Objective: The primary objective of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the current status of children’s and adolescent libraries throughout Iran and to explore the feasibility of developing a suitable conceptual model that could guide their improvement and management. Recognizing the vital role these libraries play in fostering literacy, cognitive development, and social engagement among young populations, this research sought to identify key components that influence their effectiveness and sustainability.



Method: To achieve this, a mixed-methods research design was adopted, incorporating qualitative and quantitative approaches. Initially, the Delphi technique was employed to gain consensus among a panel of 17 experts specializing in children and adolescent library services. These experts contributed to the design and refinement of a researcher-created questionnaire, ensuring its content validity and internal consistency, as evidenced by a high Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.897. The questionnaire gathered rich qualitative data concerning various operational and developmental facets of these libraries. In the quantitative phase, a stratified random sampling method was applied to select 331 librarians from a national population of 2,365 professionals working in children and adolescent libraries. Data were collected through surveys and subsequently analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests to summarize and assess central tendencies and patterns. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted with IBM SPSS and AMOS software to validate the factor structure underlying the identified components and to evaluate the model's fit to the empirical data.



Findings: The findings revealed that key domains such as librarian responsiveness, human resource capabilities, and physical and environmental factors collectively explained approximately 66% of the variance in assessing the libraries’ status. Environmental health and hygiene variables accounted for 67%, while factors related to cognitive development explained 68%, illustrating their substantial influence on library quality and user experience. However, CFA results indicated that human resources and environmental health and hygiene demonstrated the strongest model fit, whereas cognitive development, physical factors, and responsiveness exhibited weaker alignment with the proposed structure.



Result: Further second-level factor analysis highlighted the adequacy of the economic indicator, though other indices did not achieve satisfactory fit levels. Employing advanced methods such as bootstrapping and the Bollen–Stein index, the study ultimately proposed a final conceptual model designed to serve as a theoretical framework. This framework is aimed at guiding future assessments and strategic planning for enhancing children’s and adolescent libraries in Iran, while acknowledging current limitations and areas needing further refinement.