A survey on the rate of familiarities and usage of Iranian public librarians of Web 2.0 in their workplaces

Subject Areas : Journal of Knowledge Studies

Masoomeh Latifi ¹ , hasan siamian ² , fatemeh zandian ³

1 - Master of LIS, Head of Education Department of Public Library Department of Hormozgan Province
2 - Assistant Professor of Medical University of Mazanderan Province
3 - Assistant professor of Tarbiat Modares University,

Received: 2012-05-05 Accepted : 2012-11-08 Published : 2013-11-22

Keywords: Information Technology, Internet, Librarians, public libraries, Web 2.0,

Abstract :

Objective: Due to the different functionalities of web 2.0 in the information age, offering integrated services and offering library and information services for meeting society information needs, necessitates knowledge and use of practical facilities of web 2.0. This study aimed to assess understanding and using Web 2.0 functionality of Iranian public librarians in the workplace. Methodology: This is a survey-descriptive study; Population includes public librarians (32 provinces of Iran. According to a report by the Department of Human Resources of Iran Public Libraries Foundation, the numbers of librarians in public libraries by the end of 2011 were (4921). 357 librarians were selected by cluster sampling method. For data collection in this study, the researcher made questionnaire was used based on a review of the related literature and other researchers’ Web 2.0 tools. For answering the research questions and hypotheses of descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and inferential tests (one-group t test, ANOVA and Duncan's post hoc test) was used. Findings: The results showed that Iranian public librarians Understanding and using Web 2.0 functionality was at low (44 percent) and as well as the use of library facilities and functionalities of Web 2.0 for    getting service to library users were at low (48 percent). The most capabilities of Iranian public libraries were in using E-mail and blog and the least capabilities were in using of flicker and Wiki. Conclusion: The rate of use of Web 2.0  of public librarians in the work was low. Retraining courses, in-service training while serving with the web, encouraging librarians to understand the web and its application in library services are required to be studied. This study can be considered as a new research aspect, specifically has considered Understanding and using Web 2.0 functionality of Iranian public librarians  in the workplace.The results of the survey can help managers and librarians for efficient use of these facilities in the workplace.

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