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As many organizations and institutions in recent years are trying to update their hardware and software platforms toward using mobile technology, libraries and information centers as trustees and leaders of information management and information science need to be futurists in this area. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of using mobile-based services in the world’s top university libraries.

In this direct observation and quantitative research survey, the authors reviewed the status of using mobile-based services in the libraries of the world’s top universities.

The results showed that 84 percent of the libraries of the top 50 universities in the world have made their websites mobile-friendly and provide mobile-based services; however, only 30 percent of them have designed mobile library application. The findings of this study revealed that mobile phone services such as “Search catalog,” “Hour of library,” “Contact,” “Ask the librarian” and “News” in more than 50 percent of the libraries with mobile-based services has been used. While some services like “Services for disabled,” “Library card,” “Library Strategic Plan” and “Financial services” are less important to deliver on the mobile platform.

The results of the current research are only limited to this environment. Furthermore limited access to all features of some mobile library applications is another limitation of this work. Also, failure to download some of the university apps from the usual App store due to the nationality of the researchers is other limitations of the study. The authors try to find more details of these apps with connecting to the librarians of this statistic society.

The research results indicated that the majority of libraries in the world’s top universities have moved toward designing and using mobile platform in their websites. This survey suggests that the academic libraries of developing countries in order to follow this trend are supposed to plug in most used services based on experience of academic libraries of top universities.

The research results indicated that the majority of libraries in the world’s top universities have moved toward designing and using mobile platform in their websites. This survey suggests that the Iranian academic libraries affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education are also trying to follow this trend in order to meet the users’ information needs.

This study aims to design a proposed framework for evaluating university websites.

This study is an exploratory mixed research. It was an applied research in terms of objective and used the Delphi technique and systematic review and meta-analysis approaches. Data collection tools were done through library studies, Delphi checklist and observation. The statistical population of the research comprised 17 experts who are designers of university websites and 20 Iranian university websites selected from the Webometrics website. The statistical data were analyzed using fuzzy methods, descriptive and inferential statistical methods and the SWARA weighting method. Also, the statistical analysis software SPSS 20 and Excel 2016, TOPSIS engineering software and MAXQDA were used.

Findings indicated that the dimensions of the designed proposed framework in order of their weights are credibility (0.130), reliability (0.125), usability (0.120), website design (0.110), functionality (0.104), content (0.100), page design (0.0922), efficiency (0.082), Webometrics (0.070) and systematic evaluation (0.067). Mebrate’s (2010) framework had the highest overlap (mean = 74.65), and Webometrics (mean = 18.5) had the least overlap and dependency (mean = 19) with the proposed framework. In the evaluation of the 20 university websites of Iran selected from the Webometrics site, the University of Tehran was ranked first with a score of 82.7 and Shiraz University was ranked last with a score of 75.

This study provides a comprehensive proposed framework for evaluating university websites that eliminates the shortcomings of all models, frameworks and methods of university website evaluation that focused only on one or more dimensions of university websites.

This study aims to focus on the interpretation component of Peirce’s triadic model of sign to identify: the components affecting the interpretation of an object and the components affecting the meaning creation by people for use in ontologies. Ashura was selected because it is a historical event and a meaningful sign in Iranian religious culture.

This qualitative study was conducted in two steps. In the first step, the Instagram pages of five groups of people were chosen as the sample and examined using qualitative content analysis. In the second step, 18 creators of Ashura works were selected, their lived experience in creating these works was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews and analysed through phenomenology method.

Based on the results, the concept is context-oriented; one cannot interpret the signs according to one’s personal preferences because the context, social rules and habits limit this interpretation. Accordingly, the use of reference systems and rules of logic, as well as artificial intelligence and computer science tools alone cannot help represent meaning in ontologies. Rather, individual characteristics, contexts, presuppositions and components existing in personal, social and technological worlds are effective on concept formation and meaning creation. Thus, these factors must be considered in ontology, especially for multi-faceted and context-oriented concepts, such as Ashura.

This research adopted a new approach and method to study ontology. This study focused on interpretation and adopted Peirce’s sign model for ontology design.

This paper aims to explore the realm of literature about personalization of digital library services. This paper focuses on users’ unique needs and will identify different types of personalized services. Therefore, this study has identified different types of services personalization in the context of digital academic libraries.

In this research, the systematic review method has been used to obtain the relevant indicators of different types of personalization in the context of libraries. To explain basic indicators, a Delphi method has been used. The Delphi panel’s members consisted of 15 experts (faculty members, researchers, professional users and software designers). A purposeful sampling and the Delphi fulfillment process were performed in three rounds. After collecting data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), inferential statistics (binomial distribution test) and the Kendall coordination coefficient were used to determine the consensus rate among experts.

A total of 103 indicators were extracted for different types of personalization through a systematic literature review. Of these, 90 indicators were considered significant in the experts’ view. Generally, content personalization, interactive personalization, collaborative personalization and information retrieval personalization are the main components of personalization types, each of which has its own indicators.

This study has dealt with the issue of what is personalized in the context of digital academic library. The findings should be helpful and effective in the development of a holistic view on personalization of services in digital libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the existing interoperability models in digital libraries and to introduce related projects in each model.

The study starts from searching various databases with a combination of important keywords in the field, such as interoperability, digital library, meta‐searching and cross‐searching. The study follows up with describing related digital library projects in the field of technical interoperability. The projects are described under three main categories, Federated, Harvesting and Gathering.

The study shows that most of the studied projects are located in the USA and also most of the digital library projects use OAI protocol and the harvesting model in order to be technically interoperable. Also, the results of the study showed that the projects mostly paid attention to metadata interoperability and only a few mentioned full‐text interoperability issues.

The paper makes an original contribution of exploring an area (interoperability models in digital libraries), that is at the forefront of discussion in libraries worldwide.

This paper aims to consider the most important criteria of e‐book acquisition in academic libraries. The survey seeks these reasons on the basis of two aspects: e‐book features for users and for information professionals or libraries. Moreover, restrictions on e‐books acquisition are surveyed with regard to information professionals' attitude.

The survey research method is used in this study with questionnaire and interview used for data gathering. The statistical population consisted of 60 information professionals working at state universities of metropolitan Tehran.

The results show that high storage capacity and multimedia capability are the most important features in acquiring e‐books on the basis of academic user needs. Also, the main criteria of acquiring e‐books from the professionals' point of view of fostering their interests are: occupying little space, ease of selection and simultaneous circulation. Moreover, this study shows that the main restrictions of e‐book acquisition are: hardware and software restrictions, the lack of a union catalog for Iranian e‐books, low level of user familiarity, hackers and even eye‐fatigue when reading.

This study takes the form of unique research that surveys the e‐book acquisition criteria in Iran on the basis of two aspects (user and library) with focus on information professionals' attitude, simultaneously. In addition, there has not been any research on e‐books in Iran, and this study is the first.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability of machine‐readable cataloging (MARC) in the academic libraries located in Tehran, Iran.

A quantitative methodology was adopted. The data are based on a survey conducted with a researcher‐made questionnaire to measure the views of Iranian academic librarians about MARC. In total, 45 librarians who have at least one year experience in cataloging and classification and know MARC were the sample of this study. Statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential) was applied using Excel and SPSS software to analyze the data.

The results showed over 72 per cent of catalogers in Tehran academic libraries claimed that they know MARC and 50 per cent of them claimed that they used it. Based upon the librarians' views the most important advantages of MARC are: making uniform subject headings, union catalogue and uniform authority names, exchange information with other libraries, exchange bibliographic information with different languages. Also according to the in catalogers the most important problems of MARC in general are: unchangeable format, detailed format, and not paying attention to needs of end‐users, different coding system in the country, problem of library software in using MARC, and using different MARC formats.

The paper's findings may help improve our understanding about MARC. The survey results could be used for enhancing the level of MARC application in academic libraries, not only in Iran but also elsewhere.

This study aims to identify the effective components in object interpretation based on Pierce’s triadic sign model to determine how meaning is created and identify the components affecting conceptualization in ontology.

A qualitative approach was adopted, and 6320 comments posted on the Instagram pages of five groups forming the research population were analyzed by qualitative content analysis.

Concepts are dynamic and context-oriented. Over time, a person’s concepts and mental patterns about an object are altered or eliminated. Social, political and economic conditions, governance, technology, interactions, language, environment, culture and social habits contribute to object interpretation and meaning creation.

In designing ontologies, especially in a context-dependent field, attention should be paid to users’ mental preconceptions, mental patterns, context and personal characteristics. Instead of using words, researchers can use visual and multimedia signs. In addition to logic, statistics and computer science, personal and anthropological characteristics should be considered in the ontology design.

This study dealt with conceptualization, which is a principal component of ontology. Using Pierce’s triadic model sign and unstructured Instagram data, ontology was studied from a user and pragmatic viewpoint, independently of technical aspects.