Investigating the state of audience management in the library websites of Iranian public universities

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine the status of audience management in the library websites of Iran's public universities.

Methodology: This research is applied in terms of purpose, nature, and survey method. The data collection tools are questionnaires and checklists derived from the evaluation criteria of governance websites. The checklist was also completed by the researcher. The research community includes 81 websites. Initially, the research population was 90 websites, of which 9 websites were not available on the date of investigation and 81 websites were evaluated.

Findings: The general condition of the indicators of these websites in terms of audience management, in the subgroups of "responsibility and respect for the user" and "motivation" is 91% and 90% unfavorable, respectively. However, in the subgroups of motivation, 57% of the evaluated indicators have been achieved and are in a favorable condition. Audience management includes the components of "responsibility and respect for the user" and "motivation", the first subgroup of which includes two other sections called "privacy" and "identity and birth certificate" of the website. In this, the subgroup "responsibility and respect for the user" contains 12 components, the "privacy" subgroup contains one component, the "ID card and identity" contains 7 components, and the "motivation" subgroup contains 11 components.

Conclusion: Among all these components of audience management, which are extracted from the evaluation criteria of government websites, the most important components are:
- Responsibility and respect for the user: the components of the page "About Us", "User Guide on the website" and the mention of "How to contact the libraries" have been taken into account.
- Privacy: only 5 websites announce "privacy of information" to users.
- Birth certificate and identity: the most important components are "suitability of the domain and extension of the website address with the field of activity", and the presence of the "introduction of supporters and history" section. Also, the full name of the libraries in the address and the simplicity of the home page of the website are in good condition.
- Motivation: In this section, the only component that has been paid attention to is the existence of the "News" section. Unfortunately, the other ten components of this section have not been given importance.