Exploring the Intellectual Organization of an Interdisciplinary Research Institute Bryce L. Allen and Brett Sutton Planning and implementing library services for interdisciplinary research communities pose special challenges for academic librarians. Data were col­ lected on journal reading patterns in an interdisciplinary research institute (the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Analy­ sis of these data produced a number of maps of the intellectual structure of this user community. This understanding of the structure of the academic commu­ nity and how it changes over time provides a basis for developing library services that will meet the special needs of this community. cademic libraries are some­ in departmental libraries (such as a times in the position· of pro­ physics library or a mathematics library) viding information services to or in the work of subject bibliographers, parts of the academic commu­ seems to be based on an assumption of a nity that are not organized along tradi­ homogeneous user population. Librari­ tional departmental lines. Specialized ans establish a specialized library or research institutes focusing on particu­ specialized services because we think lar scientific problems are one example. there is a population of users who have Many campuses now have centers for similar information needs. Physics li­ the study- of specialized topics ranging braries are created, or physics bibliog­ from cognitive science to the breeding of raphers hired, to serve physicists and Chinese pigs. Interdisciplinary groups physics students. If these users did not concerned with topics such as Latin have similar needs, the departmental li­ American Studies or Women's Studies brary or subject specialist bibliographer constitute another example of special­ would not be the best approach to serv­ ized institutes. ice. Sometimes academic libraries are af­ Providing services to such groups can fected by institutional inertia and remain present challenges for academic libraries organized along traditional disciplinary that are organized according to tradi­ boundaries even when these boundaries tional areas of subject specialization. no longer reflect the academic communi­ Subject specialization, institutionalized ties the libraries serve. The debate con- Bryce L. Allen and Brett Sutton are Assistant Professors in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of fllinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801. Research for this article was done under the aegis of the Project on Scholar Communication and Information Transfer, uigh Estabrook, Project Coordinator, and was funded in part by grants to the project from the Research Board of the University of Illinois. The authors wish to thank the federated researchers in the project, Theodore Brown, Director of the Beckman Institute, and the librarians and staff at the Beckman Institute Library for their helpful suggestions and comments. 499 500 College & Research Libraries November 1993 cerning the role of academic branch li­ seek systematic information about the braries is summarized admirably by intellectual organization of the user Leon Shkolnik.1 community. If librarians can learn more Librarians, even those in specialized about an intellectual organization, they libraries, recognize the necessity of pro­ are in a better position to ensure that viding flexible service to a hetero­ users and librarians can cooperate to geneous user community and know provide the information people need. from experience that the needs of users, The library staff is able to meet the users even within a particular discipline, are halfway, adapting to the organization of not homogeneous. At some universities, the user community even as users adapt when local resources are available and to the organization of the library. interest is high, special collections are established to meet the needs of emerg­ ing user groups. For example, computer Librarians establish a specialized science collections emerge from mathe­ library or specialized services because matics and science libraries, or area stu­ we think there is a population of dies libraries are created to meet the users who have similar information needs of special programs. If special col­ needs. lections cannot be created, some depart­ ments may establish their own informal reading rooms, although these services Recent studies, including the work of may be less than ideal. More often, Julie Hurd and Paul Metz, have demon­ librarians find ways to meet the needs of strated that interdisciplinary work is a heterogeneous user community by now widespread in academic communi­ developing channels of communication ties.2.3 Although our work focused on an within existing library structures. Sub­ interdisciplinary research institute, we ject bibliographers who develop good believe that the methods outlined below working relationships with faculty and may have broad application as academic students can respond to many different librarians consider the ways in which user needs. Collaboration among subject they will organize services to meet the specialists can help to assure an appro­ needs of their user communities. priate balance of materials in library collec­ tions. But these labor-intensive solutions STRUCTURE OF USER cannot always keep pace with changes in COMMUNITIES AND the academic community. Sometimes li­ SERVICE PATTERNS brary users working in interdisciplinary The problem addressed in this · re­ areas may have to adapt to the tradi­ search, generally stated, is: How can li­ tional organization of collections and brary service be structured for user services by visiting each of the appro­ communities that do not fit the typical priate service areas in tum. department-centered or discipline-based In the case of specialized research in­ structure? Our approach to resolving this stitutes or interdisciplinary working problem was to develop ways of ex­ groups such as area studies depart­ amining the intellectual organization ments, to assume that there is a homo­ of the user community. In other words, geneous user population is particularly it is not enough to acknowledge that erroneous. A research institute on cogni­ interdisciplinary research institutes seem tive science, for example, may involve to be structured differently from other linguists, psychologists, and computer user groups on campus. They can, scientists. A Latin American Studies de­ theoretically, have a variety of internal partment may have political scientists, organizing structures, each of which sociologists, and literary scholars. In sit­ might suggest a different approach to uations where the population of users is providing library service. The challenge not homogeneous, librarians charged with is to figure out how these institutes are providing information service should structured. Interdisciplinary Research Institute 501 It is possible that an interdisciplinary Other ways in which user communi­ research institute might promote inter­ ties could organize themselves require disciplinary work and examine topics other service strategies. In some user that can be viewed from a variety of communities, there may be hierarchical perspectives and yet reflect, in micro­ organizations ofusers in which informa­ cosm, the usual academic organization tion needs depend at least in part on a of a university. For example, a Latin user's level in the hierarchy. In this type American studies unit might consist of of community, services could be de­ groups of economists, political scien­ signed to meet the needs of each of the tists, and historians who interact within hierarchical levels, with new services their disciplinary groups but do not being offered to people as: they change cross disciplinary boundaries in their re­ their levels in the hierarchy. Librarians search. If this were true, then the user who serve businesses or work in manage­ community would be organized into a ment information systems often encounter number of stable independent com­ hierarchically organized situations. An in­ ponents, each component having its own terdisciplinary research unit could be or­ particular information needs. In such a ganized hierarchically, but this is certainly circumstance the library could organize not traditional for academic organiza­ its service by providing reference tools, tions. Similarly, there may be user com­ selective dissemination of information munities in which there is a majority (SOl), or collections that are tailored to group of users and one or more minority the specific information needs of each user groups. In such cases, information component of its user community. This needs may depend on whether the user would be accomplished by developing a is part of the majority group or takes a number of small"departmental" service minority approach to scholarship. For units to meet the information needs of such a community, it might be appro­ each of the components of the user com­ priate to design information services for munity. But it is also possible for the user each of the "approaches"' to the research community to have a more dynamic in­ topic. Finally, it is' not uncommon for tellectual organization in which library user communities to be organized users do not limit themselves to materials around research projects. In this type of from their own discipline. Users may cross research institute, library services could disciplinary boundaries, working with · be designed for each project, as sug­ one set of colleagues