Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Background: Capabilities offered by Web 2.0 tools have attracted many academic libraries. The present study aimed to identify factors affecting the use of Web 2.0 tools in selected Iran medical university libraries including Iran, Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti universities of medical sciences.
Methods: The study was conducted through a survey distributed among librarians working in the libraries of Iran, Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti universities of medical sciences. The data was collected using a questionnaire which examined the factors affecting the use of Web 2.0 technologies in terms of three general categories: factors related to librarians, users, tools/technology, and organizations. In order to ensure the content validity, the opinions of 10 medical library and information science faculty members were used. Further, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by calculating the Cronbach's alpha.
Findings: The results of the study indicated that among the librarian-related factors, the greatest impact was related to the teaching Web 2.0 applications to the librarians with the average of 4.19. Considering user-related factors, the users’ need to use these tools had the greatest impact with an average of 4.4. Regarding the tools/technological-related factors, Internet speed, Internet bandwidth, and filtering some Web 2.0 tools, with an average of 4.62, had the most inhibitor effect to adopt these tools. Finally, the support of library managers was the most influential factor for adopting Web 2.0 tools in libraries in terms of organization-related factors.
Conclusions: Identifying the factors influencing the adoption of Web 2.0 tools and planning to control the inhibitor factors in using these tools can help libraries to appropriately adopt and use these technologies.