The purpose of this review is to explore factors affecting brand building in libraries. Based on the nine steps of the National Health Service (NHS) center for reviews and dissemination, articles on ...the subject of library branding were searched in nine Iranian databases and seven international databases. The search period includes all date range of databases until 7–22 January 2021. The results were assessed for quality and 44 English articles and 3 Persian articles were selected for further analysis. Factors in promoting libraries brand building fall five categories. They include library architecture, library information resources and services, librarians’ personal branding, marketing, and library management. Inhibiting factors in libraries brand building have two final categories including internal and external inhibiting factors to brand building. Internal inhibitors covered branding costs, lead-time for branding, effort for branding and its management, the difficulty of strategic brand planning, and library staff unpreparedness. External inhibitors covered the difficulties of branding in the digital age and the economic situation of the country. If libraries manage their brand and move toward rebranding in line with the new information environment, they will be able to survive in today’s competitive world and build their true value in relationship with users.
Introduction: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pet owner’s combined knowledge, comfort, and perceived skills at finding, evaluating, applying online pet health ...information, and the application of the information prescription (IP) provided for pet owners education on the internet.
Methods: Thirty telephone interviews were conducted followed by a questionnaire of eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) with pet owners after receiving an IP with a suggested websites in addition to their customary veterinary services in a vet clinic at the center of Tehran, Iran. Qualitative and quantitative data were merged to explore differences and similarities among respondents with different eHealth literacy levels.
Results: Results indicate that pet owners with higher score of eHealth literacy more accessed the suggested websites and reported positive feelings about this addition to their veterinary services. Similarly, among the eight-item self-reported eHealth Literacy skills, perceived skills at evaluating and applying, were significantly associated with the use of IPs. Lastly eHealth literacy level was significantly associated with the outcomes of prescribed information, such as veterinarians-client communication outcome and learning outcomes.
Conclusion: Disparities in application of the veterinarian’s IPs for online pet healthcare information, and its outcomes are associated with different eHealth literacy skills. Veterinarians should collaborate with information specialists and librarians to perform education efforts to raise awareness on online pet health information quality and impact of veterinarian directed information prescription especially among low health literate owners.
Purpose
This study aims to present a comparative study of university library websites (in the USA) from the standpoint of “Google SEO” and “Accessibility”. Furthermore, correlation analysis between ...these two done.
Design/methodology/approach
By opting for a webometric approach, the present study analyzed university library websites in the USA. The Lighthouse add-on for the Google Chrome browser has been used as a data collection tool, by writing and implementing a computer program in Bash language automatically (May 2020). Data analysis tools used were “Libre-Office-Calc”, “SPSS22” and “Excel”.
Findings
In all 81 university library websites in the USA, Google search engine optimization (SEO) scores have been observed the amount higher than 60 (Total Score = 100). The accessibility rank obtained lay between 0.56 and 1 (Total Score = 1). A weak correlation relationship between “SEO score” and “accessibility rank” (P-value = 0.02, Spearman Correlation Coefficient = 0.345) was observed. This weak relationship can be explained due to the impact of several components affecting Google’s SEO score, one of them being having a high “accessibility rank”.
Practical implications
Given the increasing automation of library processes, SEO tools can help libraries in achieving their digital marketing goals.
Originality/value
Accurate measurement of the Google SEO score and accessibility rank for the university library websites (in the USA) were obtained by Lighthouse add-on for Google Chrome browser. Moreover, data extraction by the implementation of one program computer without the direct observation of human resources is the innovation of this study.
Considering the growth of digital marketing, the present study was conducted by webometrics approach. In this study Iranian university library websites are analyzed from the standpoint of Google ...search engine optimization (SEO). Moreover, identifying the effective factors of Google SEO is done. The number of 30 effective components on Google SEO was obtained by using the agreement between two intelligent online SEO analysis tools ‘SEOsitecheckup’ and ‘SEOPtimer’, with a reliability coefficient of 0.77. The number of 17 components were identified with the help of texts and the library method (the numbers of 12 components were common in both methods). The research community consisted of 42 library websites of Iranian universities affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology located in major cities of Iran. The data collection tools were the online analysis databases ‘SEOptimer’, ‘Ahrefs’, ‘Similarweb’, and ‘W3 Consortium’ (in addition to the checklist and identified components). The members of the community were analyzed from the standpoint of the 34 measurable components by SEO analysis tools (no need for the manager or administrator of the same website) on the cross-sectional study for six months at the beginning of the year 2020). ‘Excel’ and ‘LibreOffice Click’ software were used to analyze the data. None of the websites of Iran's university libraries got the final SEO score of 75 out of 100. Only thirty-three percent of Iranian university library websites had observed the ‘digital security certificate’ effective component on SEO. The websites of the central library of Sharif university of technology, and the digital library of Shahid Beheshti university were ranked respectively, from standpoint of the final Google SEO score. Connecting the website to various social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, is necessary to improve Google's SEO score, but it is not sufficient (only one effective component).The components affecting Google SEO can be divided into two groups. The first category can be adjusted by the administrators of the library website (including 29 components of the checklist offered in this present study and 1 component of the library website's compliance with the rules of the W3 consortium). The second category (including 4 components: ‘bounce rate’, ‘average visit duration’, ‘number of pages indexed in Google’, and ‘number of clicks or visits of uses) can be measured by the feedback of other websites or clicking of the users. Improving SEO-effective components along with having rich content will be valuable together with each other.
Purpose
This study identifies factors affecting brand building for academic libraries affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology (MSRT) in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
This ...research applied the grounded theory method based on the three open, axial and selective coding steps (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The research tool was interviews conducted with 20 experts in librarianship, marketing and branding.
Findings
Library building architecture, library information resources and services, librarians' branding, marketing activities and library management are the causal conditions affecting brand building. The national economic situation, the digital publishing situation in the country and different characteristics of the new library community are the intervening conditions affecting brand building. The role of other libraries in society in the scientific education of the new generation provides contextual conditions for brand building. The higher education system and the library parent organization play a part in the operative actions/interactions for brand building. The consequences of brand building are brand image development, brand excellence and brand behavioral loyalty for libraries. Library brand identity is also a core category in brand building.
Originality/value
Facing steep challenges by emergent services, academic libraries are ill-prepared to meet the needs of the new information society solely with traditional services and functions. Academic libraries are required to rebrand themselves to be more successful at delivering a strong performance within a changing information environment by enhancing their brand image and establishing a more effective relationship with users.
Background and aim: Nowadays, with the increasing use of Web 2 capabilities, the scientific evaluation of researchers has been considered using altmetrics. The aim of this study was to analyze the ...correlation between ResearchGate (RG) indicators and academic Times ranking among prominent faculty members in the field of computer sciences affiliated with the top scientific centers (Times) in 2020. Materials and methods: The present study was conducted using the scientometric method and Altmetrics approach. The study population consisted of 100 faculty members affiliated with the top ten academic centers according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 in the field of computer sciences at least with degree of associate professor, who were selected by stratified random sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22. Findings: More than half of the population (100 faculty members) had no presence on the RG network. For 47 registered individuals, no significant relationship was found between the five indicators on RG of "RG score", "Citations", "Research Interest", "Research Items" and "Followers" with "Times Ranking" (P-Value> 0.05 in all of five). There was a significant relationship between the "reads" indicator and "Times ranking" in the form of mean inverse correlation (P-value = 0.04, Spearman correlation coefficient= -0.6). Conclusion: The Times' top international computer science researchers with the degrees of associate professor and higher had no more active presence on the RG network. In addition, no significant correlation was observed between "Times Rank" and RG indicators in their activities, except for the "reads".
Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop a model for the digital transformation of university libraries based on meta-synthesis. Design/methodology/approach The approach of this research was ...qualitative and used the Sandelowski and Barroso’s (2007) seven-step meta-synthesis method to systematically review the literature. The statistical population of the research includes all the scientific publications related to the foundations and dimensions of the digital transformation of university libraries, counting the scientific publications retrieved from six scientific databases in the period from 2004 to 2022, and was based on the critical appraisal skills programme and a screening process. Findings Based on the retrieved publications, 32 documents were selected for further review and analysis. First, a separate code was considered for all the factors extracted from the selected documents, and then, considering the concept of each of the codes, they were categorized into a similar concept. In this way, the research concepts were determined. Based on the analysis done with the help of the content analysis method, there are a total of seven main categories and 24 concepts, including digital culture (including: digital attitude, user-oriented, agility, participation and cooperation, creativity and innovation and learning digital skills of employees), digital librarian (containing: individual competence, knowledge competence, communication competence and skill competence), digital manager (comprising: individual competence, knowledge competence, skill competence), digital services and resources (including, optimally reorganizing library resources, providing digital services to users and providing digital services to the mother organization), digital technologies (containing: digital infrastructure, technological readiness and using digital technologies), support and cooperation of upstream institutions and the mother organization (dealing with: providing human resources, providing technological resources and equipment and making macro policies) and work process and development of digital strategies (comprising: digitalization of processes and development of library digital strategies). Originality/value Digital transformation is a complex and multi-faceted process, yet it is an indispensable endeavour for university libraries, and managers and librarians cannot be expected to be familiar with these concepts without training or study and then be able to move in the right direction towards the digital transformation of libraries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to develop a model for the digital transformation of university libraries. The results of this research indicate the effective factors and requirements needed for the digital transformation of university libraries and address the importance of understanding the concepts for managers and librarians.
Libraries operate in a competitive environment, and this is essentially needed to prove its benefits for stockholders, and continuously evaluate and compare advantages for printed and electronic ...resources. In these cases, economic evaluation methods such as cost- effectiveness analysis, is one of the best methods, because of a comprehensive study of the use and cost of library sources. The purpose of this study is to discovery of use and cost- effectiveness analysis of English printed and ebooks at University of Tehran on 2011. Populations of this study are English printed books which have been bought in 23th international Tehran book fair, and Elsevier and Springer ebooks collection. The result showed that the use of English printed books has different in four subject areas of Engineering, Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Humanities, unlike English ebooks. The average of use of the printed books in Social and behavioral sciences Was 1.09, and it shows the most among all, and for Sciences, was only 0.14, this is the minimum among. 20 percent of English printed books have been used and the mean for total printed books was 0.77. 52 percent of ebooks have been used, and the average of use of ebooks was 5.16, respectively. So the use and cost- effectiveness analysis of English ebooks are more than English print books. The uses statistics and cost analysis showed that cost per use for English printed books is 787168 Rial and for ebooks is 80,388.
Development of a digital library demands extensive financial, human, and technological investments. Appropriate models and measurement tools are required to achieve the goals of these libraries to ...assess them. This research was conducted with the aim of developing and validating a tool to measure the maturity of a digital library based on the “digital library maturity model” (DLMM). Two sources including literature and experts' opinion were used to determine the criteria for each code. Expert opinion and confirmatory factor analysis were used to confirm the content and construct validity of the developed tool, respectively. The reliability of the designed tool was examined by the Cronbach's alpha test. Finally, the designed tool validity and reliability were confirmed. Managers of digital libraries can use this tool to understand the maturity level of their digital libraries and plan to improve the library or to attain advanced levels of maturity.
•This tool is based on the five-level Capability Maturity Model (CMM).•Digital library maturity tool was designed and validated with 39 constructs and 120 criteria.•The findings showed that the load factor of most constructs and criteria is in a high level.•The tool designed to measure the maturity of digital libraries has validity and reliability.
Data sharing is considered as a hot topic and a norm in many scientific fields. But it seems that, it was neglected in Iranian Medical fields. This research aiming to identify relevant factors in ...data sharing. With using semi-structured interview, survey and DEMATEL techniques, the present study identified the influencing factors affecting data sharing. The sample population consisted of 14 experienced Iranian medical researchers in data sharing. The results showed that, education, budgeting, attitudes, and institutional requirements were the most influential factors among others and were pure casual factors. In view of Iranian medical researchers, budgeting and organizational supports had the highest effect on authorship, structures, attitudes, ownership and their trust. Co-authorship, trust among the researchers and research system, legal issues like ownership, and the conditions of data access were not strong casual nor strong effect variables in this research, but had important role in data sharing and should be more considered. Identifying factors influencing data sharing enhance and strengthen data sharing and facilitate movement towards data-driven researches, and scientific communities could apply the advantages of data sharing.
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