Evaluating the Challenges of Materials and Digital Resources at University Libraries in Kerman

The purpose of this study is to identify challenges of digital resources in academic libraries of Kerman province. Research methodology is descriptive- survey, a questionnaire is used for gathering data. Research sample includes 41 librarians of Kerman libraries and their managers. Results show that economic challenges, in order, are: infrastructures and equipment purchasing, printed and digital resources providing, and using license. Libraries technological challenges respectively, are: their inability to compete with printed materials in features like user friendliness and energy consumption. Information services challenges are as follow: information preservation, identification and acquisition of suitable materials and linking electronic resources to printed information resources. It seemed that Kerman libraries are faced with problems more than these, and they were not able to provide their necessary technological infrastructure for keeping and providing access to library resources yet. In addition, financial constraints of resources, and especially, digitization of printed resources made the situation very chaotic for the academic libraries.