1

Themes for the Student Thesis and Student Papers: Suggested Topics Accreditation and the role of the academic library in undergraduate, graduate, and other

teaching programs (adult, community, distance) Accreditation and the role of the public library in society (adult, community, distance) Acquisition and deployment of technology in the library environment Adaptive equipment technology for supporting handicapped persons in the library

environment Adaptive interfaces: Adapting for culture Addressing local issues: Can technology overcome cultural boundaries? Advantages and disadvantages of digital collections: How to plan successful and sustainable

projects? Analyses and your library’s use of an analysis, e.g., cost-benefit analysis, gap analysis,

customer-satisfaction analysis, needs analysis, root cause analysis, SWOT analysis, what-if analysis)

Analysis of employment opportunities for library professionals: Who employs whom-what are entry qualifications, salary, pay-scales, promotional avenues and opportunities, language preferences, etc.

Analyzing the arguments, politics & motivation behind classification & indexing systems Application of Knowledge Organization Art work display in the academic library to promote spirituality among students Art work display in the public library to promote spirituality among users Art work display in the school library to promote spirituality among users Articulation of an information policy for a campus Behaviour of minority language speakers in online environments Benchmarking and libraries’ use of it to achieve outcomes Benefits and costs of digitization projects Bibliotherapy under Iranian situation: A study of use of books and reading to cure certain

chronic diseases and mental disorders. Libraries in hospitals, availability of trained manpower in this regard

Book indexes in Iranian texts: indexes and their usefulness, comprehensiveness, correctness, arrangement, style, reader's view, etc.

Book review as source of book selection: Assessment of book reviews-content, bias, timeliness, criticality, objectivity, comprehensiveness, authority, etc.

Business Reference & Competitive Intelligence Resources on the Web Campus community's perception of the library as a hospitable environment for reading, study,

and research Cataloguing standards: challenges and future directions Challenge of providing library services with shrinking resources Challenges and opportunities in migrating to web-based information services Challenges of implementing technology Change management in the library environment Change management on the Web environment Changes in the Iranian LIS research front: Time-sliced co-citation analyses of LIS journal

articles, 1990-2007 Changing nature of library space requirements Changing nature of web space requirements Changing role and value of union lists with the availability of electronic full-text journal

databases

2

Changing role of the librarian from collection development specialists to specialists who develop of pathfinder guides (subject, topic) to harness the Internet's unstructured freeform information

Citizens’ awareness of emerging electronic government and other online services Clientele expectations as exacerbated by e-business practices: effect on library's business

practices, business alliances and partnerships, vendor relationships, one-to-one relationship management with patrons

Clientele expectations: we librarians see our customers/patrons through the prism of our collections. What are effective strategies for flipping this to see our collections through our customer's eyes?

Collaboration opportunities (or reports of such collaborations) with other institutions such as colleges and universities, historical societies, museums, professional or trade associations, public schools K-12, social agencies, etc.

Collaborative social network tools for the gathering and classification of information: An analysis

Collection development strategies for academic programs Common culture created by the academic library on campus Common culture created by the public library Communications plan as a tool for developing community relations to connect with faculty

and administrators, e.g., how to write, how to use, how to budget for expenditures for advertising, etc.

Conferences/seminars-resolutions and their implementation: resolutions adopted in several national conferences / seminars / symposia and their implementation.

Conflicts in information realities, their recognition and resolution Coping with tight budgets by eliminating the overlap between print and electronic

subscriptions Core collections for children's literature in a higher education library that supports a teacher

education program of instruction Core collections for children's literature in a school library that supports a teacher education

program of instruction Core electronic resources for small and/or medium size libraries (academic, public, special) Core technology trends in the library environment Cost study (Time and Cost Study) of library activity or activities, including methodology and

outcome at your library Cost-drivers and the criteria for selecting cost drivers for various library activities, e.g.,

automation, communications, facilities and physical plant, human resources, public services, public and community relations, technical services

Cross-cultural user research: Findings and innovative methods Culture and Politics in an Information Age Dealing with the difficult patron: strategies, concerns Delivering effective and cost-effective LIS services Design and Development of Iranian Institutional Repositories Determining the best way to digitize collection and make it accessible to the target audience Developing a library business plan that addresses business/technical goals, platform/storage

technology requirements, and infrastructure topology Developing an annual academic agenda for the library with benchmarks and performance

measures Developing and applying tools for evidence based practice (benchmarking, good practice

guidelines, standards, accreditation and audit) Difference between serving students as customers and providing students a product

3

Digital Divide: Development Policies and Action Digital Education, Distance Learning and Creation of Information Society Digital Library Applications Digital Library Applications in Iran Discussion of information literacy as an educational reform for utilizing technology in the

curriculum Discussion of one or more challenges and/or opportunities in some area of librarianship or

information science Distributed collaboration and knowledge/information sharing E-Diversity and libraries: how far down Iran Effective allocations strategies for collection development in an academic, public, or special

library Effective budgeting strategies linked to outcomes Effective library support for distance education programs Effectiveness of government grant programs (or any single program) Effectiveness of Web-based OPACs Efficiencies achieved through consortia affiliation Electronic reserves, e.g., part of the OPAC or in commercial software such as Blackboard Electronic resources and their impact on the academic library as the social and intellectual

heart of the campus Electronic resources and their impact on the academic library: library visits, reference service,

and circulation Ethical and legal implications of digital worlds Ethical, political, and legal aspects of information creation, dissemination, and use Ethics of information Ethics of the Web Evaluating the effectiveness of bibliographic instruction with a focus on the student and/or

teacher Evaluation, selection, and purchasing digitization equipment Evolution of evidence: global perspectives on linking research with practice Exploring current and future prospects for evidence-based information practice (librarianship;

information science; informatics; information literacy; information technology) Facilitating practitioner perspectives on implementing evidence-based practice Financing Mechanism and International Cooperation for Information Society Freedom of expression; and credibility and trust on the Web Fund raising and development programs for libraries Fundamental problems that libraries must solve in the next five years (identification of those

problems and how to approach?) Future information architectures to both build and harness information realities Game theory’s “prisoner’s dilemma” applied to academic library problems or situations Good faith communication as an essential component for strong employee relations Government policies toward adoption and diffusion of ICT, including e-government services

and high-speed Internet access for household consumers/citizens Harnessing the evidence base for our teaching and learning House journals as sources of technical information: A look into the structure, contents,

availability, bias, price and productivity can be studied. How is fiction described & outlined in Dewey, Bliss or UDC How to accelerate the use of information technology for the social and economic benefit of

citizens and communities? How to maximize the value and impact of our information services?

4

How to Use research to inform practical decision-making? Hub library networks Identifying the "sizzle" in the library's program Impact of demographic and cultural changes on library services Impact of E-publishing on the future of libraries; Impact of full-text databases on interlibrary loan services Impact of full-text databases on library users Impact of Internet & Cyberinfrastructure on Jobs and Income in Iran Impact of Internet & Cyberinfrastructure on libraries and librarians in Iran Impact of library budget shifts toward electronic resource access Impact of Open Access (OA) on the future of libraries; Impact of the Web on library users Implementing a new integrated information system in the library environment Implications for information seeking behavior and retrieval Implications for the library as accreditation shifts from an emphasis on library resources to

information literacy Incorporating electronic resources into the OPAC Information Access: Measures of performance in context and situation-sensitive information

access Information organization, management, access, and retrieval Information Science and Technology: Scientific Innovation and Information Society Information seeking and use: the role of information in professional and daily lives, use of

various types of information technology, and social contexts of information seeking. Information seeking and use: the role of information in professional and daily lives, use of

various types of information technology, and social contexts of information seeking. Information technology, social equity and development: IT and governance, IT & and the new

economy, including the future of work and implications of technological hardware and software developments; the role of ICTs in conflict management, etc.

Information technology, social equity and development: IT and governance, IT & and the new economy, including the future of work and implications of technological hardware and software developments; the role of ICTs in conflict management, etc.

Institutional repository models: what works and what doesn't; Institutional repository object issues--theses, datasets, learning objects, etc.; Integrating multimedia and the Web into language planning & measuring the impact of

applications on language use Internet-based services, products, technologies and their impact on library management,

service, and utilization: challenges and/or methodology to meet patron needs as libraries migrate to a digital/virtual environment

Iranian dissertations/theses as cited documents: Analysis of the citation of dissertations/theses in LIS published/unpublished by other researchers/authors in LIS.

Iranian patents and their use: availability of patent literature in libraries. Its use, indexing patterns, awareness among user community, availability, etc

Issues and the Role of Media/Libraries in an Information Age Issues involved with designing, setting goals, and evaluating digitization projects. Planning

issues including: budgeting, workflow, copyright, storage, delivery, and preservation IT & Knowledge Processing Knowledge commerce - KM practices in e-commerce and e-business Knowledge Economy, Knowledge Management, and Information Society Knowledge Industry Knowledge management and its application for developing a learning organization

5

Knowledge management strategies and implementations Knowledge Mapping: Data Mining & Audit Knowledge utilization Knowmatics and Knowledge Technology Libraries and life-long learning: what this means and steps to take to bring about Library implications of the growing power of information technology to transform the means

of research, teaching, and scholarly communication Library in higher education as an economic engine (agricultural stimulation,

company/corporate creation and development, human capital development of hundreds of thousands of people, stimulation and enhancement of the lives of people within its sphere of influence)

Library services for disabled persons: facilities, equipment, funding, staffing Library services for virtual high schools, virtual colleges and universities Library services in a linguistically diverse community Library’s value to society in digitalizing unique collections Library’s value, strengths, and shortcomings in an electronic society? Library's changing role in the information economy Library's effective learning environment and its importance (e.g., research, socializing in the

use of information resources, promotion of a common culture, safe and relatively quiet study hall, a social sphere for flirting and meeting people and being seen, etc. Too many librarians have focused on information technology to the exclusion of the many other positive things that take place in an academic library)

Literacy programs in the library environment Management and operation of information systems MARC portability and reuse in the open Web environment Marginalization of the library (academic, public, special) Marketing of library services, i.e., Making the library as a destination for students Maximizing the value of (new) technology in the library environment Measuring the quality of library services Methodologies and best practices in international product development beyond translation Micro factors influencing ICT adoption and usage in Iran Micro factors influencing ICT adoption and usage within the household Mobile devices: Issues concerning international and local use Models of library service with the use of computers, networks, and the Internet Motivational factors to contribute to Open Access, Open Source and other areas of public

good and open sharing of knowledge Multi-cultural issues in knowledge management National Rural Library System: A plan for Iran National Security Policies and Implications for Information Flow Networked communities: Culture and Computer Mediated Communication New theoretical perspectives on information use and management Notational techniques in DOC, CC and UDC. Occupational health hazards of library personnel: allergic problems from dust, age, problems

in using chemicals in photocopying, book preservations, binding; problems with user community (burn out issues)

Ontology and knowledge-based IR in context Open Access (and source) and its impact on Knowledge development Open Access and its benefits for Developing Countries and public health Open access: The role of librarians in promoting and managing Open Access Open access: Where are we? Benefits, drawbacks, projects, trends, the future of OA

6

Outsourcing of services (cataloging, janitorial, reference, serial check-in, etc.) Pareto's 80-20 rule applied to library problems and situations (The Pareto principle also

known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) Persian literature on the Web: a content analysis Personalized and collaborative information access in context Philosophical basis for Ranganathan's Five Fundamental Categories, to trace a common

thread between the Muslim philosophers, a) Biruni's point of view (973-1048 AD) and b) Farabi’s (870-- 950), five principles and Ranganathan’s Five Laws

Position paper on a controversial topic, e.g., do we need academic/public libraries? Preserving our cultural records in a digital age Problems of non-use and misuse of library materials: vandalism, theft, loss of books, security

aspects; less used and unused books, weeding out policy, etc. Professional associations and their role in the development of the LIS: ILISA etc. Role in

training of professionals, dissemination of professional information, safeguarding professional interests, etc

Programming to attract students to the academic library (art exhibitions, book swaps, comfortable furniture, hosting campus meetings and conferences, lectures, poetry readings)

Programming to attract users to the public library (art exhibitions, book swaps, comfortable furniture, hosting campus meetings and conferences, lectures, poetry readings)

Providing library services in the higher education environment in the face of faculty who are teaching a curriculum that draws less and less on library resources.

Provision of ICT in public places for citizens from lower socio-economic backgrounds Public library as an development engine (culture, economic, etc) Publisher-library collaboration strategies, now and in the near future; Quantitative and qualitative measurement of online presence and use Relevance feedback – implicit & explicit – and query modification issues Religious perspectives on information ethics issues - Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, and

others, including relevant contrasts with Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and/or indigenous traditions and their correlative impacts on information ethics issues

Renovating the library to enrich its atmosphere to attract students Researching the needs of our users and communities - by practitioners for practitioners Rethinking the academic library's functions: Universities are building a new library that is not

for print collections but for its media center and computer labs. Very few libraries have substituted electronic access for their paper collections. Are librarians ready to accept a digital environment?

Revenue opportunities for libraries Role of consortium membership for expanding access and resources Role of e-books in the library collection Role of media on library movement and development: analysis of articles appeared in

newspapers, radio talks, telecasts on library development, their role in public opinion, legislation, etc.

Role of national/regional/local government in the development of information institutions Role of Open Access journals in the library collection Role of the library as an information resource in globalization Role of the library as an information resource in promoting human rights Role of the library in R&D Role of the library in the ubiquitous computer environment Role of the web site / homepage as a new platform for library service Rural Library Development Plan for Iran Scientific underpinnings of new information designs and uses

7

Search engines: how those that charge allow those that pay to rise to the top Significance and strategic value of written procedures and standard operating procedures

(SOP) Social, ethical, political, legal, and economic and cultural issues: issues related to the role of

information in society, such as information policy, access, security, privacy, and intellectual property, as well as the social uses and abuses of information technologies such as the Internet and World Wide Web in bridging or separating diverse communities.

Social, ethical, political, legal, and economic and cultural issues: issues related to the role of information in society, such as information policy, access, security, privacy, and intellectual property, as well as the social uses and abuses of information technologies such as the Internet and World Wide Web in bridging or separating diverse communities.

Socio-economic impacts of consumer adoption of ICT Strategic planning in the library environment Strategic role of the library on the college/university campus Strategic role of the public library on the society Strategies and applications for bring bibliographic instruction into the classroom using web-

based resources Strategy for libraries to evolve as a modern technological workplaces (staff skills and training

issues) Student acceptance of print vs. electronic resources Students in the academic library: client, customer, or patron and the difference what we call

our community of scholars makes Study of auxiliaries in DOC, CC and UDC Study of the type and character of reference questions Study of title and content pages of Iranian publications: insufficient data, variant data,

ambiguity, authorship, price, disfigurement, etc. Subject Indexing and Classification Successful outsourcing activities Survey of consortia across the country: what they do, how they are organized, who belongs Survey of Iranian software packages for library automation: a survey of software packages

brought out by private companies -hardware/software requirements, compatibility, user friendliness, etc.

Survey of libraries for emergency or disaster plans, e.g., fire, weather (hurricane, snow, tornado), flood, etc. (Model paper is by Kalyan, S., Xue-Ming Bao, and Marta M. Deyrup. "Academic Libraries' Emergency Plans for Inclement Weather," Library Administration and Management 15(4), 223-229, 2001.)

Survey of map libraries/tape libraries, etc. Survey of rural libraries, etc. Survey of students and faculty as part of a quality assessment program Survey of where students turn when they have a paper to write and what type(s) of resources

they use SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis methodology and

interpretation for an academic, health science, public, or special library Taxonomies and ontologies, knowledge mapping The challenges of information literacy in the digital environment The different economic effects and implications of different forms of scientific publishing The impact ICT use on the daily/social/professional life of consumers/citizens The impact of consumers' home use of ICT on business models in various industries The Impact of Internet on the Mass Media in Iran The influence of culture on user requirements and behaviour

8

The nature of the information profession in the digital future The new and changing role of information publishers The role of document forms in classification and indexing The Role of ICT in Economic Growth, and Socio-Economic Development The Role of ICT in women's participation in development The role of Web/Internet in teaching, learning, research and Scholarly communication The Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Search Engines The Social, Political, Economic and Cultural Dimensions of the Internet & the Web Theory, methods, and assessment techniques for international product and system evaluation Transfer of Information Technology and Knowledge: Development and Underdevelopment Trends (administration, budget, collections, customer service, staffing, staff supervision and

management, technology) Understanding barriers to online minority language use Uniting international evidence with local action Universe of knowledge: the Iranian conception - its treatment in ancient Iranian classics. Use of specific electronic resources and databases in support of an academic program Use of the World Wide Web, hyperlinks and managing the news by criminal justice agencies User needs and patterns related to digital libraries. User, organizational and cultural analyses of information realities Value or significance of remote access to the library's electronic resources (academic,

municipal, public libraries) Value proposition statement for libraries: what it is and how it is best determined and

articulated Values of books in the library collection despite the trend toward electronic collections Virtual reference: what it is, how to do it, examples Web and its roles and benefits in health and medicine Web and life-long learning: what this means and steps to take to bring about Web based Knowledge Organization tools Web blog and its roles and benefits in health and medicine Web-based bibliographic instruction What are the reasons for later adapters of the web and online journals in Iranian LIS

community? What knowledge organization does and how it does it: Critical Studies in and of Classification

and Indexing White paper on a topic Why Iran (Iranians) does not adapt the Internet as an information source, what are the reasons

for not adapting? Wireless connectivity: its transformative impact on the academic library Women librarians/LIS teachers in Iran: Role, impact, parity, contribution, etc. Writing a plan (action plan for some activity, advertising plan, communications plan, gap

analysis and customer service quality plan, marketing plan, strategic plan, technology plan) for an academic library