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Objective: The purpose of this research was to analyze the factors and barriers affecting banefactpors’ participation of benefactors in the construction and equipment of public libraries in East Azerbaijan province. Method: The present applied research was carried out with a qualitative approach and conventional qualitative content analysis method. The participants of the study included all the benefactors partaking in the construction and equipment of public libraries in East Azerbaijan province who had two conditions; participation within the years 1389 to 1400 and participation valued more than one hundred million Rials. The samples were purposefully selected for a semi-structured interview. The interview was conducted up to the theoretical saturation stage and a total of eleven benefactors were interviewed. In order to validate the findings, criteria such as credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were used. The findings were analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis methods. Findings: Based on analyzing interview transcripts, 88 semantic codes, 20 sub-categories (regulations and statutes, activation of the Association of Library Benefactors, advertising, training and veneration, organizational support for employees, the ability to communicate with government officials, the skills of attracting benefactors, the skills of retaining benefactors, the function of country laws, the function of governance, benefactors' cultural contexts, benefactors' economic and social contexts, cultural beliefs, personality beliefs, religious and moral beliefs, bureaucratic obstacles, financial obstacles, lack of proper management, inefficient culture-making, governance shortcomings, and the shortcomings of the country's laws), seven general categories (the role of public libraries foundation in the motivation of benefactors, the role of library officials in the motivation of benefactors, the effect of governance and laws in the motivation of benefactors, impact of cultural, economic and social contexts on the motivation of benefactors, personal beliefs of benefactors, shortcomings of the public libraries foundation in the motivation of benefactors and shortcomings of governance and laws in the motivation of benefactors) and two main components (motivational factors in attracting benefactors and barriers to attracting benefactors) were identified. Based on the emphasis of the participating benefactors, it can be concluded that among the effective factors in benefactors’ participation in the construction and equipment of public libraries, the cultural, economic and social context as well as personal beliefs were the most two important motivational factors. Also, according to participating benefactors, the most important obstacle to non-participation of benefactors in the construction and equipment of the library was the lack of sufficient enlightenment for the necessity of the library, which indicates a weakness in culture building. Originality/value: In order to expand library benefactors’ participation, it is necessary that the Institution of Public Libraries (as the guardian of the expansion of public libraries) should pay special attention to the effective motivational factors in this participation and the obstacles in this path. The present study adopted a qualitative approach to identify the factors affecting the benefactors’ participation in the construction and equipment of public libraries from the viewpoint of participating benefactors. The findings of this research can provide the managers and experts of the Institution of Public Libraries with more accurate information and perspective for more precise planning and removing obstacles and shortcomings in this field. It can also provide a basis for conducting future research in this field and expanding its theoretical foundations.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze the lived experiences of researchers of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University in using scientific social networks.Methodology: The current research was conducted with a qualitative approach and interpretive phenomenology method. The population of this research were academic staff members of the university, and 20 samples were selected by the criteria-based purposeful sampling method to obtain their experiences. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner and continued until the theoretical saturation stage. Findings: Based on the findings of the research, 349 codes were extracted from the lived experiences of researchers which were placed in 180 semantic units and 29 categories. Finally, four themes were extracted from 29 categories. The themes were how researchers get to know scientific social networks, contexts and reasons for using these networks, the capabilities of scientific networks, and barriers and challenges of these networks. Conclusion: The capabilities and facilities provided in scientific social networks are the reason for using such networks. Researchers' further familiarity with the capabilities of these networks and strengthening and fixing their shortcomings will lead to broader usage of this online space of scientific community.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of information literacy on creativity and job involvement of librarians. Methodlogy: This applied and quantitative research was conducted with survey method. The data collection tools were three standard questionnaires. The face validity of the measurement tool was confirmed by experts and its reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which was 0.94 for information literacy, 0.71 for creativity and 0.85 for job involvement. The statistical population was a total number of 148 librarians affiliated to the Public Libraries of West Azerbaijan Province that 121 of them completed the questionnaire. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS software.Findlings: Based on Pearson test, there was a positive and significant relationship between librarians' information literacy with their creativity (r = 0.351) and job involvement (r = 0.276). Also, a positive and significant relationship (r = 0.240) was observed between creativity and job involvement of librarians. Findings of multiple regression test showed that creativity can be predicted by two dimensions of information literacy; also, one dimension of information literacy can predicted the librarians' job involvement.Conclusion: Information literacy and creativity of librarians of the public libraries of West Azerbaijan province are at a good level and their job involvement is moderate. As librarians' information literacy increases, so does their job involvement and creativity.Value: This study examined the information literacy, creativity and job involvement of librarians as well as the relationship between these variables in a study.

The aim of this research is to study the quality of services in the public libraries of Tabriz. This applied research was conducted with a quantitative approach and a survey method. The statistical population of the study was 37931 members of the Public Libraries of Tabriz and the sample size was 380 cases that were selected by stratified random sampling. The data collection tool was the standard LIBQUAL questionnaire and its reliability in the present study based on Cronbach's alpha was 0.93. In order to answer the questions and hypotheses, descriptive and inferential statistics were used using SPSS 24 statistical software. In general, in the three dimensions of LIBQUAL, the average level of minimum expectations of respondents was 4.39, the average level of received services was 5.70 and the average level of maximum expectations was 6.68. The difference between users' expectations and the level of received services in each dimension of the LIBQUAL was not higher than of the maximum expectations. The results of paired t-test confirmed the existence of a significant difference between the maximum expectations and the level of received services by users and also the existence of a significant difference between the minimum expectations and the level of received services by users in all dimensions of the LIBQUAL. It can be concluded that although the libraries have been able to meet the minimum expectations of the users in all cases partly, but the maximum expectations of the users have not been met yet.

The purpose of this study is to identify challenges and providing approaches towards attracting new- literate adults to the public libraries from the librarians’ perspectives. The method is qualitative exploratory case study. The population is public librarians and the sample are 14 librarians employed in public libraries of the city of Azarshahr. Using purposive sampling data were gathered by semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using Glasser & Strauss’ Coding Technique. The participants of this research disclosed some major challenges towards attracting new literate adults to the public libraries including individual, social, physical, publishing and organizational challenges. Also The participants suggested some approaches to deal with the challenges such as cultural advertising, providing further support and facilities for the new literates by the public libraries and library cooperation with the other organizations. Applying the findings of this study would enable the public libraries to provide suitable services with the aim of attracting more new literate users to the public libraries.

The aim of this research is to study the dependency of students on social networks based on demographic variables. This applied and quantitative research carried out in survey design. The measurement tool for the study was a social networks addiction subscale adopted from questionnaire of Arslan & Kırık (2013). The reliability of tool based on Cronbach's alpha was 0.932. The content validity of tool was measured by view of specialist and construct validity was measured by factor analysis. The population of the study was 4771 undergraduate students at Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University and the sample size was 368 cases based on stratified random sampling method. SPSS software was used in descriptive and inferential statistics. Based on Pearson correlation test, the relationship between students’ dependency on social networks and Internet/social network rate of usage at 99 percent confidence level was positive and significant. Based on independent t-test, there was a significant difference in students’ social network dependency based on accommodation type. Based on ANOVA test, there was significant difference at 95 percent confidence level based on domain of study. Students’ dependency on social networks was in midpoint level. The students, who had further daily Internet or social network usage, had more dependency on networks. Students’ dependency on social networks with different levels of academic achievement was moderately similar. Dependency on social networks among two groups of students (dormitory/humanities domain) was more.

Introduction: ReseachGate network provides an opportunity for scientific collaboration between researchers in process of knowledge production. This study investigated the situation of Iranian medical universities in ReseachGate. Methods: This applied and quantitative study used a scientometric method (altmetrics). Population of the study was 45 Iranian medical universities present in ReseachGate. Data collection was carried out from 27 April until 21 June 2015 by means of manual observation and recording information from ReseachGate, webometric and Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) websites. Spearman coefficient was used to test the correlation between variables. SPSS17 software was used for data analysis and Pajak software for drawing the related graphs. Results: Medical universities of Tehran, Shahid Behesti, Shiraz, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz had the highest ReseachGate scores, respectively. United State of America, China and Iran respectively had the most view and download of Iranian medical documents (papers) in ReseachGate. Tehran University of Medical Sciences had a central role in co-authorship with majority of Iranian medical universities. Finally, there was a strong and positive correlation between ReseachGate score and ranking of medical universities in ISC and webometics. Conclusion: The results showed that the higher ranking universities are more active in ReseachGate. Tehran University of Medical Sciences is the most important node of co-authorship network. Geographical closeness is influential in co-authorship.

Introduction: The Open Access Movement has been one of the best ways that can facilitate information flow. One of the representations of the Open Access Movement is Open Access Journals. Despite the positive attitudes of the scientific community towards Open Access Journals, it seems that the number of the researchers who have the tendency to publish in these journals as compared with Closed Access Journals has been limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of medical researchers as to the barriers to publishing papers in Open Access Journals. Methods: This applied study used a survey design. Population of the study was academic staff of Medicine Schools in Public Medical Universities of Iran and the sample size was 367 respondents. This study was carried out in 2009-2012. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire developed by researcher of the study. The reliability of twelve items of this study was estimated by using Cronbach's alpha whose coefficient was 0.859. The validity of questions was assessed by using Test-retest among population of the study and experts' view on open access area. In order to analysis date in descriptive level, percent and mean was used. In inferential level, Pearson correlation coefficient was used. SPSS 17 was used to analysis data. Results: Based on the findings, with a total of 76 percent of respondents, author-charge was a barrier to publishing papers in Open Access Journals. According to majority of the respondents, negative influence of publishing papers in open access journals on career promotion as well as problem of renewing credit card were not important publishing barriers. Based on Pearson correlation coefficient, there was a significant relation (r=-0.130, p=0.05) between publishing experience and publishing barriers. Conclusion: Among the all mentioned barriers, author-charge is the most important reason for not publishing in valid Open Access Journals. However, the increase of publishing experience of respondents can reduce the influence of barriers significantly.

The information explosion of the latter half of the twentieth century, gave rise to online databases and various information media that gradually impacted on the very physical environment of the library. It transformed the librarians’ role. Reference librarians are no exception. The present study aims to investigate the need or lack of need to reference librarians within the digital domains based on the views expressed by LIS authorities in Iran. It would attempt further, to identify the qualities required for such librarian should a need for her/his expressed. The research, while descriptive in nature, was based on analyzing the results obtained by the checklist devised by the authors. LIS Specialist sample was composed of 57 people who filled the checklist. Findings show that there is a significance between employing ICT and need for a reference librarian. LIS experts in Iran believe that introduction of ICT, especially Internet and the WWW not only didn’t decrease the need for such librarians, but has caused the reference librarian to attain a more important and better status than before. Findings further demonstrated that while Iran is not a signatory to the international copyright conventions, the Iranian reference librarians are fully committed to observing author’s copyright and intellectual rights and frown on using software crackers.

Purpose: The main objective of this research is to examine the correlation between study approaches and the frequency of virtual social network usage among university students.Methodology: This study utilized a quantitative approach and survey method to gather data from 276 students at Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University. Two questionnaires were employed, with reliabilities confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data analysis was conducted at both descriptive and inferential levels using SPSS software.Findings: The average virtual network usage was 3.80, while deep, strategic, and superficial study approaches scored 3.82, 3.91, and 3.20 respectively. Pearson correlation revealed a positive relationship between superficial study approach and virtual network usage, while a negative correlation was found with deep and strategic approaches. Significant relationships were noted between GPA and virtual network usage (negative), GPA and deep/strategic approaches (positive), and GPA and surface approach (negative). Only the strategic approach showed a negative predictive power with a beta coefficient of -0.32.Conclusion: The predominant study approach among students was strategic. Increased virtual network usage was associated with a decrease in strategic and deep approaches. Students adopting strategic and deep approaches exhibited better academic performance.Value: This study aims to bridge the gap in research on the use of new media and its impact on students' study approaches.