Now, the journal has reached its 101st issue. Founded 29 years ago (1991) by the Iran Public Libraries Foundation, it began publishing under the title of Payam-e Ketabkhane (in English, Message of Librarianship). In 2009, the journal got a scientific promotion from the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, the Bureau of Scientific Journals, under the new title of Research on Information Science and Public Libraries, with a high-level editorial board consisting of professors from all over the country in Library and Information Science (LIS), and related domains such as informatics, psychology, and management. Over the past ten years, the journal has undergone the following course:
We received 1560 articles, from which about 1195 ones (about %70 of the articles) rejected, and 360 ones were published in 40 numbers from 61-100. It is necessary to mention two points in this regard:
1) The main subject area of the articles was mostly LIS management, which included subareas such as work depression, organizational culture, work satisfaction, organizational promotion model, cultural intelligence, organizational confidence, thought investment, organizational entrepreneurship, and work stress. The second major subject areas of articles were respectively information storage and retrieval, and scientometrics, cultural approaches, reading and reading skill, Articles about space, architecture, topology, designing and library equipment, were interesting subjects, too. Library services such as having skill in buying equipment and distribution of services and subservices to all were important. Librarians' education and training, their efficiency and effectiveness, evaluation of their skills, and planning for their instruction are other subjects addressed by the authors. Psychological studies, consultation, social values of librarians, their social intelligence, information literacy, library standards, professional ethics, and services to the people with special defects and handicaps were the theme of other articles. It is worth mentioning that the audience of most articles are the librarians, while users should be considered more, and people living around the libraries should also to be taken into consideration.
2) The second point is the aim and objectives of the editorial board. First, since the editorial has suggested that all LIS journals in Iran should be specialized and publish the most relevant subjects, this journal publishes only those articles that are about public libraries while other journals do not care this point specifically.
After the interruption of the journal's publishing for a while and its republishing, the editorial decided to focus on some main areas and points which are seen in editorial articles. These areas and points are as follows: children's literature, scientometrics and scientific production, knowledge management, the meaning and limits of LIS definition and identification, and the necessity of mentioning and addressing librarianship in the high-level policy documents in Iran. Being published for about 30 years is not too much, and I hope that the journal will be safe and sound for hundreds.
Machine summary:
اين فصلنامه بر اساس مجوز شمارة ٣١١١/٢٢٤٧ در تاريخ ١٣٨٨/١٢/٢٦ از سوي کميسيون بررسـي نشريات علمي کشور با نام جديـد تحقيقـات اطـلاع رسـاني و کتابخانـه هـاي عمـومي و بـا انتخـاب هيئت تحريريه اي قوي از اسـتادان برجسـته در رشـتۀ علـم اطلاعـات و دانـش شناسـي و حـوزه هـاي مرتبط چون مديريت ، روان شناسي، و فناوري از دانشگاه هـاي معتبـر کشـور موفـق بـه اخـذ درجـۀ علميپژوهشي شد.
اگـر ١٠ سـال اخيـر مجلـه را بـه اجمـال مـورد بررسي قرار دهيم ، ميتوان گفت که در اين مدت ١٥٦٠ مقاله بـه فصـلنامه رسـيده ، ٤٠ شـماره از فصلنامه از شمارة ٦١ تا ١٠٠ چاپ شـده و از ايـن تعـداد، ١١٩٥ مقالـه (حـدود ٧٦/٦ درصـد) در فرايند داوري رد، ٣٦٠ مقاله (٢٣/١) چاپ ، و تنها ٥ مقاله (٠/٣ درصد) توسط نويسندگان بازپس گرفته شده است .
بخش مهمي از اين سرمقالات به همراه سـرمقاله هـاي مجلـۀ تحقيقـات کتابداري و اطلاع رساني دانشگاهي در کتاب از کتابـداري و اطـلاع رسـاني تـا علـم اطلاعـات و دانش شناسي در سال ١٣٩٢ توسط انتشارات چاپار منتشر شده است .
موضوع بعدي کتابخانـه هـاي عمـومي اسـت کـه بخـش مشـبعي از سـرمقاله هـا را بـه خـود اختصاص داده است .
اکنون که سردبيري و هيئت تحريريۀ گذشتن از شمارة صد مجله را يادآور مـيشـوند، اميدوارنـد که اين مجله که در حوزة علم اطلاعات و دانش شناسي از پرسابقه ترين ها است ، دير بپايد و نهـاد مسئول حمايت از آن ، قدر آن را بداند و در پربارترکردن آن از طريق حمايت مـالي و معنـوي از طرح هاي علمي و عملي حساب شـده تـلاش کنـد و محققـان هـم دايـرة توجـه بـه کتابخانـه هـاي 212 عمومي را گسترش دهند و براي ارتقاي سطح علمي مقالات خود بکوشند و از اين مجله بـه قـدر لازم حمايت کرده ، و آن را بستري براي نشر پژوهش هاي خود انتخاب کنند.