The Effectiveness of Electronic information Retrieval Training on the Skills of Librarians in Information Retrieval (Case study: public libraries of Mazandaran province)

IntroductionThe field of providing information and the method of publishing information has permanently been subject to modification and alteration, and as we know, with the introduction of computer technology in the field of librarianship and the change in the way of providing services, the imperative task of information dissemination has been reserved for librarians (Kanjilan,2011).Due to the nature of their job, librarians must be interested to changes and change their services and the way they provide services at the same time and in agreement with the changes, so that they can respond to the information needs of the residents(Mohammadi Fard,2015).Nowadays, with the development of new information technologies and the challenges of information societies, the traditional role of public libraries has changed and functions such as teaching and creating computer skills have become more projecting. Thus, librarians of public libraries should initially, be prepared with these skills. A librarian who is not computer literate will never be a good guide for library users. The inability of individuals to access information and their limited knowledge in using computers can hinder their success in retrieving information. Hence, enhancing computer literacy is particularly essential for these individuals. Education can play a crucial role in improving their computer skills (Abtahi,2017). One form of instruction is electronic training, also referred to as e-learning or virtual learning. This type of learning involves online courses provided through a virtual education system, enabling electronic learning processes(Ghalian & Zalpour,2018). The objective of this study was to examine the impact of electronic information retrieval training on the information retrieval abilities of librarians.Literature ReviewKia, Moazzami, and Kia Lashaki (2021) in a study entitled: “Examining the influence of virtual skills training during the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of Chalous Scientific-Applied University graduates” concluded that virtual skill training has a positive and significant effect on the performance of graduates in the Corona era, and the regression equation was also presented to predict the effect of the predictor variable on the criterion variable. Mohaghegh, Raiesi Dehkordi, Alibeik, Ghashghaee and Janbozorgi (2017) showed that consistent with the employees' attitude towards participating in in-service virtual training courses, their satisfaction along the course and the productivity of the topics discussed in these courses, from the point of view of librarians, the effectiveness and quality of in-service virtual training courses are at the favorite level.Al-Fraihat, Masa'deh and Sinclair (2020) showed there are four structures influencing the use of e-learning, the quality of the educational system, the quality of the support system, the quality of the learner and the perceived usefulness, which together account for 1.34% of the variance. Finally, 64.7% of the variance of e-learning benefits is explained by supposed usefulness, alleged satisfaction, and use. Maurice (2017) showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between virtual training and employee empowerment, and employees who did not participate in in-service training are less empowered than those who participated in these courses.MethodologyThe current research was of the type of applied research and the method of conducting the research was of an experimental type with a pre-test and post-test design with control and experimental groups. The statistical population of this research included all the librarians of the public libraries of Mazandaran province in 1401 in the number of 285 people (taken from the statistics center of the general administration of the public library of Mazandaran province). After the homogenization of the statistical population geographically (Mazandaran province was divided into three parts, east, central and west) and from each part according to the inclusion criteria such as willingness to participate in training sessions at certain hours, being librarians of public libraries in Mazandaran province, having a bachelor's degree, having an age between 25 and 40 years, working experience of more than 5 years in a library, obtaining a score below 39 from the questionnaire and exit criteria including not working in public libraries in Mazandaran province, having a bachelor's degree and obtaining a score above 39 from Questionnaire, first, 30 people were selected by purposive sampling method and they were randomly divided into two groups of 15 people, experimental and control. The experimental group received information retrieval skills training in 9 sessions (each session lasting 2 hours) electronically and remotely. But the control group did not use any training. In order to measure the information retrieval skills of librarians, due to the lack of a standard scale, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. Also, its reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.89 in a test run.DiscussionThe findings displayed that the average skill of information retrieval in the experimental group (47.07) in the post-test is higher than the average in the control group (26.86). which indicates that, electronic information retrieval training has an effect on the skills of librarians in information retrieval. In the explanation of the research findings, it can be stated that electronic training allows people to obtain scientific information in less time and at a cheaper cost and it increases its generality and also causes rapid learning of skills in various dimensions. The internet is an easy way in the new age to get up-to-date and new articles and information for learning and empowerment. In other words, the availability of the Internet makes it possible to obtain new information in less time, and in the context of librarians' use of new methods and patterns in information retrieval, it surges their skill in information retrieval.ConclusionThe results of the research showed that electronic information retrieval training has a positive and significant effect on the skills of librarians in information retrieval, and electronic information retrieval training can be one of the effective options in increasing the capabilities and skills of librarians.