Meeting on Information Literacy

The Research Committee of the Iranian Library and Information Science Association (ILISA) will hold its fourth meeting on 'Research Approaches in Information Literacy' on November 19.

The meeting scheduled from 3-5 pm is at Sokhan Hall at the Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), located at the intersection of Enqelab Avenue and Felestin Street, Tehran.

Maryam Nazari, a consultant at IranDoc and a board member of the Iranian Scientific Association of Information Management (ISAIM), will moderate the meeting. One of her articles will be discussed, according to Iranian Library and Information Science Association (ilisa.ir).

Nazari's article is titled 'The Actuality of Determining Information Need in Geographic Information Systems and Science: A Context-to-Concept Approach'. It was published in April in the Library & Information Science Research, a cross-disciplinary and refereed journal of Elsevier, a leading provider of information solutions with offices all around the world.

According to an abstract of the article, "little is known about the actual context of information literacy (IL) in disciplinary areas while context has been identified as the key to the manifestation of IL. This is because disciplinary studies of IL have focused mainly on people's conceptions, not on their lived teaching experiences and learning practices."  

Nazari's research is gathered from 27 interviews focused on geographic information science/systems (GIS) students' and educators' experiences of university assignments and their reflections on various aspects of IL in a master's degree GIS program, jointly delivered by universities in the UK and the US.

  Digital Library Users

The other article to be debated is 'Investigating the Impact of Skill-Based Capabilities on Help-Seeking Behavior of Digital Libraries Users', published in the Iranian Journal of Information Processing & Management.

It was authored by Rahmatollah Fattahi and Azam Sanatjou from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Mohammad Zerehsaz from Kharazmi University, all PhDs.

The results of their research confirmed the necessity of offering computer and information literacy instructions to digital library users especially when they encounter with problems and need to seek help. Some recommendations to upgrade digital libraries’ help facilities are offered at the end of the article. The journal club is open to all enthusiasts who need to register their names at the ilisa.ir website.

The first journal club of ILISA was on 'Information Seeking Behavior' and was held in August.