Marzieh Golabian Moghadam; Iraj Radad; Hassan Behzadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: With the spread of library software and the need to use it in libraries, the issue of evaluating their capabilities, the way users interact with them, and the factors influencing acceptance or non-acceptance, has become an important challenge and a fundamental aim, and researchers ...
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Background and Objectives: With the spread of library software and the need to use it in libraries, the issue of evaluating their capabilities, the way users interact with them, and the factors influencing acceptance or non-acceptance, has become an important challenge and a fundamental aim, and researchers in the field of information technology and even librarians have become interested in this field of research. To investigate this interaction, researchers use different models that called technology acceptance models. Among the various models used in this field, the expectation-confirmation theory is the most important and practical one. Based on this, since the most important factor for determining the success or failure of a library software is the users, and since determining the level of user satisfaction in interacting with computer systems is one of the important aspects of determining the efficiency of those systems, the purpose of present study is determining the gap between the librarians' expectations of the capabilities of the system and their perceived usefulness, based on the expectation-confirmation theory. Methodology: This research is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of implementation method, it is a survey with a descriptive-analytical approach. The statistical population of this research is all the librarians working in public libraries of Khorasan Razavi province who use the “Saman” system. The number of librarians who use the “Saman” system in Khorasan Razavi province is 220, and the sample size was determined using Cochran's formula. Therefore, the sample size of 141 people was selected and finally 130 questionnaires were completed and returned. The data collection tool in this research is a researcher-made questionnaire in which questions with a five-point Likert scale from “very little” to “very much” are included. This questionnaire was prepared by reviewing literature of the researches and from the items of questionnaires and checklists that previous researchers had used in the evaluation of library software and information systems. In this questionnaire, the investigated capabilities including information display, help, search and retrieval, general capabilities, and loan section were evaluated. For the validity of the research questionnaire, in all stages of the questionnaire preparation, the opinions of experts in the field of information science from different universities of the country who specialized in the field of library software were used. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the data collection tool. Findings: The findings of the research showed that the average level of librarians' satisfaction with the functioning of the Saman system is higher than the average number of 3 (3.519); Therefore, librarians are highly satisfied with the performance of Saman system. Another finding of the research showed that the average expectations of librarians is equal to 3.935 and more than the average number of 3. Therefore, it can be said with 95% certainty that the expectations of librarians from the capabilities of the Saman system are also high. Also, the gap between librarians' expectations of the capabilities of the system and their perceived usefulness based on the expectation-confirmation theory is significant. Another finding of the research showed that there is a small gap between the average level of expectation and perceived level. The least gap was seen in the abilities of the loan section (-0.235) and the biggest gap was seen in the search and retrieval capabilities (-0.554). In general, the gap between the expectations of librarians from each of the features of the Saman system (information display, help, search and retrieval, general capabilities and loan section) and the perceived usefulness was also significant. Discussion: The results of the research show the appropriate efficiency of different capabilities of the Saman system, but in order to improve the reduction of the gap between the expectations and the perceived usefulness of the users of the Saman system, it is suggested that the designers and the support group of the Saman system, for bring the level of satisfaction and the level of expectations as close as possible, among active librarians interested in cooperation, select people and investigate and inquire about expectations and other components that can help the evolution of the Saman system. It is suggested that the designers of the Saman system periodically check and evaluate the expectations of the users so that they can move in line with the expectations of the users and gain their satisfaction.
Knowledge Management
jalal qasemian; Iraj Radad
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The present age is the age of rapid change of knowledge and organizations, in order to survive, must continuously collect appropriate data from external and internal environment and convert them to knowledge. Under such circumstances, knowledge, a valuable asset and strategic ...
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Background and Objectives: The present age is the age of rapid change of knowledge and organizations, in order to survive, must continuously collect appropriate data from external and internal environment and convert them to knowledge. Under such circumstances, knowledge, a valuable asset and strategic resource, has replaced capital and energy, and is a staple for sustaining life in dynamic and innovative organizations, and is the key to the success of organizations in global competition. Knowledge management is one of the tools that can help organizations achieve these goals. In addition, knowledge management provides the best solutions for developing, nurturing and utilizing personal knowledge and transforming it into organizational knowledge, as well as helping people to share and apply this organizational knowledge to improve organizational performance. Therefore, given the importance of the issue in large organizations, the existence of a knowledge management system is crucial. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the status of knowledge management implementation in the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center.
Methodology: The purpose of this study is an applied one that is a descriptive survey. The research population consisted of all managers and experts of the Islamic Revolution Documentation Center (80 people) who were not selected due to the limitations of the sampling population. The data gathering tool was Bucowitz & William 1999 Knowledge Management Questionnaire (Moghimi, 2011). Its face validity was confirmed by expert opinion and Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.82) was used for its reliability. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings: Findings showed that the mean score of seven dimensions of knowledge management implementation including high level knowledge (3.824 out of 5), high knowledge utilization (3.796), high learning knowledge (8.48), 3) High knowledge sharing (3.716), High knowledge sharing (3.830), High knowledge creation (3.808) and High knowledge removal (3.829), is. Overall, the mean obtained from the various stages in knowledge implementation was highly evaluated (3.807). The findings also showed that there is a significant difference between the managers 'and experts' viewpoints about the role of knowledge management on the development of services and efficiency as well as on the elements of knowledge management implementation.
Discussion: The results showed that the factors of finding, applying, learning, sharing, evaluating, creating/maintaining and deleting knowledge influence the implementation of knowledge management. The results showed that the knowledge management status based on this model is above average in the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Documentation Center and is in good condition. This reflects the attention of managers and experts to the importance and value of knowledge and its sharing and the attention to knowledge management programs. Among the seven factors studied, the mean of knowledge learning was higher than other factors. Also, among other factors, the knowledge sharing factor, which is the center of gravity of KM programs, although in a relatively good condition, but has the lowest average of all other factors. Therefore, increasing managers' attention to culture in this area through material incentives (salary increases, job promotion) and non-material incentives (encouragement, respect) and support for knowledge sharing management reinforces this factor in the Islamic Revolutionary Documents Center of Tehran. In other words, if existing cultural patterns are not appropriate, in spite of the efforts and goodwill of individuals to share knowledge, the knowledge that is transferred will be very low. On the other hand, the findings of the present study indicate that given the increasing importance of knowledge in organizations such as centers. Documents, knowledge management, will be a very useful tool to take advantage of it. If employees and managers as human capital believe that the implementation of KM helps to effectively maintain and maintain jobs, personal development and career development, as well as the use of new tools and knowledge processes as structural capital, capital enhancement Thought will become a reality. The Islamic Revolution Documentation Center of Tehran can make the best use of the knowledge of librarians and experts, the information and knowledge available in the organizational repositories, improve its service delivery and meet the information needs of its researchers and users.
Iraj Radad
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effect of communication skills of librarians of Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi on the quality of their services. The research was conducted through a descriptive and co-relational method. The statistical population consisted all librarians (64 people) and active ...
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This study aimed to investigate the effect of communication skills of librarians of Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi on the quality of their services. The research was conducted through a descriptive and co-relational method. The statistical population consisted all librarians (64 people) and active member of the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi (61,178 people). Due to the limited number of librarians, all of them were conducted and 382 people (based on the Kerjcie-Morgan’s table of sample size) were selected randomly through stratified sampling method. Two standard questionnaires of Queendam (for measuring communication skills of librarians) and LibQual (for measuring the quality of services) were used to collect the needed data. The collected data were analyzed in both descriptive statistics (including frequency distribution and percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, T-test and Pearson) using SPSS 18 software package. Descriptive findings showed that the average of librarians’ communication skills and also the quality of service in the Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi was on middle level. Analytical results showed that there is no significant relationship between the librarians’ communication skills and the quality of services in the Central Library. There was also a significant difference between the librarians’ communication skills in terms of their demographic characteristics (including gender, age, work experience, education and field of study).
