IDEALS @ Illinois

ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scaleDigitization Project, 2007. Library Trends VOLUME 36 NUMBER 4 SPRING 1988 University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Where necessary, permission is granted hy the copyright owner for libraries and others registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to photocopy any article herein for $3.00 per article. Pay- ments should be sent directly to the Copy- right Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, Salem, Massachusetts 10970. Copy- ing done for other than personal or inter- nal referenre use-such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale-without the expressed permission of The Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois is prohibitrd. Requests for special permission or bulk orders should be addressed to The Graduate School of Library and Infor- mation Science, 249 Armory Building, 505 E. Armory St., Champaign, Illinois 61820. Serial-fee code: 0024-2594/87 $3 + .OO. Copyright 0 1988 The Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois. Libray Literature in the 1980s PATRICIA F. STENSTROM DALE S. MONTANELLI Issue Editors CONTENTS Patricia F. Stenstrom 629 INTRODUCTION Dale S. Montanelli Stephen E. Atkins 633 SUBJECT TRENDS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE RESEARCH, 1975-1984 Richard D. Johnson 659 CURRENT TRENDS IN LIBRARY JOURNAL EDITING Joel M. he 673 ELECTRONIC PIJBLISHING IN William P. Whitely LIBRARY AND INFORMATION Arthur W. Hafner SCIENCE Paul A. Kobasa 695 SYNERGY, NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT: THE LIBRARY PROFESSION AND ITS LITERATURE Elizabeth J. Laney 709 LIBRARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM: LIBRARY PUBLISHING Patricia F. Stenstrom 725 CURRENT AWARENESS IN Patricia Tegler LIBRARIANSHIP Olha della Cava 741 THIRD WORLD LIBRARY LITERA- TURE IN THE 1980s Dale S. Montanelli 765 LIBRARY PRACTITIONERS’ USE Collette Mak OF LIBRARY LITERATURE Mildred Vannorsdall 785 THE LITERATURE OF LIBRARIANSHIP IN THE “REAL WORLD,” 1976-86 CONTENTS-Continued Tim LaBorie 805 END USER SEARCH SYSTEMS: Ken Carson ACCESS TO LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE LITERATURE Norman D. Stevens 825 OUR IMAGE IN THE 1980s Lawrence W.S. Auld 853 LIBRARY TRENDS PAST AND PRESENT: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY Introduction PATRICIA F. STENSTROM DALE S. MONTANELLI IN 1979, Drexel Library Quarterly PUBLISHED two issues on the “Litera- ture of Librarianship and Information Science.”’ At the time these two issues were prepared, George Bobinski, who edited the issues, noted that very little has been written about the professional literature of librarianship up to that time. Since then more has been written and much of what has been written will be referred to in this issueof Library Trends. Our aim in preparing this issue was not to replicate the Drexel Library Quarterly issues but rather to build on that framework and expand to new areas. This issue can be broadly divided into three areas: publishing, selection, and use. The articles by Stephen Atkins; Richard Johnson; Joel Lee, et al.; Paul Kobasa; and Larry Auld reflect the most recent trends in the publishing of the literature of librarianship. Stephen Atkins has reviewed ten years of journal literature to determine which subjects appear regularly and which subjects appear minimally. The patterns Atkins found reflect both the continuing and the changing pressures of the field. Richard Johnson has written about the journal editing process and the selection of materials for journals. Johnson stresses the changes in the library profession and in the technologies available which have influenced this process. Joel Lee continues the theme of technological change and its influence on the publishing of library literature by focusing on the electronic publishing revolution and the impact of Patricia Stenstrom is Library and Information Science Librarian, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;and Dale Montanelli is Director of Adminis- trative Services, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. SPRING 1988 629 STENSTROM & MONTANELLI library and information science databases on the publishing process. Paul Kobasa, writing from the perspective of ALA publishing’s market- ing division, describes the influence of the market on ALA publishing decisions and by extension on the publishing of all library literature. Three very different articles by Elizabeth Laney, Ohla della Cava, and Pat Stenstrom and Pat Tegler examine access to professional literature from different perspectives. Laney, in her article “Library Curricu- lum: Library Publishing,” focuses on the interaction between library education and publishing in the field of librarianship. There is a specific emphasis on how publishing for library education is influenced by change5 in the curriculum and how practice in librarianship influ- ences both of those. Ohla della Cava has written a bibliographic review which analyzes the literature of librarianship available from third world sources emphasizing both the richness of these resources and their shortcomings. Pat Stenstrom and Pat Tegler in their article on “Current Awareness in Librarianship” discuss not only the sources available for current awareness but also what is known about the practitioner’s use of these sources in accessing the literature. The third section of this issue of Labrary Trends focuses on the practical use of the literature of librarianship by three different seg- ments of the population. Mildred Vannorsdall introduces this topic with a discussion of the operation and services provided by the professional library at the Chicago Public Library. Dale Montanelli and Collette Mak have analyzed interlibrary loan requests for the literature of library and information science with particular emphasis on the patterns of subjects that are requested by librarians and librarian educa- tors. Tim LaBorie and Ken Garson then analyze the effectiveness of end-user searching in the library literature by students in library and information science. Next Norman Stevens reflects both on the literature and on the librarian. His chapter, “Our Image in the 1980s,”contains provocative food for thought about an always interesting topic. In his acknowledgment, Stevens recognizes the contribution of Hugh Atkinson to “Our Image in the 1980s.” The authors also wish to acknowledge Hugh Atkinson’s contribution to the planning that went into this issue of Labrary Trends. We conclude this issue of Library Trends with an article by Larry Auld in which he looks at the effects of change on a theme-oriented journal such as Library Trends. 630 LIBRARY TRENDS Introduction Reference 1. “Literature of Librarianship and Information Science” (issue theme). Drexel Library Quarterly 15(nos. 1 and 3, 1979). SPRING 1988 63 1 This Page Intentionally Left Blank Subject Trends in Library and Information Science Research, 1975-1984 STEPHEN E. ATKINS A STUDY OF SUBJECT TRENDS in library and information science publishing is a way for the library profession to learn more about itself. Although most disciplines have periodic assessments of their literature, library and information science remains behind these other disciplines in determining the nature of its professional literature.' This lack of information hinders an appraisal of the merits of library literature or an understanding of trends within the profession's publishing. There is even a dearth of information on the functions and operations of the library journal press.2 Too often the judgment has been advanced by critics that journals are publishing the same subjects over and over again without any research to back their assertions. Only by a systematic analysis of the library and information science literature can the library profession find out about its past, present, or future directions. This study is a step toward an understanding of these directions by providing a quantitative analysis of the subject trends in library literature during the years from 1975 to 1984. There have been earlier efforts to study research articles for past publishing trends. B.C. Peritz selected thirty-nine core library journals for a study of publishing trends from 1950 to 1975.3 She analyzed 900 journal articles for research methodologies utilized and for possible trends in research. While her dissertation was never published, it initiated research attention on studying publishing trends over a fixed period oftime. Then, Martyvonne Nour published a quantitative analysis of research articles appearing in forty-one core library journals Stephen E. Atkins is a Political Science Subject Specialist and Assistant Professor, Educa- tion and Social Science Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. SPRING 1988 633 STEPHEN ATKINS during 1980.4She studied a total of 1404 articles for types of research methodology. Her conclusions were less important than the methods used for her study. The problem with both of these studies is that the authors were more concerned with methodology of research than in subject trends. Other studies of library and information science publishing have also surfaced, but most of them deal with aspects of authorship research. Masse Bloomfield produced a quantitative study of the publishing characteristics of librarians5 He utilized citations from Library Litera- ture as an approach to determine the publication activities of librarians. Soon afterward, there was an article by John Olsgaard and Jane

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