Bibliometric reflection of the interdisciplinary relations of libraries and library science
Abstract
The Neumann Galaxy and the digital revolution brought about major changes in scientific research, in research methods and in scientific publications, as well as in the study of the latter by means of bibliometrics and scientometrics. Today, these can be effectively supported by IT tools, not only to provide much more detailed presentation and analysis of quantitative data, but also to open the way to a qualitative approach which was not feasible in the past, or only with time-consuming and monotonous work. As a result of expanded research opportunities, inter- and multidisciplinary connections that had to be previously neglected, can now be presented.
The emergence and spread of information technology and computer tools has brought about more dominant changes in library science and in its research methods than in other research fields. Perhaps the most expressive sign of this is the emergence and widespread use of the concept of library and information science (elsewhere: information and library science). Similarly, the term meta-disciplinary is increasingly used in recent international literature to define library science within the system of science. The traditional definition of library and library science within this system and its rich interdisciplinary relations were mainly associated with humanities and social sciences. In this study, the author examines whether this statement is valid today, or whether disciplinary connections have changed as a result of the spread of information technology and other factors. The research was based on the collection and comparative analysis of bibliometric data of relevant literature from the last fifty years (1970-2019). The approximately one and a half million relevant records underlying research were collected from two large multidisciplinary literature databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. Quantitative, qualitative analyses and comparative evaluations were performed, and, to illustrate the findings, the changes and the processes leading to them were depicted in diagrams.
