Generalization of Porter's Value Chain to Specialized Library Activities and the Impact of Information Technology on It

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

University of Tehran

Abstract
Information technology, as a tool and platform for development, has countless advantages in the global competition arena for organizations and their affiliated institutions, including libraries. Today, all industries are exposed to the developments of this technology in some way. Business thinker Michael Porter presented the value chain model in 1985. According to this model, the activities involved in manufacturing organizations can be divided into two parts: core activities and support activities. Core activities are activities that are called value-added. Given the importance of this sector as one of the pillars of the economic progress of manufacturing organizations, specialized library managers have also sought to increase the productivity of their activities by using information technology. In this article, along with the generalization of specialized library activities to the five core activities of Porter's model, we examine the effects of information technology on each of the core chain activities.

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