LibWorld – Iran

Next stop in our LibWorld series is Iran. Alireza Noruzi, faculty member of the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Tehran will introduce the history of the Persian biblioblogosphere to us, followed by some general remarks about library science blogging and an overview about a selection of Persian blogs.

Alireza Noruzi received his Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Paul Cezanne in France. Besides Alireza Noruzi received a M.A. degree in Information Science from the University of Tehran in 2001 and B.A. degree in Library and Information Science from Shiraz University in 1998. Our guest author is also the Editor-in-chief of Webology, an international open access journal. You can contact him at http://nouruzi.googlepages.com. For a comprehensive list of the several blogs he owns, see our comprehensive list on the LibWorld page.

For more information about Library and Information Science in Iran, please take a look at: http://nouruzi.googlepages.com/LISDIRAN.html ^[1]Library and Information Science Directory of Iran (LISDIRAN). Iranian Weblogs of Library and Information Science. Available at: http://nouruzi.googlepages.com/LISDIRAN.html

Persian Biblioblogosphere: Past and Present

Introduction
Blogs, as a Web 2.0 tool, have grown rapidly in Iran and are becoming an increasingly popular and influential source of information, communication and opinion. Biblioblog or liblog, as a Library 2.0 tool ^[2]Maness, J. (2006). Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries. Webology, 3(2), Article 25. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n2/a25.html
, serves as a forum for discussion of the latest developments in library and information science (LIS). In fact, Persian-language biblioblogs or liblogs are windows to the world of library and information science (LIS). The year 2001 is the year of biblioblog release in Iran.

From the content point of view, Persian-language biblioblogs can be divided into several groups. For example:

• scientific activities
• news (covering national and international news)
• personal and social communication
• pleasure
• book review

The blog is a communication medium for Persian-language librarians, especially students (i.e., Bachelor, Master and PhD) and young librarians, to disseminate and to share information; to ask questions; to write about their experiences; and to diffuse LIS news. Persian-language biblioblogs are either individual or collaborative. In fact, 2006 was the year of collaborative blogs, because many collaborative blogs launched by LIS students and librarians. It should be noted that the blog is widely accepted by young people, while old librarians and teachers rarely blogging. Therefore, the main group of librarian bloggers is younger librarians and students.

It is interesting that each LIS school or association has a blog, especially a collaborative blog. Of course there are many old librarians and LIS professionals who have not yet a blog for personal or attitude reasons. The country has more than 2000 librarians, with less than 200 popular blogs. It should be noted that every week new blogs born.

A general look at Persian-language biblioblogs shows that the majority of bloggers are concentrated in the large cities (e.g., Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Ahvaz and Tabriz), where they have broadband Internet access from their homes or libraries, while small towns and rural areas have relatively low densities of bloggers. The majority of bibliobloggers are PhD, Master and Bachelor students. Lin and Halavais ^[3]Lin, Jia, & Halavais, Alex (2006). Geographical Distribution of Blogs in the United States. Webology, 3(4), Article 30. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n4/a30.html argue that urbanization level, higher education, and age distribution affect blogger densities.

It is noteworthy that Persian-language blogs stand somewhere between 10 and 15 positions in the world. This means that the blog is accepted by Persian-language users. Persian-language blogs are hosted by blog-hosting sites, of which Persianblog.com, Blogfa.com and Mihanblog.com have the most users.

If bloggers want to attract readers, they should write for readers, consider their needs and save the time of readers. Bibliobloggers need to continue adding unique content to their blogs, because the high quality content is everything. It should be noted that blogs without contents and without readers are nothing.

Five Laws of Blogs
Five Laws of Library Science ^[4]Ranganathan, S.R. (1931). The Five Laws of Library Science. Madras: Madras Library Association. is a classic of library science literature, as fresh today as it was in 1931. These brief statements remain as valid today as when they were promulgated, concisely representing the ideal service and organizational philosophy of libraries and user-based systems. ‘Book, reader, and library’ are the basic elements of Ranganathan’s laws. Even if we replace these keywords with other elements, Ranganathan’s laws still work very well ^[5]Noruzi, A. (2004). Application of Ranganathan’s Laws to the Web. Webology, 1(2), Article 8. Available at: http://www.webology.ir/2004/v1n2/a8.html. Ranganathan laws can be applied to blogs:

1. Blogs are for use.
2. Every reader his or her blog.
3. Every blog its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. The Web is a growing organism.

A list of Persian Biblioblogs
A list of the most active Iranian Weblogs of Library and Information Science is available via this link. It is difficult to decide which blogs should be introduced here. Some of well-known blogs are categorized here:

Collaborative blogs
Ferdowsi University Librarians: www.fumlibrarians.blogfa.com
Free Librarians: www.ketabi.mihanblog.com
Ghasedak: www.ghasedak1385.blogfa.com
Iranian Librarian Bloggers: www.lisiran.blogfa.com
Iranian Library and Information Science Association: www.ilisa.blogfa.com
Isfahan Medical Librarians: www.esfmlis.mihanblog.com
Knowledge Management: www.kmterms.mihanblog.com
Mazandaran Librarian Bloggers: www.kmterms.mihanblog.com
Shiraz Library Science Association: www.ilisaf.blogfa.com
SIMA: www.simalib.blogsky.com
Tehran University of Medical Sciences Librarians: www.tums.blogsky.com

Individual blogs:
Bookworm: www.bookworm.blogfa.com
Future Librarian: www.asnafi.persianblog.com
Information: www.infomatman.mihanblog.com
IMLA: www.imla.persianblog.com
Liblog: www.liblog.blogfa.com
Knowledge Science: www.nouruzi.blogfa.com
Notes of an Information Professional: www.zohreh.wordpress.com
Persian Gulf Librarian: www.khosraviar.blogfa.com
Persian Librarian 2.0: www.nouruzi.persianblog.com
Theories of Library Science: www.theorylib.blogfa.com

English-language blogs:
The Invisible Web Weblog: www.invisibleweblog.blogspot.com
Library and Information Science Miscellaneous: www.lismis.blogspot.com
Persian Librarian 1.0: www.noruzi.blogspot.com
Virtual Ehsan Real Blog: www.virtulib.blogspot.com

Concluding remarks
A blog is like a newspaper and a blogger is its journalist. Thus, the blogger should be a good journalist, posting the best contents and accepting national and international laws. The author, as a librarian, is blogging since 2003. As a librarian blogger, I enjoy blogs for many purposes: knowledge dissemination, self-expression, criticism, evaluation, interpretation, news, etc. I have several blogs in specific fields, but my own favorite blog is Knowledge Science, where I write about knowledge elements (i.e., Data, Information, and Knowledge), Scientometrics, Bibliometrics, etc.