Human Information Interaction

Background and Aim: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the opinion of blind and visually impaired of the possibility of employing gadgets in delivering resources and information services to them.

Method: The research method was descriptive - survey and questionnaires were used to collect data. The data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The result showed that respondent approved the use of information resources and services through variety of gadgets and the fact that gadgets are generally more desirable.  Based on the agreement in regard to the gadgets used as resources and information services to blind and visually impaired it was found that mobile phone and pocket PC were in  the first place (56.7%), Google glasses in second place(55%) e-book readers in third place (54.4%), tablets in fourth place (54.2%) and RFID systems in fifth place (44.1%).

Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study it is concluded that blinds ability to use gadgets in optimal utilization of resources and information services is possible and more than desirable.  As a results we can make proper use of the new technology in order to present resources and information services to blinds and visually impaired

Background and Aim: The main objective of this research was to investigate the use of full-text databases in the LIS theses of Tehran State Universities within the years 2005 and 2009.

Method: For this purpose, the total of 9952 citations related to 172 existing theses in the academic central libraries were studied. The data collected were analyzed by the bibliometrics and citation analysis methods.

Results: The results showed that only 499 (5.01%) out of the total of 9952 citations were of full-text databases. By the use of Bradford law, the Emerald, Iran Doc. Pro Quest and Science Direct were chosen as the core databases in LIS. There was no statistically significance difference in the use of full-text databases with regard to database, university and subject. Citing the linguistic distribution of full-text data showed that most citations were in English language. Finally, the amount of the use of full-text databases by the theses has not been increased between the years 2005 and 2009.

Conclusion: The results obtained in the present research showed that the use of databases was very low and no growing trend for citing databases did   show.  Also English language was Dominant language in citing databases

Background and Aim: The present investigation intends to compare and review various user interfaces from user standpoint and to ascertain its linkage with user satisfaction.

Method: The research incorporated a descriptive survey of University of Tehran graduate student body. Using a targeted sampling, graduate students from the faculties of chemistry and Biology were selected. The instruments used were: A researcher-constructed questionnaire based on Nielsen’s 10 component model; and QUIS user satisfaction questionnaire.  Each database UI were evaluated based on five indicators of general features, search features, retrieval features, display features and user-friendliness.

Results: Findings indicated that with an average of 3.88 the Elsevier database had the highest score. Users surveyed believed that the quality of user interface was in better shape than other UI. One should note that this advantage is not indicative of overall database quality and the relatively better interaction on the part of users could be ascribed to their familiarity with the said database and its resource location process.

Conclusion:  The main purpose of designing and developing a database is to accruing user satisfaction in search and retrieval process. Hence User satisfaction directly connected to user interface

Background and Aim: The present paper discusses results of a study which aimed to explore the knowledge and use of Online social networking by MLIS students in Iran and to explore their perceptions of using that technology for academic and professional purposes, and challenges they face for using them.

Method: The research method was explorative and empirical. Data was collected through a web-based survey questionnaire containing both open and close ended question. The link of questionnaire was emailed to MLIS students in Tehran. 113 students completed the questionnaire.

Results: The results show that 35 percent of respondents were not users of SNS. Internet filtering in Iran was identified as the major barrier on using SNS by MLIS students. Negative perceptions toward SNSs were identified as another big barrier for using SNSs by MLIS students. 22% of respondents felt that social networking would waste their time and some 14% saw on benefit on online social networking. 36% of respondents trusted very little to information released in SNSs. MLIS students were not sophisticated users of social networking sites. They have good level of skills on basic features of social networking sites. However, in more advanced features of SNSs such as privacy settings their skills seemed limited. Respondents to the questionnaire showed positive feedback on using SNS for academic and professional purposes.

Conclusion: There are several advantages for integrating SNS in LIS education. Preparing students for employing those technologies on their work places upon their graduation; increasing the employability of LIS students; reaping the educational benefits that SNSs offer and preparing students to teach social networking literacy competencies to others are some of the advantages of incorporating SNSs into LIS education. Authors suggest that skills to master online social networking must be taught in LIS education

Background and Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing at national information centers in Iran.

Method: This applied research was carried out using two questionnaires and a checklist. Data were collected from all the managers, but stratified random sample of staff members of three:  main national information centers (National library, Regional Information Center of Science and Technology [RICEST], and Iranian Institute for Information Science and Technology).

Results: research findings indicated that: A) from managers point of view, lowest relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing belonged to the national library. But results gained from staff members credited the lowest situation to the RICEST; B) all of three information centers coined low range of knowledge sharing, therein, National Library with mean 2.17 out of 5 was the tallest among others; C) National Library was the highest among other centers regarding three dimensions (Relations, Trust and Shared norms) of social capital; D) Relationship between knowledge sharing and trust in all three institutes was significant But in Iranian Institute for Information science and Technology the relationship was more outstanding than others; and E) there was significant relationship between shared norms and knowledge sharing in all institutes.

Conclusion: In order for the National Information centers to improve the knowledge sharing culture among their staff members they should   internalize mutual trust, provide them with shared norms and improve organizational communication

Background and Aim: The present study aims to explore the coverage and reflection of Knowledge and Information Science news in the Iranian press. Iran Newspaper which is one of the main public newspapers in the country has been selected as the case for this study.

Method: This study used content analysis as its research methodology and adopted an inductive approach in data analysis. All the pages of this newspaper during a year (from March 2011 to March 2012), were downloaded from the newspaper website and their contents were inductively analyzed to identify Knowledge and Information Science related news.

Results: Iran Newspaper, as one of the most well-known and public press in the country, has covered the Knowledge and Information Science news with a reasonable coverage and comprehensiveness. However, the reports are mainly descriptive with less analytic perspective and there is a gap for more analytical news. The collected data were categorized into seven categories and all the concepts and subcategories were presented in the tables. The main identified categories in this study include: Tehran International Book events, other book exhibitions and cultural events, meetings and book awards, reflection of the news related to book and publication industry, scientometrics, reading and its promotion and hinders.

Conclusion: There is a gap of the news from ILISA (Iranian Library and Information Science Association) and also popular notes written by Knowledge and Information Science scholars, librarians and Knowledge and Information Science students. As a result it seems ILISA could be more active in publishing its news and use popular press to introduce this area to the public and promotes its activities in the public domains. 

Background and Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of observing the standards of indexing (ISO 999-1996, BS 3700) of Library and Information Sciences books.

Method: The study used descriptive-analytical methodology and the population consisted of all the Persian books, written and translated, in the field of Library and Information Sciences published from 2006 to 2012 with the back-of-book index. To collect the data, a checklist based on the indexing standards of ISO 1996-999 and B.S. 3700 was used.

Results: The findings indicated that among the 424 books studied, 26% had index, while 71% lacks it. Overall, the extent of observing the evaluation criteria in the book indices in the field of Library and Information Sciences was 56%.

Conclusion: The results suggest that the extent of providing the index for the books in the field of Library and Information Sciences has a relatively optimal condition compared with those in other fields. However, considering the purposes and applications of the field of Library and Information Sciences, the standards in the indices have been poorly observed. Time-consuming nature of indexing, lack of time and accelerating pace of publishing and offering books, economic issues, lack of expert human resources, and lack of enough knowledge about the significance of index are some of the obstacles for preparing the index for the books.

Background and Aim: this study aimed to explore the impact of objective complexity and Product of work task on user's interactive information searching behavior.

Method: The research population consisted of MSc students of Ferdowsi university of Mashhad enrolled in 2012-13 academic year. In 3 stages of sampling (random stratified, quota, and voluntary sampling), 30 cases were selected. Each of these cases searched 6 different types of simulated work tasks. Students’ Interactive Information searching behavior was measured by “loud thinking reports” and “log files”. Also, reliable questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha= 0.88) was applied to measure subjective complexity. Validity of tools was verified through Faculties of KIS at Ferdowsi university of Mashhad.

Results: By increasing level of objective complexity, users view more databases, search engines and web OPACs. Also they use more queries and select resources, visit and analyze more results and spend more time during search process. Totally, they feel less satisfaction and success. It was also found that most participants spend more time to search IR systems related to tasks including intellectual product. Also, they iterate queries, use more search facilities, view, analyze and select more search results and resources. At the end, in spite of more interaction, satisfaction and perception of search success were reported not favorable.

Conclusion: It is necessary to pay attention to work task characteristics in designing interactive and personalized IR systems. So, recommendations raised from this study are appropriate to improve and develop Interactive IR systems.

Background and Aim: The need for cognition to the extent of involvement of the individual in intellectual activities, to assess individual differences in motivation for information processing, individual differences in the tendency of people to engage in and enjoy effortful thinking and, finally, refers to the processing of sound messages. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of need for cognition on students' collaborative information behavior.

Method: This study is applied research .Among 340 students graduate from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences in Allameh Tabatabai University, 181 students were selected randomly and measures need to recognize the information behavior participatory out the questionnaires.

Results: The research findings indicate the need to recognize significant differences by gender and field of study participants were women. Students seeking a partnership relationship between need for cognition and behavior were observed. Information seeking behavior in terms of the need to know their students significant difference was found and thus the need to know the information seeking behavior of effective student participation.

Conclusion: the need for cognition is effective on Students’ collaborative information behavior (CIB).

Background and Aim: The main aim of Information storage and retrieval systems is keeping and retrieving the related information means providing the related documents with users’ needs or requests. This study aimed to answer this question that how much are the system relevance and User- Oriented relevance are matched in SID, SCI and Google Scholar databases.

Method: In this study 15 keywords of the most repeated ones that were related to “Human Information Interaction” and its subheadings were selected and searched both in Persian and in English in the mentioned databases for two one week periods. The results were arranged according to the system relevance based on the retrieval and displaying order. From each search the first 10 results were selected and sent to the subject experts and asked them to rank from 1 to 10. Data were descriptively and analytically (using Spearman correlation test) analyzed by SPSS software.

Results: Subject experts’ relevance score in Persian was lower in ISC than SID and higher than Google Scholar. The most subject relevant records were in the third score of system relevance. The records with the lowest system relevance score also had the lowest subject experts’ relevance score. SID in Persian had a strong and positive relation between the both scores but there was no relation in ISC. The highest matching level of the both scores was seen in SID in both languages on the both periods which means more likely to retrieve relevant records.

Conclusion: There is a similar retrieval pattern in both languages with subject expert’s view in SID showing the highest precision which was the lowest in Google scholar in Persian

Background and Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the Iranian Personal electronic information management of knowledge and information science and medical Library and Information Sciences faculty members based on the Jones model.

Method: This study is kind of application research and in terms of data collection is descriptive and analytical study. The statistical population included faculty of knowledge and information science and medical library and information science in Iranian state universities. Data were collected by a questionnaire that its validity is confirmed by the ISprofessors, and its reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.81). To analyse the data, descriptive and inferential statistic using SPSS statistical software was used.

Results: Analysis of the data showed that the average of activities in finding and re-finding were 4.0101, in storage was 4.0783, in organization was 3.2424, in maintaining were 2.8106, in security were 3.1162, in measuring and evaluation was 3.7803, in making sense of things was 3.9192 and total average personal electronic information management was 3.5659. Findings showed that there was nosignificant difference in the personal electronic information management in terms of gender and organizational affiliation, but in terms of the scientific and age there, there were significant differences among faculty members. The differences were found between the scientific degrees of associate professor and professor, and between the age group 36-45 years old and up to 56 years old.

Conclusion: The results indicated that faculty members in the age group 46-55 years old as well as associate degree had the best performance. Also, faculty members of medical library and information science had been used greater extent personal information management activities and personal information management quality women had better than men. Faculty members had desirable operation to Retrieve and store information, but they do not well maintained this information and do not provide appropriate security measures. In general, management of personal electronic information was in the relatively good level.

Background and Aim: Considering the increasing number of users who interact with online social networks, it can be inferred that these networks have become an essential part of users' lives and play different roles in their everyday life. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the role of these networks in users' everyday-life information seeking.

Method: This research is an applied research with qualitative approach and it was conducted using thematic analysis method. This method includes a semi - structured interview with active users of online social networks.

Results: Results indicate that online social networks play different roles in the users' lives, such as entertainment, education, communication and interactions; accompanied by, news, favorite contents, and up-to-date information; but, these networks face some challenges that affect information seeking behavior of users which compels users to utilize active information seeking.

Conclusion: Richer social capital and diversity of users in an individual's social network leads to the access to more qualitative information which in turn increases the probability of finding the required information and achieving the expected results with the least effort.

Background and Aim: University students due to having better media literacy are among the groups that use social networks more. Aim of this research was to study the use of social networks by university students based on demographic and educational variables.

Method: This quantitative applied research utilized survey design. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire developed by the investigator. Validity of questionnaire was evaluated by expert colleagues and samples of respondents. Reliability of tool was tested by Spilt Half reliability. Population of the study was 4524 undergraduate students of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University. The sample size was 393 students. Descriptive statistics (percent, frequency and mean) and inferential nonparametric statistics (Spearman,Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis) was used in order to analysis data. SPSS17 was used to analysis the data and Excel was used to draw the charts.

Results: Majority of the students used social networks. Viber and Line was the most preferred social networks. Daily average use of social networks was 140 minutes. The most important reason of using social networks was fun. Friends of respondents in social networks were mostly the face to face visited individuals. Hand-phone was the important medium used in social networks. According to the majority of students validity of information in social networks was not valid. There was significant correlation between proportion of social network use and Grade Point Average (GPA), number of friends in social networks and features of information in social networks. There was significant difference in use of social networks between students of four studied domains.

Conclusion: Usage of social networks is usual among university students. Students almost used social networks as a medium for fun and communication. The students with higher GPA used social networks fewer.

Background and Aim: In order to comprehension of interactive content and content production standards, and also users interaction with LMSs, and their behavior in dealing with information, the aim of this paper is to examine the users interaction information provided in the eFront application, an open source Learning Management System, by emphasizing SCORM standard.

Method: The method that used in this study, is Netnograghy which is a qualitative method and it is ethnography in online society. All the data is collected online by using the software reports.

Results: by comparing users’ behavior between two courses in eFront application we understand that in courses which the content is provided by text and images need to have an online teacher and that content is not enough. The users who was attended in course “Installing virtual reference desk" not only need information in text format and images but also need to interact with teacher directly. In the first three chapters of this course which have made in film format, users had fewer problems. The users who have attended in course with web conference passed the course more successful than before. In the course "EndNote” which content have made in film format, users could make good communication with information and had less problem.

Conclusion: Provide educational content in the context of "interactive learning management system" should be the terms and conditions. You can not just put the text and image content to reach the desired result. Although content in the form of educational films can provide more help to the user, to achieve better results, we need to fully interactive content which is available to users, in order to control their activity in learning environment.

Background and Aim: These days, Internet and online databases play a significant role in peoples’ information-seeking behavior, especially for postgraduate students. The kind of behavior seen on the part of those students who get help from online databases to write their theses might be completely different from those who search library sources to get the needed information. This study investigates the information-seeking behavior of postgraduate students of Kharazmi University who are writing their theses.

Method: This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Quantitative data were gathered using an information-seeking behavior questionnaire, which was then, analyzed using statistical analysis (T-Test and Friedman-Test). Content analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to analyze qualitative data. The participants were 100 students including 50 male and 50 female students.

Results: Results of analyzing the T-Test for male and female groups showed that there is not any significant difference of girls' and boys' information-seeking behavior. Results of analyzing the Friedman-Test however showed difference in average ratings of information-seeking behavior dimensions. With regard to results obtained from this analysis: pre-existing knowledge confirmation, relevancy judgments, bringing up new thoughts, time and effort for searching information contain maximum to minimum rates in a respective manner. Results of the qualitative data also showed that: most of the students’ problems lie in: seeking for and using the collaborative behavior and collaborative searching, difficulty in finding the related information, language limitations, diversity of goals, limitations the forms of the sources, unfamiliarity with the specific sources, lack of information literacy, and spending so much time to search.

Conclusion: Findings obtained in this study showed that postgraduate students do not have the skills and knowledge needed for using online data. This also indicates their deficiency and lack of information seeking and information literacy skills. So, recognizing the obstacles on the way of knowing and using these online databases and training students for purposeful searching seem to be essential.