Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and design the axial coding pattern of the factors affecting the unplanned use behavior of users of the academic libraries and information centers. Design/methodology/approach The study as an applied research with a qualitative approach employed the grounded theory. The data collection tool was a deep and semi-structured interview. The interviews data were analyzed and coded during three stages of open, axial and selective coding using the MAXQDA 10 qualitative analysis software. The research population consisted of faculty members and experts in three areas of library and information science, management and psychology. Using the combined targeted sampling method (targeted and then the snowball), 12 subjects were selected as the sample size. Findings According to the research findings, the factors affecting the unplanned behavior of users in the use of academic libraries resources and services were identified as factors related to technology, environmental factors, information resources, information services, human resources, individual features, time position factor, cultural factors and social factors. Accordingly, the axial coding pattern of this type of behaviors was designed. Research limitations/implications The research limitations include the lack of theoretical basis related to the unplanned behavior issue in the field of library and information science and the lack of full familiarity of most of the experts in the field of library and information science with this topic. These factors lead to the necessity of explaining the subject under discussion. Originality/value The unplanned behavior of clients can be utilized to persuade users to use the information resources and library services so that the costs spent on their preparation and collection will be justifiable. The current research addressed this aspect of the unplanned information-seeking behavior.

Purpose -The present paper's purpose is to review the literature related to quality assessment and performance evaluation in academic libraries, whether empirical or theoretical, and to extract key issues. It aims to explore which criteria exert a significant relationship with the academic libraries' performance quality; identify a set of criteria that appears to be useful for assessing the quality of academic libraries ITBS; and use these criteria to develop an instrument or evaluation checklist for evaluating the quality of academic libraries ITBS. Design/methodology/approach -Related keywords such as "academic libraries research", "academic libraries evaluation", "academic libraries assessment" were searched on the web as well as some leading databases. In addition, available library resources as well as online book databases were consulted. Key issues were identified, categorized and discussed to develop the evaluation checklist suggested by the paper. Findings -A number of indicators have been developed and tested in quality assessment studies debated in the paper. The literature reveals that evaluating ITBS in academic libraries should be considered to a greater extent and thus, more evaluation studies on the basis of validated tools are needed.Research limitations/implications -The review does not claim to be comprehensive. Originality/value -The paper can serve as a research roadmap concerning quality assessment of ITBS in academic libraries for researchers, managers, academic authorities and users.

With the implementation of sustainable management, libraries move towards sustainability and are converted into green libraries. The present study aimed to propose a model for sustainable management in Iranian libraries. This research was a qualitative and applied study. In order to obtain the required data and information, deep and semi-structured interviews with twelve experts in the fields of information and knowledge science and sustainable development were used. The interviewees were selected by a purposeful sampling method. For data analysis using grounded theory methodology, the topics raised by interviewees were coded and categorized in three steps. Fifty-five concepts from the coding stage were classified into six subcategories. In the final paradigm of sustainable management, these subcategories were classified into context, intervening and causal conditions, strategies, and consequences, which act in relation to the main category of sustainable management in order to establish a green library.

PurposeThe present paper aims to compare the awareness and ability of medical students in using the electronic resources of the Integrated Digital Library (IDL) portal of Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe current research involves a comparative applied survey. The survey was conducted through a structured questionnaire circulated among 300 medical students sampled from three major Iranian universities. A stratified random sampling method was used. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, average and so on) have been used to analyze the data using the Microsoft Excel software.FindingsThe awareness and utilization level of students in the three universities were lower than the average and those who are not aware of the existence of the IDL portal used general search engines to meet their information needs. The respondents admitted that their lack of awareness about the IDL was their most significant problem. Among the investigated universities, students of Tehran University of Medical Science (TUMS) used the End Note, Elsevier, Thomson, Scopus and Proquest databases most. All the students expressed the effect of the IDL on the academic activities as much as 64 percent in Iran University of Medical Science (IUMS), 72 percent in Tehran University of Medical Science (TUMS) and 66 percent in Shahid Beheshti Medical University (SBMU). The mean scores for utilization of searching strategies were 2.43, 2.89 and 2.87, respectively, for IUMS, TUMS and SBMU.Originality/valueA few attempts have been made to investigate the awareness, use and research ability of students in universities but this is the first of its kind to compare universities within the Integrated Digital Library. The paper will be useful for those in decision‐making roles and provides insight for the people responsible for IT application. It is hoped that this paper will assist administrators of the university libraries in developing a more complete understanding of students' electronic information needs and barriers.

PurposeThis study aimed to present a model for open-data management for developing innovative information flow in Iranian knowledge-based companies (businesses).Design/methodology/approachThe method was mixed (qualitative-quantitative) and data collection tools were interview and questionnaire. The qualitative part was done to identify the influential components in open data management (ecosystem) using the grounded theory method. A questionnaire was developed based on the results of the qualitative section and the theoretical foundations, and the quantitative section was conducted by analytical survey method and the model was extracted using factor analysis and the integration of the qualitative section.FindingsSeven categories of entrepreneurial incentives, sustainable value, innovative features, challenges and barriers, actors, business model and requirements are the main categories that should be considered in open data management (ecosystem) with all categories of research have a significant relationship with open data management.Originality/valueThe study focused on open data management from an innovation paradigm perspective and its role in developing innovative information flow. The study aimed to identify the key components of the open data ecosystem, open-data value creation, and the need to use the “open data” approach to develop data-driven and knowledge-based businesses in Iran–an emerging approach largely ignored.