Users of the National Library of Iran and their Methods for Using the Resources and Services of the National Library: Is it in Accord with the Library’s Statute or Not?

Purpose: The aim of this research was to identify the characteristics of the users of the National Library, their use of the resources and services of the library, and the conformity of their usage with the statute of the National Library.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The research population consisted of the users of resources and services of different sections of the information section (halls, repositories, libraries) of the National Library. The total population included 50,000 individual members and entities. A sample of 254 members were randomly selected for the research, based on the Krejcie-Morgan sampling table. Furthermore, the questionnaire was distributed and collected from various sections at different hours of the day with the help of the librarians working in each section. The data of this research were collected in two areas i.e. descriptive statistics and analytic statistics and the required tests were made by a statistics specialist.
Findings: The most frequent motivation and objective for going to the library was doing homework. More than 50 percent of the library visitors used the reading halls. The usage of the humanities hall is 50 percent and the usage of the resources and services of other parts of the library were less than 50 percent. Lack of access to reputable international databases through the National Library has caused limitations for more than 50 percent of the users in accessing resources.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, there is a significant difference between the users’ use of resources and services in this library. In other words, the users of the National Library use its resources more than its services.