A Comparative Study of Managerial Understanding of Managers of University and Public Libraries in TehranComparing the understand managerial of university libraries and public library manager in Tehran Based on Field of Study

Rahmani, Mahdi; Asnafi, Amirreza

A Comparative Study of Managerial Understanding of Managers of University and Public Libraries in TehranComparing the understand managerial of university libraries and public library manager in Tehran Based on Field of Study

Volume 24, Issue 2
Summer 2018

Pages 339-327

Research on Information Science and Public Libraries

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mahdi Rahmani ¹

Amirreza Asnafi ²

¹ PhD Student in knowledge and Information science,University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Information Science and Epistemology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of current study is to provide a comparative description of the managerial understanding of managers of university and public libraries in Tehran according to their academic field of study.
Methodology: This is an applied research in terms of purpose and a descriptive-survey study in terms of data collection method. The research population includes all the employees (who numbered 780) working in public libraries in Tehran (depending on the libraries and municipalities) and libraries of the public universities affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran in 1394 SH. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire about library management performance measurement.
Findings: The results indicate that there is a significant difference in general management skills between library managers whose field of study was library and information science (LIS) and mangers whose field of study was a discipline other than LIS, and performance of managers having expertise in LIS has been better than performance of managers lacking this expertise. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between the library managers in the managerial understanding according to gender and type of library, the performance of female managers and public libraries has been better than the performance of male managers and university libraries, respectively.
Originality/value: The value of this paper lies in that it shows the importance of having expertise in knowledge and information science in the management of libraries, which by considering the various aspects of management can provide solutions to improve the library managers' managerial understanding.

Keywords

public libraries

university libraries

library management

general management skills