIS students familiar with application and role of journals citation report in selection of English publications in university and specialized libraries.

The present study aims to investigate the status and amount of self-citation in papers written by faculty members of University of Tehran in journals "Social Sciences Letters" and "Geographical Studies" during 1999 and 2008. To reach the goal, 212 papers were scrutinized using citation analysis method, which included 4565 citations. The research findings indicate that a considerable number of the articles, i.e. approximately half of them, in these two journals include self-citation. In addition, one third of the authors have used self-citation in their papers. The average level of self-citation in the journals “Social Sciences Letters” and “Geographical Studies” was obtained to be 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively. Annual investigation of the articles revealed that self-citation does not occur with a regulated rate, and that regarding the document type, the most cited documents in the journals’ articles were the articles previously published in these two journals. Furthermore, a significant difference exists between the amount of self-citation and number of authors in articles. Scrutinizing the self-citation life cycle, it was also identified that about 46% of self-citations are in a two-year time period before the publication of the corresponding papers and that, the authors in their citation behavior have more cited their own recent articles.

The present study tries to assess the appearance, impact factor, and number of visits regarding the websites of the medical sciences universities, dependent to Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education. To reach the goal, 41 of such websites were investigated considering their appearance using a control list composed of 59 factors. Furthermore, number of indexed pages of each website, number of all links, inlinks, self-links, total impact factor, as well as received impact factor of these websites were analyzed in order to evaluate their visibility and impact. In addition, in the current research number of visits of the mentioned websites and factors such as traffic rank in Iran and in the world, percentage of web clients who have viewed the mentioned sites, average number of pages viewed by clients, and level of view inside and outside Iran were extracted and studied based upon ALEXA site. Findings of the study indicate that, websites of Shiraz and Iran Medical Sciences Universities are in best conditions regarding design. The highest number of links and inlinks belonged to Tehran Medical Sciences University and the highest number of self-links relates to Mashhad Medical Sciences University. The highest total impact factor pertains to Shahroud and Iran Medical Sciences Universities, while the highest received impact factor belongs to websites of Isfahan and Gilan Medical Sciences Universities. Moreover, websites of Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad Medical Sciences Universities have the highest traffic rank in Iran and in the world, in descending order.