Content analysis of policy documents in Iran's public libraries

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the categories and issues that were considered by national policymakers in the field of public libraries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study seeks to identify those issues and problems for which policymakers have been trying to find solutions by analyzing the content of policy documents. Method: This research is a qualitative research that has been conducted by using the content analysis method. The research population includes the text of policies, laws and regulations adopted by public policy makers in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this regard, nine important provisions specifically addressing public libraries are examined and analyzed. These laws and regulations include "the Establishment and Administration of Public Libraries Law", "the Executive Regulations of the Establishment and Administration of Public Libraries Law", "the decision to add the Iran Public Libraries Foundation to the list of institutions subject to paragraph "b" of Article (11) of National Recruitment Law", "Amendment of the Executive Regulations of the Establishment and Administration of Public Libraries Law", " Document of Beneficial Reading Movement", "beneficiary of Iran Public Libraries Foundation from the individual and legal persons as funds subject to article (172) of the Amendment of Direct Taxes Law approved in 1992", "the deduction from the total credits related to municipals revenues and payment to the Iran Public Libraries Foundation by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance (Treasury of the Country)", "article 64 of the Law on Adding Some Articles to Regulation of Part of Government Financial Regulations Law (2)", "the approval of Public Culture Council of the country regarding the promotion of book and book reading culture". MAXQDA qualitative data analysis software was used for coding the research data. Furthermore, in order to ensure the reliability of this study, validity, reliability, transferability and verifiability criteria were used. Findings: The research findings indicated that in the studied documents policies have been made for five issues including "Reading Promotion policies", "Management of Financial and Administrative Affairs of Public Libraries of the Country", "Construction and Development of Public Libraries of the Country", "Management of Library Services" "and "designation of actors in the public libraries in Iran". Examination of the documents showed that the issue of reading promotion policies were taken into consideration in the "Document of Beneficial Reading Movement" and the "Sanctioned regulation of Iran's Public Culture Council regarding the promotion of book and book reading culture" and many actors and stakeholders have been taken into account by policymakers in these documents. The three remained issues have been covered by other Laws and regulation. Furthermore, the role of various actors and stakeholders in public libraries was reviewed and classified in accordance with the provisions of the sanctioned laws and regulation. Based on the analysis, nine groups of actors and stakeholders were identified, including public library administrators, financial resource providers, users, community, employees, government, media, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Originality/value: This research is the first to examine the issues covered in the national policy documents of public libraries in Iran. Furthermore, the value of this study lies in that it explains the issues of interest to policymakers and public library policymaking institutions in the past as well as it helps to identify the gaps of national policymaking on public libraries too.