A Comparison of the Conditions of Iran Public Libraries with the IFLA Standards

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the conditions of the public libraries in Iran with the standards of IFLA. Iran is a country in the southwest of Asia. With 1,648,669 square kilometres, it is the 18th country in the world and has a population of 77,189,669. There are more than 3000 public libraries in Iran. Under Iran’s law, the Iran public libraries Foundation, which is a non-governmental entity, is responsible for the task of establishing, constructing, equipping, developing, managing, and monitoring the public libraries across the country. In this study, the five indicators of collections, stack space, the space of the reading hall and public library staff are compared with the IFLA standards to determine the difference between the current conditions and the standards. The methodology of the research is comparative. Data collection instrument is a checklist, based on which the number of public libraries in different indices will be extracted and compared with IFLA standards. This study presents a clear portrait of the conditions of public libraries in a country and can be a model for other developing countries to compare the conditions of public libraries with IFLA standards. Presenting this article and sharing its results, the authors also hope to benefit from the opinions of other expert participants in IFLA conference for the further improvement of public library activities.