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Abstract: (268 Views)
Purpose: The current study aims to investigate the information needs and expectations of the Azeri community living in East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan provinces from public libraries.
Method: This research was conducted with a quantitative approach and a survey method using a researcher-made questionnaire. The research population included librarians, users and non-users of public libraries in East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan provinces, who were selected by simple and cluster random sampling. The content and form validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts in information science and social sciences. To check the reliability of the questionnaire, the test-retest method was used. The time span of the research was 2020-2021. To analyze the data and answer the research questions, frequency statistics, mean, chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis were used.
Findings: The results showed that social networks are the most important source of information in the group of users and also in the group of non-users of the studied provinces. The subjects of interest that participants expect public libraries to provide are psychology, life skills, and language education, respectively. The participants prefer non-curricular information and entertainment sources to be in both Farsi and Turkish-Azeri languages. In the field of identifying educational needs, the findings of the research showed that teaching general life skills is the most important educational need identified by the studied society. From the users' point of view, storytelling in the national language; From the point of view of non-users, providing employment information; And from the point of view of librarians, holding cultural-artistic programs are the most important cultural-social needs of public libraries in the studied provinces.
Originality/value: The studied community has a wide range of informational, educational, socio-cultural and service needs. They emphasized the need to pay more attention to resources related to Azari language and culture. Public libraries should design and provide services and resources that fit the specific needs and expectations of the Azari-speaking community. In this way, they will help to preserve the heritage and culture of the tribes and will provide reasons for more visit and use of public libraries in the studied provinces.
Method: This research was conducted with a quantitative approach and a survey method using a researcher-made questionnaire. The research population included librarians, users and non-users of public libraries in East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan provinces, who were selected by simple and cluster random sampling. The content and form validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts in information science and social sciences. To check the reliability of the questionnaire, the test-retest method was used. The time span of the research was 2020-2021. To analyze the data and answer the research questions, frequency statistics, mean, chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis were used.
Findings: The results showed that social networks are the most important source of information in the group of users and also in the group of non-users of the studied provinces. The subjects of interest that participants expect public libraries to provide are psychology, life skills, and language education, respectively. The participants prefer non-curricular information and entertainment sources to be in both Farsi and Turkish-Azeri languages. In the field of identifying educational needs, the findings of the research showed that teaching general life skills is the most important educational need identified by the studied society. From the users' point of view, storytelling in the national language; From the point of view of non-users, providing employment information; And from the point of view of librarians, holding cultural-artistic programs are the most important cultural-social needs of public libraries in the studied provinces.
Originality/value: The studied community has a wide range of informational, educational, socio-cultural and service needs. They emphasized the need to pay more attention to resources related to Azari language and culture. Public libraries should design and provide services and resources that fit the specific needs and expectations of the Azari-speaking community. In this way, they will help to preserve the heritage and culture of the tribes and will provide reasons for more visit and use of public libraries in the studied provinces.
Keywords: Assessment, Information needs, service-educational needs, socio- cultural needs, Azari community, public libraries.
Type of Study: quantitative |
Subject:
Libraries Services for Special Groups
Received: 2023/06/16 | Accepted: 2023/10/8
Received: 2023/06/16 | Accepted: 2023/10/8
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