Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
One of the goals and strategic approaches of knowledge management and health information systems in the world is to provide modern, up-to-date, and high-quality medical information services to scholars in health research. It is important to provide efficient services by maintaining, upgrading, and dynamizing libraries and ultimately satisfying and meeting the information needs of users. The libraries of medical universities are the main and key source of knowledge and information in the field of health. The key to the operational and functional success of these libraries is to meet the information needs of scholars, faculty members, and students by providing up-to-date, appropriate and timely information to them without time and place limitations.
The most important study on the relationship between different cultural aspects of organizations and knowledge management has been conducted by Lawson (2003). Lawson’s model is used to measure knowledge management and the type of culture governing the organization. According to this model, knowledge management has six processes of knowledge creation, capture, organization, storage, dissemination, and application. In this research, the status of information services based on knowledge management in the libraries of medical universities in Iran was investigated.

Methods
In this study, the status of information services in the libraries of medical universities in Iran was examined through interviews with managers of selected libraries. The interview was based on Lawson’s model in six knowledge management areas of knowledge creation, capture, organization, storage, dissemination, and application. The participants were 10 managers of the libraries at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, and Zabol University of Medical Sciences. Lawson knowledge management questionnaire with 24 items and 6 domains was used to collect data through interviews. The multiple-choice questions with a five-point Likert scale were used and rated on a Likert scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). The collected information was analyzed in Excel software.

Results
Table 1 shows the mean scores of the six domains of knowledge management for assessing the quality of information services provided by the libraries of selected medical universities in Iran.


Based on the results, the quality of information services based on the knowledge management model provided by selected libraries in Iran is relatively moderate. The highest quality services were provided by the library of Zabul University of Medical Sciences, while the lowest quality services were provided by the library of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Conclusion
The results obtained showed that the libraries of medical universities in Iran are in an almost average condition based on the knowledge management processes. According to the library managers’ opinions, one of the basic solutions in the field of knowledge creation is to carry out library and exploratory studies separately in libraries for designing a knowledge map and development of knowledge management system. Regarding knowledge capture and achieving maximum productivity from knowledge information, one of the managers perceived that knowledge services in libraries should be implemented quickly based on information networks by creating virtual libraries. Regarding knowledge organization, the managers believed that libraries firstly need leaders who are responsible for knowledge management activities to organize plans and coordinate all activities related to knowledge management. Secondly, they need to create specialized groups for managing the knowledge flow process to perform all tasks related to knowledge management activities in the organization. In the field of knowledge storage, the managers believed that the up-to-date knowledge of the organization should be protected and maintained as a tool for creating competitive advantages. Maintaining information security through coding requires knowledge management and macro and micro planning. In the field of knowledge dissemination, managers believed that knowledge dissemination is as important as knowledge advancement because scholars do not spend a lot of time and energy to search for knowledge users. In the field of knowledge application, managers believed that the existing knowledge in organizations should be used so that it can lead to the profitability and competition in the organization. In this regard, there should be a phase for measuring the necessary and available knowledge and skills.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was approved by Ethical Committee  of the Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Code: R.HUMS.REC.1401.275)

Funding
This article was taken from the PhD dissertation of Shole Zakyani, approved by Payam-e- Noor University, Mashhad branch.

Authors' contributions
Supervision: Saeed Ghaffari; Statistical analysis: Nasrin Davaridolatabadi; Investigation and the original draft preparation: Shole Zakyani; Review and editing: Saeed Ghaffari and Shole Zakyani.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest. 

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