THE ATTITUDE OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS TOWARDS DISCIPLINE AND FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION

The purpose of the present research is to study the attitudes of LIS students towards their field and career future. Current applied and quantitative study used survey method. Data collection instrument was a modified questionnaire based on prior studies. The reliability analysis of the questionnaire was carried out using Cronbach's Alpha. Population of the study was graduate and undergraduate LIS students in Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University. In order to answer the research questions, descriptive and parametric statistical tests (Indepent-t, Anova and Pearson) were applied based on demographic variables. SPSS 20 was used to analyze the data and Excel was used to draw the graphs. Based on findings, the highest agreement among students was about the endangerment of career future by the recruitment of non-specialized individuals in this profession; while the lowest agreement was about the positive view of people about this field. There was a positive and a significant association between Attitudes towards Field & Career Future (ATFS&CF) and GPA. It could be concluded that students with higher GPA have more optimistic opinion about ATFS & CF. Respondents worried about their career future as well as the employment of graduates of other fields in this profession.


Introduction
Library and information science (LIS) graduates will become the face of this profession in the future business (Combes et al. 2011). Citing from several previous studies, both professionals and academics emphasize the need to attract open-minded, innovative, creative, dynamic, flexible and visionary individuals in LIS discipline. Individuals with these characteristics will be able to lead the field into new directions, respond to the challenges Khalili posed by a continually developing information landscape and subsequently determine the growth and success of the information field (Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al. 2015).
However, the new comers in this landscape may never bear the title librarian or work in a traditional library. Instead, they act as the future information managers who may perform a variety of roles in the global corporations, for the government, or as the consultants to small businesses (Combes et al. 2011). Librarians with ICT skills and entrepreneurial qualities can play a meaningful and leading role in the networked information society. In new era they can act as a guardian of digital information and digital services (Bilawar and Jadhav 2015). Many of them may serve on search committees at some point (Ard et al. 2006); therefore hiring skilled and interested librarians is essential in order to carry out the above mentioned responsibilities.
Although LIS is a discipline with a long history (Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al. 2015), there are continuous efforts for legitimacy mainly due to the boundaries of the discipline, which are not well defined and perhaps for that reason, the public has misconceptions about the nature of LIS studies (Combes et al. 2011). Hence, increasing awareness about the potential of the discipline among the public or special groups is necessary. According to Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al. (2015) library schools should raise awareness among high school students regarding the value, role and importance of LIS.
Having enough awareness about this career can help the students to make a better decision about choosing this field at the university.
Interest, educational talent and scientific ability are among the most important factors in choosing a field of study; these factors prevent problems such as changing field of study, academic failure, drop-outs and student dissatisfaction that show up as a feeling of frustration and lack of motivation (Enayati Novinfar et al. 2013). Understanding the reasons that attract people to the field as well as expectations about such issues as salaries will help library administrators make strategic choices about staffing and retention (Ard et al. 2006).
Therefore choosing LIS program as an interested field of study at the university may have influence on library administrators' decision to hire a person. Findings of Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) indicated that mass media, schools, teachers and librarians have not played their important and effective roles in introducing the field to the society. Also Khalili (2005) based on findings of her study suggested that LIS should be introduced to students and other people through media and workshops. Khalili The positive career incentive and internal satisfaction are among the success factors of any job. According to Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al. (2015) both intrinsic and extrinsic factors have influence on choosing LIS as a field of study. These factors seemed to be common in different geographical areas (i.e. Europe, Asia …) and shared by various groups (i.e. high school students, undergraduate students, and professionals) to choose the LIS as a first and second career. However, the most influential factors in choosing LIS are more intrinsic (i.e. nature of the job, love of books and reading, interesting job and desire to help people) than extrinsic (i.e. employment opportunities and career prospects). In other words, intrinsic characteristics of the field like love of books and the nature of the job, are more important reasons than the payment and the social status in choosing this field.
On the other hand, Shafie Abadi (1992) referring to Peter Blau notes that, there are two groups of factors involved in the choice of an occupation; the first group is individual characteristics such as biological and psychological factors and the second group is economic and social status, such as geographical location, social resources, job mobility, promotion of cultural conditions and the labor market. The second group has a more effective role in choosing a job; in line with this theory, Jahani (2014) in studying the career prospects of LIS students, and Jamali and Ghalenoei (2013) in studying the career prospects of environmental and occupational health, justified the negative view of the students about their discipline by the mentioned theory. It seems that the negative response to this career among LIS students was due to the economic and social status, while optimistic influential factors in choosing LIS are more intrinsic.
However, individuals who choose LIS at the university may face with some challenges that reduce their motivation, for instance using non-expert managers and staff in the library despite the existence of library experts, is one of the important problems for librarians, graduates and even libraries. Zarghani, et al. (2016) indicate that a majority of (51.3%) of the library staffs in the hospitals have not studied in LIS field. Rahmani (2016) finds that 36.7% of librarians in state universities of Tehran and 43% of librarians in public libraries of the country were not graduated in LIS field. As a result, a large percentage of graduates' job positions are occupied by other disciplines, which has led to a decline in the quality of library services and the saturation of the labor market. In order to back the graduates of the field, a supportive center is needed. Experts believe that the LIS association can act as a supportive entity for the profession and the field. Although the association tries to Khalili, Leila Madani University and 21.9 percent in the country were uninterested in their field of study; therefore, it is necessary to know the status of LIS students about the mentioned issues.
Being satisfied and gratified by the field of study, will improve the students' educational performance. In addition, the students who are familiar with a profession and choose its related fields consciously at the university will be efficient specialists. In order to know the attitudes of the students towards their field of study and career future a number of researches have been conducted in Iran. These studies were carried out in different university majors such as health and food safety (Safaei et al. 2018), environmental and professional health (Moghadam et al. 2016;Mehrabian et al. 2012), public health (Khammarnia et al. 2017), Laboratory sciences (Ghaderi et al. 2016

Methodology
Current applied and quantitative study used survey method. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire mainly based on the standard questionnaire designed and validated by Talverdi et al. (2017). Also other previous studies (Mehrabian et al. 2012;Khammarnia et al. 2017;Ghaderi et al. 2016;Safaei et al. 2017) were reviewed and some related items were selected and inserted in the questionnaire. The revised questionnaire had two main sections, demographic information (gender, age, field of high school diploma, Khalili university admission year and average at university) and students' attitude towards their field of study and career future (33 items). A five point Likert scale was used to allow the individuals to specify their level of agreement to the statements. The scale was rated from strongly agree (5), agree (4), neutral (3), disagree (2), and strongly disagree (1). A negative Cronbach's alpha indicates inconsistent coding; therefore six items (5, 7,15,16,17, and 18) due to a negative alpha were reversed and recoded. The study population and sample were the whole LIS students (130) in bachelor and master levels in Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University. In this study due to the limited number of cases, the sample was equal to the community. Data collection was carried out by the researcher in person since 23 October until 21 December 2018 by means of printed questionnaires.

Analyzing Procedure
At first, the mean scores as well as the percentage of 33 items of the questionnaire were reported based on five point Likert scale. In the next stage due to using several research studies in designing the questionnaire of the current study, a FA was carried out to validate the instrument; the output of FA was 22 items out of 33 items; then it was possible to use inferential statistics for 24 items. Due to the importance of the dropped items, they will be reported in the descriptive section of the study. The reliability analysis of the questionnaire was carried out using Cronbach's Alpha; the alpha value for 33 items and 24 items were respectively 0.940 and 0.957, and both had excellent internal consistency. Also due to normal distribution of data, parametric statistical tests (Indepent-t, Anova and Pearson) were applied based on demographic information (gender, diploma, GPA, level of study and admission year). SPSS 20 was used to analyze the data and Excel was used to draw the graph.

Review of the Literature
Formal LIS education in Iran began in 1938 with a number of short term training courses. The first LIS higher education was a master program which was launched at Tehran University in 1966 (Hayati and Fattahi 2005). During the last four decades the number of LIS departments has been constantly increasing. There were more than 50 departments at different universities around the country in 2009, running undergraduate courses and some of them had MA and PhD programs (Mansourian 2010 their field of study. The teaching method and the faculty level can be influential in attracting students and making them interested in their field. Also, one of the most important factors in choosing a field before entering the university is focusing on the certificate (credentialism), which reduces the interest in the field.
Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) studied the factors affecting the choice of LIS field among bachelor students at three universities (Tehran, Alameh and Alzahra Universities). Findings show that a majority of 66 percent of students chose this field due to their Konkor score. The next reasons were respectively parent encouragement, possibility to continue to higher education, recommendation of friends and acquaintances and interest in books. In choosing the field of study, a majority of students had no or low familiarity with it; only 15 percent of them had enough knowledge about the field. The discipline doesn't have a respectable professional position in the community. Dayyani (2002) studied the opinions and academic performance of LIS students with different high school domain. The students' knowledge about the field at the beginning was low and gradually they became interested. Girls' academic performance was better than boys. Khalili The students wanted major changes on the content of the courses and also the teaching methods of the professors. Admission of the students from other domains besides humanities and social sciences has challenged the instructors; it was because the LIS department essentially uses the same content, methods and previous educational methods. The response to the new conditions requires a lot of changes in the content of the courses and educational methods. Bigdeli and Abam (2003) studied the influential factors in choosing the field and also the important reasons for changing the attitude regarding the field of study among LIS and clinical psychology students. A majority of LIS students had chosen their academic discipline without proper knowledge and real interest and their motivation and satisfaction was lower in comparison to psychology students. LIS students were more hopeful about their employment and career prospects. According to LIS students the content and the syllabus of the courses were not appropriate and updated, while psychology students did not have such an opinion.
Findings show that the attitude of LIS students has become more positive during their study period. Comparing the attitudes of the students in the two groups, it was found that the attitudes of LIS students at the beginning and at the end of the course had significantly differed. The attitude of the psychology students was more positive toward their field of study. Torkiantabar (2007) surveyed the factors affecting the tendency of LIS students towards the field. Also the effects of changing the name of this field on students' attitudes and the dynamics of the field with regard to the new information technologies were studied. The results of the research indicated that the positive work market had influence on the student's tendency to the field. Also, despite the students' lack of familiarity with the field, a highly percentage of them liked to continue their education in this field. They considered this field of study comparable to other disciplines of the humanities. Nevertheless, students showed dissatisfaction with their career future and recruitment in the labor market; they also were dissatisfied with the name of "librarianship" and the mismatch of its syllabus with the era of technology.
Jahani (2014) studied the views of LIS students at Payame Noor University about the field of study and career prospects. A high percentage of the students were satisfied with the choice of this discipline, and many believed that this course would be more valuable at higher Khalili Conducting a research about the reasons for choosing LIS has a long history. Dewey (1985) found that the strongest impact on LIS students' decision at Indiana University to join the profession was to contact a librarian. Van House (1988) found that intrinsic interests, such as enjoyment of the nature of library work, had more influence on the decision of the students of the University of California when they chose LIS as their future career. Houdyshell et al.
(1999) cited in Ard et al. (2006) in their study asked librarians if they had a chance to choose librarianship again, would they select it again. They found that out of 500 respondents, 415 said they would certainly choose it again and also 52 librarians mentioned they probably selected it again; these findings indicate the high degree of job satisfaction. The most influential factors in choosing librarianship as a profession was respectively, the opportunity to serve others (95%), intellectual challenge (82%), the nature of library work (81%), previous library experience (62%), and only about 25% of the respondents listed salary as a significant incentive. Weihs (1999) cited in Ard et al. (2006) discovered that according to respondents the motivations to be a librarian were, the impact of another librarian, work experience in libraries, a desire for career change, reading interest, LIS's matching with their interests and abilities, life-long dream to be a librarian, and misconceptions about the field. Ard et al. (2006) studied the factors that attracted MLIS students to the library profession and their expectations of the profession in University of Alabama. They indicated that working in libraries significantly influenced choosing the LIS profession. The major incentive to choose this profession was job functions (40%), followed by a recommendation from a mentor, professor, coworker, or friend (34%), payment (24%), love of books (2%). The promise of an interesting job attracted far more people into librarianship than wages, customers, or prestige.
The other reasons listed by respondents included a weak job market in other fields, previous experience, personal interest, and a desire to improve research skills. A great deal of the respondents (61%) had confidence about the job market and rated the job market for librarians as good or great. The profession can benefit from the people who enjoy the nature of the work; they will pursue the profession even if the salaries and the public image of the librarians do not improve dramatically in the next few years. Khalili Bilawar and Jadhav (2015) conducted a survey to know the attitude and perception of LIS students (undergraduate, master and PhD) towards library profession, their problems and usefulness of syllabi components at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra. They found that teachers and librarians, respectively, were the information source of the majority of the LIS students about this profession. The reason for choosing LIS field were respectively better job opportunities (60%), by choice/chance (13%), to broaden their reading habits (11%), to increase their credit degree (7%), to do research in LIS and family motivation (each 4%).
Regarding teaching pattern, a majority of the respondents (69%) suggested for more practical aspect than the theory. They also proved the hypothesis that "after completing LIS education the students realize that LIS profession is a highly recognized profession". were undecided about the statement. The mean score for this quotation was 2.76 and less than cut off point (Item 4). Also, 22.9% of the respondents completely disagreed and 24.6% disagreed with the quotation "I chose this course because my grades were only good enough for admission in this field", while 11.9% of them completely agreed, 30.5% agreed and 9.3% were neutral. The mean score for this quotation was 3.16 and nearby cut off point (Item 5).
About 33.1% of the respondents completely disagreed and 33.9% disagreed with the sentence "I choose this field because of others' recommendation (family, friends, etc.)"; while 1.7% completely agreed and 26.3% agreed with others' influence on their decision; only 4.2% were neutral about it. The mean score for this quotation was 2.29 and less than cut off point (Item 6). More than half of the respondents completely disagreed (23.7%) or disagreed (31.4%) with the quotation "I think I chose the wrong field of study", while 11% of them completely agreed and 16.9% agreed that they chose the right field. Partially a high percentage of the respondents (15.3%) were uncertain. The mean score for this quotation was 3.41 and moderately higher than cut off point (Item 7). There was high agreement on quotation "It is a pleasure to study this field," whereas 16.9% of the respondents completely agreed and 45.8% agreed with the idea; however, 7.6 of the respondents completely disagreed and 16.1% disagreed with the quotation. Also 13.6% of the respondents were neutral about it.
The mean score for this quotation was 3.48 and almost higher than cut off point (Item 8).
About 47.9% of the respondents agreed, 6.8% completely agreed 26.5% disagreed and 3.4% completely disagreed that selected courses are suited to individual needs and student expectations. In addition 12.8% of the respondents were neutral and 2.6% said don't know.
The mean score for this quotation was 3.29 and a little higher than cut off point (Item 9). A majority of the respondents (53%) agreed and 17.9% completely agreed that they can succeed in their field of study; only 3.4% of them completely disagreed and 9.4% disagreed with this Khalili Idea. Moreover, 9.4% of the respondents were neutral and 6.8% said don't know. The mean score for this quotation was 3.78 and higher than cut off point (Item 10).
A majority of the respondents (54.3%) agreed and 21.6% completely agreed with the quotation "After studying the field, I found it more interesting", while a minority of 5.2% completely disagreed and 8.6% disagreed with this opinion. Furthermore, 10.3% of the respondents were neutral. The mean score for this quotation was 3.78 and higher than cut off point (Item 11). About 39.1% of the respondents agreed and around 26.1% completely agreed that their discipline is more valuable at higher levels; in addition 5.2% of them completely disagreed, 7.2% disagreed, 13% were neutral and 8.7% said don't know. The mean score for this quotation was 3.80 and higher than cut off point (Item 12 Regarding the quotation "In the future, it is possible for me to reach the desired social position in this profession", around 44.1% agreed, 13.6% completely agreed, 16.1% disagreed, 4.2% completely disagreed, 12.7% were undecided and 9.3% said don't know. The mean score for this item was 3.51 (Item 31). About the sentences "Increasing students' admissions in this field threatens their future career", around 41% agreed and 28.2% completely agreed, while only 12% disagreed and 1.7% completely disagreed; also 13.7% were neutral and 3.4% said don't know. The mean score for this item was 3.85 (Item 32).
The quotation on which there was the most agreement is "The recruitment of nonspecialized threatens the career future of this profession", in which a majority of the respondents completely agreed (70.3%) and agreed (22%) with the idea. The mean score for this item was 4.60 (Item 33).
Graph 1 indicates the mean score for 33 items of the questionnaire. Out of 33 indicators, ten items had a mean score less than three which was the cut-off point in current study. As shown in graph, the item number three (The recruitment of non-specialized threatens the career future of this profession) has the highest mean score; while item 14 (People have a positive view of this field) has the lowest mean score. which was suitable due to having the value of 0.918 (Kaiser 1974) and Bartlett's test of Sphericity due to being significant; both were suitable for doing factor analysis. The associated data is presented in table 2.  Table 3 indicates the total variance explained in FA (for 24 items out of 33).
Extraction method in FA was principal components which extracted based on fixed number of factors (one factor). According to Netemeyer et al. (2003) the number of extracted factors should account for 50% to 60% of the variance to be meaningful. In current study the total variance explained by one factor was 52.22 which is an appropriate value.   indicates a deviation from normality (Field 2005 p. 94). In current study Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (p-Value= 0.075) is more than .05 and the test is not significant; it means data distribution is normal and parametric statistical tests (Independent-t, Anova and Pearson) will be used. The linked data is shown in Table 6.  Table 7 provides descriptive statistics such as the mean and standard deviation for the two groups of woman and man. The number of the female students is more than male. The mean score of ATFS & CF for both groups was around 3.32.  have an effect on their attitudes towards field and career future. Effect size of independent ttest calculated online using Hedges'g, due to having different sample sizes (Social Science Statistics 2019). The effect size is a standardized, scale-free measure of the relative sizes of the effect of an intervention (Turner and Bernard 2006) that magnitude of the impact of the intervention's effect (Kline 2004) or the degree to which the phenomenon exists. As a rule of thumb, for interpreting the results for values 0.2 (small), 0.5(medium) and 0.8 (large) are suggested (Cohen 1988 p. 4;p. 25-26). The effect size measures the degree of mean differences usually after rejecting the null hypothesis in a statistical test. If the null hypothesis is accepted, effect size has little meaning (Free Statistics Lectures 2019). In current study due to accepting the null hypothesis the effect size is very small. Khalili Table 9 shows the descriptive statistics such as mean score and standard deviation for the undergraduate and master students. The number of undergraduate students was more than masters. The mean score of ATFS&CF for master students was 3.76 and higher than undergraduate students.  Table 10 shows the actual results from the independent t-test. In present study the Levene's Test is significant (F=4.239, Sig=.042), therefore equality of variance not assumed.
With a confidence level of 99%, there was a significant difference in the scores for the undergraduate students (M=3.2636, SD=.84200) and master students (M=3.7563, SD=.51255) conditions; t (32.928) =-3.281, p=.002, g 2 =0.612593. These results suggest that study level of the respondents have an effect on their attitudes towards field and career future.
In this study due to rejecting the null hypothesis the effect size (0.612593) is over the medium (5) score. Khalili   (1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th ), as well as when all groups are combined (Total). The GPA for the fourth year students with value of 2.60 is lower than three other groups.  Table 12 shows the output of the ANOVA analysis and whether there is a statistically significant difference between our four groups mean score. There was a significant difference in the mean scores for 4th-yr students (M=2.6029, SD=.83924) and other three groups conditions; F (3,114) =-8.594, p=.000, η2=.184. These results suggest that entrance year of Khalili the students really has an effect on their ATFS & CF. Eta-squared is the most common measure of effect size for a One-Way ANOVA (Yigit and Mendes 2018). As a rule of thumb, for interpreting the results for value of Eta-squared (η2) 0.02 (small), 0.06(medium) and 0.14 (large) are suggested (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit 2019). In the current study the η2 value is .184, it means the effect size is large. After rejecting the null hypothesis, Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey test were carried out to confirm where those differences are. There was a significant difference between mean score of 4th-yr students with the other three groups. The mean difference was significant at the 0.05 level. The associated data is submitted in Table 13.    Table 15, indicates the output of the ANOVA analysis. There was no significant difference in the mean score of ATFS&CF based on kind of diploma among three groups conditions; F (2,110) =0.75, p=.928. These results suggest that diploma type of the students really has no effect on their ATFS & CF.

Discussion
Satisfaction and gratification with the field of study, will improve the students' educational performance. In addition, the students who are familiar with a profession and choose its related field at the university consciously will be efficient specialists. The purpose of the current study is to survey the attitude of LIS students towards their field of study and career future.
Most of the students said it was better to study more about this discipline before entering university; it means most of them choose this field without awareness. This finding is in line with the finding of some previous studies (Mashhadi Tafreshi 1993;Bigdeli and Abam 2003;Amraei 2009). Only one-fourth of the students chose this filed due to interest.
This finding is consistent with the finding of Bigdeli and Abam (2003). However, a high percentage of the students in the current study were pleased with choosing this field; which was in line with finding of Jahani (2014); this means although more than half of the respondents in the present study had not selected this field with prior knowledge, however most of them were satisfied with this selection.
Merely half of the students said if they took part in the university entrance exam once again, they still wanted to choose this field; based on findings of MSRT (2017) about 25.7 percent of the students in Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University and 21.9 percent in the country were uninterested in the field of study. Comparing the finding of the present study with the finding of Houdyshell et al. (1999) cited in Ard et al. (2006) when they asked librarians if they had chance to choose librarianship again, would they select it again, a large majority of them said they would certainly choose it again. Although the compared groups are not in the same position (librarian and student), however it shows the better condition of the LIS profession in USA. Khalili Also A large number of the students chose this course because their grades were only good enough for admission in this field. In line with this finding Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) declared a majority of students chose this field due to their Konkor score.
Only one-fourth of the students said they chose this field because it was recommended by others (family, friends, etc.). It means that as mentioned above most of the respondents were not acquainted with this field and also the influential individuals were not familiar to introduce this field or they may not have positive attitude toward this field. Probably due to this approximately one-fourth of the students thought they chose a wrong field of study.
Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) also reported a partial influence of parent encouragement, friends' recommendation and acquaintances in choosing the field. While according to Dewey (1985) and Weihs (1999) cited in Ard et al. (2006) the strongest impact on LIS students' decision to join the profession was to contact a librarian. Also Ard et al. (2006) reported that a recommendation from a mentor, professor, coworker, or friend was the second major incentive to choose this field. Likewise Bilawar and Jadhav (2015) stated that teachers and librarians were the information source of the majority of the LIS students about this profession. Unlike the mentioned researches, it seems in present study human resources have low influence on LIS students' decision to choose this field.
Students had high agreement on having enough talent and ability to succeed in this field; this means that they have enough confidence and ability to study the field. A majority of the students believed the discipline was more valuable at the higher levels; this finding is in agreement with the finding of Jahani (2014). Also a high percentage of respondents in the study of Torkiantabar (2007), despite their lack of familiarity, liked to continue their education in this field. It seems the status of the field in higher level is a motive for students to continue their study.
A large number of the students believed they could succeed in this field; also the field was more interesting for the majority of the students after they studied it. This result is seen in the findings of previous studies (Bigdeli and Abam 2003;Dayyani 2002). Also in agreement with this finding Bilawar and Jadhav (2015) reported that after completing LIS education the students realize that LIS profession is a highly recognized profession. Likewise findings of Ard et al. (2006) indicated that a majority of the MLIS students the first time decided to be a librarian was during or after college. It seems that the field includes the Khalili courses that can improve and modify attitudes of the students towards discipline; also it could be a sign of difference in title of the field and its contents or previous misunderstanding about the field. However, there was a partial agreement on the compatibility of the course with students' individual needs and expectations.
Some items are indicated to highlight the perception of the individuals about the field.
For example a majority of the students thought people do not have a positive view about this field; likewise, other students do not have a positive opinion to their field. Similar to this finding, Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) reported that the discipline doesn't have a respectable professional position in the community. Also Jahani (2014) stated that the students were worried about the social image of the field and its acceptance by the community. Also the career prospects of LIS students indicate that the negative perception of the students about their discipline is mostly due to economic and social status of the field. However this kind of look to the field may have negative influence on some of the students and may explain half of the respondents' tendency in the present study to change their field if it were possible.
However the findings of Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et. al (2015) in reviewing 23 papers indicated that the most important motives to choose LIS as a field of study at the university were the nature of job, love of books and reading, interest in job and desire to help people.
Therefore, probably the wrong judgments of other people will have less influence on LIS students if they pay more attention to the mentioned reasons; it means the individuals who choose this field with considering the intrinsic characteristics of it, probably they pay less attention to the unfair judgments.
In addition Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) declared that, in Iran mass media, schools, teachers and librarians have not played their important and effective roles in introducing the field to society. Also as mentioned by Combes et al. (2011) it seems the boundaries of the discipline are not well defined and may be for this reason society has misconceptions about the nature of LIS studies; therefore, as said by Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al. (2015) library schools or departments should raise awareness among high school students regarding the value, role and importance of LIS.
More than half of the respondents did their homework with interest and predicted a good educational future; also for the majority of the students, study in this field was a pleasure. In two indicators (The field is in line with my academic motivation and I predict a Khalili which can be a sign for the lack of enough knowledge about the field and its potentials. The highest agreement among students was on the threat of the recruitment of nonspecialized on the career future of this profession; it seems that working and hiring nonspecialized individuals in library is a big concern for the LIS students in current study. A majority of the students think that they will have a better career future, if they continue their study at higher levels; it means that LIS graduated continue their study in order to find a career position beside their interest. Most of the respondents in current study worried about their job market; based on findings of MSRT (2017) nearly 44.4 percent of the students in Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University and 43.1 percent in the country were disappointed with career future. As data indicates the percentage of LIS students who are worried about career future is higher than the proportion of university and country. Also in line with this result the finding of a previous study (Torkiantabar 2007;Jahani 2014) indicated concerns of LIS students about career future. Unlike the finding of the present study according to Bilawar and Jadhav (2015) the main reason for choosing LIS field was better job opportunities. Also Ard et al. (2006) reported that a great deal of the respondents had confidence about the job market and rated the job market for librarians as good or great. None of them evaluated the job market as poor, though 11% of them expressed uncertainty. It seems the job market for LIS students varies from country to country.
Also the students believed the employment status for higher levels should be better; this may be the reason why the majority of the students like to continue their study. A majority of the students believed that their professors encourage them to find the proper job which is a sign of positive influence of trainers on students. If the students have enough hope and expectancy about their career future, then they can focus on their study; in other words they will not lose the present because of the future. This outcome is consistent with the finding of Amraei (2009) that reported the teaching method and the faculty level can be effective in attracting students and making them interested in their field.
A majority of the students believed that admission of more students in this field threatens their career future. A large number of the respondents believed that the appropriate career with this field is interesting and purposeful for them. Moreover approximately the Khalili same number said they like working in LIS area. More than half of them had hoped to reach the desired social position in this profession in the future.
According to Combes et al. (2011) support and education from within and outside, will ensure sustainability of the LIS profession, as will the closer connections between course providers, schools, and the professional associations. These three actors must work together to attract students to a range of quality courses, then the flexible and adaptable professionals who will be the face of LIS in the future, will graduate. Based on findings of current study if the course providers, schools, libraries, librarians, and the professional associations introduce the ability of the field for the society and institutions; then LIS graduates can find a job in other institutions beside library and information centers.
In the present study there was no significant difference in the mean score of ATFS&CF based on respondents' gender. However the findings of Dayyani (2002) showed academic performance of girls was better than boys and also Mashhadi Tafreshi (1993) reported that LIS field was among the first 10 selections of females in Konkor. There was no significant difference in the mean score of students' ATFS&CF based on three groups of diploma; while it was expected that the students with different high school background have various attitudes. Also Dayyani (2002) had mentioned that student admission from outside domain of humanities and social sciences was a challenge for instructor. However, today based on the experience of the researcher as a trainer, it seems the students from other domains such as mathematics and science can act more successfully due to change in the content of LIS' syllabus. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the mean score of ATF&CF for the master students was significantly different from the bachelor students.
However, about half of the master students were librarians and the other half were the students who liked the domain; therefor, the result is justifiable. Also the mean score of ATF&CF for the 4th year students was importantly different from other groups. A justification for this result could be that this group was the first entrance that studied the new program of LIS; there was a main change in courses in the latest program. There was a positive and a significant association between ATFS&CF and GPA. It means that with the increase in students' optimism about ATFS & CF, their GPA is increased too; the relationship between the mean score of ATFS&CF and age of the respondents was not significant; the age range of the majority of students was close; therefore, the result seems to be justifiable.

Conclusion
Besides the students who chose the field with awareness, or the group who got interested in the field after they knew it during study, still there was another group who only wanted to enter university or were admitted only in this field. It should be noted that based on the experience of the researcher as an instructor at the university, a limited number of students chose this field by mistake; they mistook this field with some fields of IT domain due to the new name of field in Iran. The new title of this field (knowledge and information science) has conflict even with the title of Iranian Library and Information Science Association (ILISA). In addition, the title of the department in English language is used in two ways (Department of Information Science and Knowledge Studies/ Department of Knowledge and Information Science); however, a query in google showed more results for the recent name. Another group of LIS students say they did not know this field was the same as the old Librarianship; if they knew; they would not choose it, which indicates the negative popularity of the field. As Shafie abadi (1992) reports from Peter Blau, two groups of factors are involved in choosing an occupation; the first group is individual characteristics and the second group is economic and social status. It seems that the negative view of this profession is due to economic and social status while optimistic influential factors in choosing LIS are more intrinsic. However, the findings of the current study indicate the attitudes of LIS students in one university in Iran, therefore, care must be taken in interpreting and generalizing the findings.

Suggestions
 Activities like library outreach services could introduce this profession.
 Librarian, LIS academic staff and related associations should use any chance to introduce the field by means of media, meetings, and workshops for high school students and also for the public. For instance, a television serial in the context of library with some influential actors and actresses that play the role of librarian with positive characteristics may positively affect the public and introduce the profession more. Khalili  Considering the fact that librarians are the face of this profession, library and information centers should consider the professional competency when they want to employ staff.
 Those who choose this field in their first three options for applying for universities must meet better employment chances.
 Coordinating the field name in educational departments, scientific associations, and to link the current title with the previous name.
 Further research should focus on high school students and examine their understanding of the LIS discipline and the role of the information professionals.