A Bibliometric Exploration of LIS Scholarship

Abstract

Librarians who practice bibliometrics are often asked to compare the research output of an academic department or research group to a larger body of scholarship. Here I explore techniques to address these requests with a case study examining the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). Scholarship around academic libraries is evaluated in two ways: broadly, and as produced by librarians within the University System of Maryland (USM).

This analysis relies on bibliographic data from EBSCO's Library and Information Science Source (LISS) database for the time period of 2008-2019. 16,248 records related to the exploded “academic libraries” subject heading were retrieved via bulk export. The analysis below explores the controlled vocabulary associated with these articles and endeavors to answer three questions: 1. Can the co-occurrence of thesaurus terms be used to map the research landscape around academic librarianship? 2. Are there trends in keyword usage over time? 3. How is the research focus of 140 published librarians in the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) consortium different from the focus of the broader collection?