An analysis of publishing records of one-hundred and one perceived library leaders in the United States from 1960-1988 as reflected in the library and information science literature.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine if those who are perceived as library leaders in the 1980s published in the library and information science journals from 1960-1988 and if so, to determine the nature of the literature produced by them.; In a 1989 dissertation by Gertzog, a list of 101 perceived library leaders was generated from survey results. Using this list, Social Sciences Citation Index was search from 1960-1988 and data relating to the characteristics of each of the 2528 documents published by the perceived leaders were collected and recorded with the assistance of Microsoft Works. The data were entered into a computer data file and analyzed by SPSSx.; Major findings were: (1) Ninety-four percent of the perceived leaders did have publications in library and information science journals during the years 1960-1988. (2) When the document formats were analyzed, articles ranked first followed by book reviews, editorials, letters, discussions and meeting abstract. (3) When the titles of the journals were examined, it was found that Library Journal a popular publication and one of the most widely circulated journals, contained 40% of the total publications. Sixty-four percent of the 101 perceived leaders published articles in Library Journal, while other journal titles had 44% or less of the leaders publish there; (4) Analysis of the subject content of the documents revealed that six subjects emerged as core subjects, appearing in all of the "top-ten" tables listing the most frequently written-about subjects. The list included library associations, education for librarianship, library automation, library management, online retrieval, and cooperation; (5) When the 16 to 18 most prolific of the perceived leaders in terms of the publication of documents and the publication of articles were listed, it was revealed that less than 50% of them appear on Gertzog's list of "field-wide" leaders, however a significant percentage (44%) are among the top eighteen in terms of numbers of articles published.