Shabnam Shahini; Gholamreza Heidari; Abdolhosein Farajpahlou
Abstract
This research attempted to investigate the e-readiness of academic libraries in Ahvaz from the viewpoints of their directors and librarians to identify their strengths and weaknesses in terms of e-readiness dimensions, and to offer suggestions to improve their services. The research is of a descriptive-analytic ...
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This research attempted to investigate the e-readiness of academic libraries in Ahvaz from the viewpoints of their directors and librarians to identify their strengths and weaknesses in terms of e-readiness dimensions, and to offer suggestions to improve their services. The research is of a descriptive-analytic type and a survey method was used. This study used Noorafruz, Hariri, and Hanafizadeh model (2010) and the model based on IUP (Mutula & Van Brakel, 2006) presented by Noroozi and Jafarpur (2011) as well as the international STOPE model used in Badamchi Wayghan (2012) to formulate three questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaires was determined using facial validity method and the reliability of the questionnaires was measured through Cronbach’s Alpha. Descriptive statistics including frequency, frequency percentage and mean were used. To determine the normality of distribution of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirinov test was applied. To measure the e-readiness dimensions of the libraries One-sample t-test was used. Findings showed that in general, the libraries are at “medium’ level in e-readiness. The libraries were not significantly different in terms of different dimensions of e-readiness; however, directors were significantly different in their e-readiness. It seems that libraries need to reconsider every aspects of e-readiness to reach a level of readiness appropriate for the information society of today. Since it is important to pave the path for every dimension of e-readiness to serve the clients better, library directors and university chancellors must focus on these dimensions.
Shabnam Shahiny; Seyyedeh Sedigheh taherzadeh Mousavian; zahed Bigdeli
Abstract
Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to investigate historical trends of user education in libraries. It also attempted to ask librarians to assess their readiness to train their users. Method: This research was conducted in two phases, following a descriptive-analytical approach. In the first ...
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Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to investigate historical trends of user education in libraries. It also attempted to ask librarians to assess their readiness to train their users. Method: This research was conducted in two phases, following a descriptive-analytical approach. In the first part the relevant materials were examined. For the second part, a questionnaire was developed which consisted of 23 questions and proved to be valid and reliable with a Cronbach’s Alpha calculated as 0.90. The research population consisted of all 80 librarians of both universities; however, 56 questionnaires were used in data analyses. Findings/Results: The results showed that librarians at both universities found their capabilities in training users as “to some extent” and the only item with high competency was “enjoying teaching”. Conclusion: Due to the widespread and increasing presence of new information and communication technologies, and because of absolute necessity of teaching library users, it is essential for academic libraries to offer theoretical education and training to librarians to familiarize them with topics and with teaching principles. This will pave the path to more productivity of the library resources and services, as well as to promote librarians social status.
