What’s Guiding Chemical Engineering?: A LibGuide Content Analysis

Abstract

Background LibGuides are a commonly used tool for aggregating library resources by topic. While their use is practically ubiquitous in academic libraries, the content and pedagogical approach of these guides vary widely. This is the first such published content analysis of LibGuides in the field of chemical engineering.

Purpose/Hypothesis The research explores current trends in the composition of chemical engineering LibGuides including the resources most commonly presented as well as pedagogical approaches to presenting information.

Method/Design/Scope While this research initially was designed with a broader scope, in its current state it presents a comprehensive analysis focusing specifically on chemical engineering LibGuides. This study considers guides from 50 of the R1 institutions listed in US News and World Report 2023-2024 Best Engineering Schools. Each guide analyzed was saved as a PDF in the summer of 2024 and uploaded to NVivo for coding of the layout, content, and pedagogy used in the guide. This subsequent data collected was then exported to Excel for clean up and analysis.

Results/Conclusions The analysis results show evidence of patterns in content and pedagogical approach in chemical engineering LibGuides at R1institutions. Most notably, there is a level of consistency in the types of resources presented, particularly databases and reference works suggesting some shared disciplinary norms among engineering librarians regarding core research resources. This information is useful for those with limited knowledge in the area or those looking to create research guides or other instructional materials to support chemical engineering programs. This analysis does have limitations including being discipline limited and not addressing issues of best practice areas which could be the focus of further research.