Contributions by Iranian library and information science researchers As a developing country, Iran has started to invest heavily in science and tried to become scientifically developed. It is reported that scientific output has grown 11 times faster in Iran than the world average (MacKenzie, 2010). The number of articles in LIS international journals by Iranians has also been steadily increasing in recent years. This special issue of Aslib Proceedings is dedicated to Iranian contributions. The official LIS academic education in Iran started in 1966 when the first library school was established at the University of Tehran with the help of the American Professor Alice Lohrer and the sponsorship of the Fulbright Program. The school offered a Master's course in Library Sciences (Hayati and Fattahi, 2005). There were seven universities in Iran offering a LIS program on the verge of the 1979 revolution. This number increased to 20 in 1995 (Kiani, 2009) and currently there are about 70 LIS departments across the country offering Bachelor, Master's and Doctoral programs. The first PhD program in LIS was established in 1990. The LIS faculty members are mainly engaged in teaching. The number of full-time researchers in the field who work in organizations such as the National Library, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRANDOC), and the Regional Information Center for Science and Technology is not high enough. Therefore, most research studies are basically dissertations and theses done by the large number of postgraduate students. Iran currently publishes nine LIS scholarly journals in Persian and two in English and has an LIS Association and a Medical LIS Association.
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