Navigating Scholarship: A Study of Discipline-Based Web Gateways in Large Research Libraries

摘要

Research libraries have always built and organized authoritative discipline-based collections. This short paper provides a preliminary look at the state of discipline or subject-based web gateways to so-called authoritative scholarly works in large research libraries. The study is based on an in-depth analysis of the 30 largest academic research libraries (based in universities) as defined by the Association for Research Libraries' index ranking. The study also draws upon the results of a survey to each library revealing comparative data on gateway content decision-making and application of learning technologies to promote gateway usage within the universities' respective curricula. Gateway content is examined in terms of subjects covered, methods of content selection, formats pointed to, and integrative features with "traditional" online catalogs of the libraries' owned physical and electronic holdings. Goals for the study are two-fold: a) obtaining a profile of subject-based gateway development, structure, and maintenance practices, and b) seeking models for effective subject gateway development in light of efforts to improve aggregation of web resources with online library catalogs.