Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
Knowledge management as a factor for the competitiveness of libraries has been the basis for improving services and raising the rank of the Ministry of Health as a parent organization. It is essential that libraries as the custodians of health information systems and knowledge management as a practice in the dissemination of knowledge, receive attention [1]. Medical science libraries should pay attention to the information needs of their users and take effective steps in increasing the quality of providing information; by adopting new approaches, they should be user-oriented and provide services based on users’ needs [2, 3]. Since employees leave the libraries after the end of their contracts or retirement, by implementing knowledge management, a step should be taken in creating and maintaining a culture of learning and maintaining knowledge and information [4]. Knowledge of the methods and results of knowledge management can be effective in the policies and decisions of managers of medical sciences universities [5]. Knowledge management provides an effective solution for providing information services in organizations and libraries and creates added value for the organization by converting the information of the organization’s employees into information and knowledge assets. So far, no comprehensive study has been conducted to examine the relationship between knowledge management components and the promotion of information services in libraries of medical sciences universities in Iran. Therefore, this study aims to examine, according to the perceptions of the managers of the studied libraries, which of the knowledge management components (information technology, organizational culture and organizational processes), to what extent and with what priority, affect the promotion of information services in libraries of medical sciences universities in Iran.

Methods
This is a descriptive-analytical study. The study population consists of all managers of central libraries, college libraries and hospital libraries of medical sciences universities in Iran. To determine the sample size, Cochran’s formula was used and sampling was done by a simple random sampling method. In this regard, 56 libraries were selected from 64 central libraries, 181 from 345 college libraries, and 136 from 221 hospital libraries were selected (total=373). The data collection tool was a self-made questionnaire with two parts. The first part surveys demographic characteristics, and the second part included two sections with items related to knowledge management and library services. The first section used the Asian productivity organization’s knowledge management scale. The second section was a LibQUAL model-based questionnaire with three dimensions: Affect of service, Information control, and library as a place. Cronbach’s α coefficients for the subscales of the questionnaire were higher than 0.7; thus, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed. To determine the construct validity of the questionnaire, confirmatory factor analysis was used in AMOS software, version 24. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean) and inferential statistics (correlation test, multiple regression analysis) were used.

Results
The data of knowledge management and its components had normal distribution. The structural equation modeling for assessing the effect of knowledge management components on the quality components of library information services showed the goof fit of the model. Thus, the study model was approved. Examining the Pearson correlation coefficients showed that the components of knowledge management had a positive and significant relationship with the quality of library information services. The results of analysis of variance showed that the information technology component of knowledge management had the strongest relationship with the quality of information services (β=0.26, P<0.001) followed by the component of organizational culture (β=0.23). The component of organizational processes had a beta value of 0.22. These results indicates that with increase of knowledge management, the quality of information services in the libraries can be improved.

Conclusion
The results of the study showed that among the components of knowledge management, the component of information technology had the greatest effect on the promotion of information services in libraries and is ranked first among the components of knowledge management. Thus, by strengthening the infrastructure of information and communication technology, it is possible to provide the best information services to the researchers, college students and library users. The component of organizational culture ranked second. In the libraries of medical sciences in Iran, by using the criteria of organizational culture, it is possible to make a change in improving the quality of information services. The component of organizational processes ranked third. In the libraries of medical sciences, with an emphasis on the organizational strategies, we can see changes and developments in the information services.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The paper was approved by the Ethic committee of Payame Noor University (Code: R.HUMS.REC.1401.275). 

Funding
The present article is the result of PhD thesis of Shole Zakiani, approved by Mashahd Payame Noor University.

Authors' contributions
All authors equally contributed to preaparing this re-search article.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.


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