The impact of cultural and social factors on the unplanned behavior of academic libraries users

Subject Areas : Social Researches

Hadi Harati ¹ , Fatemeh Noushinfard ² , Alireza Sfandiyari ³ , Fahimeh Baboulhavaej ⁴ , Najla Hariri ⁵

1 - دانشجوی دکتری علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران. [e-mail]
2 - دانشیار گروه علوم ارتباطات و دانش شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران. (نویسنده مسئول) [e-mail]
3 - دانشیار گروه علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسی، واحد همدان، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، همدان، ایران. [e-mail]
4 - دانشیار گروه علوم ارتباطات و دانش شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران. [e-mail]
5 - استاد گروه علوم ارتباطات و دانش شناسی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، تهران، ایران. [e-mail]

Received: 2019-01-25 Accepted : 2019-01-25 Published : 2018-11-22

Keywords: Social factors, Cultural factors, Information seeking behavior, Unplanned behavior, Academic library,

Abstract :

The present study was performed to measure the impact of cultural and social factors on the unplanned behavior of academic libraries users. The study is done by survey-analytical method. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The research population included the students of the central libraries of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shahid Chamran of Ahvaz, Tehran, Tabriz and Shiraz. After determining the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, a total of 700 questionnaires were distributed and 654 questionnaires were analyzed by using stratified sampling method proportional to the size of population. The path analysis and LISREL software were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that thecultural factors with impact factor 0.49 and social factors with impact factor 0.86 affect the unplanned behavior of users to use the resources and services of academic libraries through the Their individual characteristics. As well as individual characteristics with impact factor 0.94  affect the unplanned behavior of users to use the resources and services of academic libraries. Therefore, considering the path coefficients obtained, the effect of social factors on the incidence of unplanned behaviors in the use of academic library resources and services was higher than cultural factors. The academic libraries must, in order to optimize use of their resources and services pay special attention to be effective cultural and social factors and individual characteristics on the unplanned behavior of users. The result of this attentionwill be the further use of library resources, attracting audience and increased awareness and information of the users.