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

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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

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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?

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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

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Knowledge management and its application for developing a learning organization
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

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Open access: Where are we? Benefits, drawbacks, projects, trends, the future of OA
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

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Scientific underpinnings of new information designs and uses
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

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The influence of culture on user requirements and behaviour
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