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Dissertation Information for Michael Afolabi

NAME:
- Michael Afolabi

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Indiana University (USA) (1983)

ADVISORS:
- David Kaser

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Josefa B. Abrera
- Bernard M. Fry
- Nicholas Mullins
- Stephen P. Harter

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: THE LITERATURE OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION: A CITATION STUDY TO DETERMINE THE CORE LITERATURE

Abstract: Several papers and journals may be useful to students of bibliographical classification, but library science libraries, for economic reasons cannot acquire all the published papers and journals in the subject. They could, however, acquire the papers and journals that are most likely to be useful.

The purpose of this study is to determine and identify the following in the literature of bibliographical classification published between 1960 and 1980: (a) the core journals cited; (b) the core papers cited; (c) the core authors cited; and (d) the characteristics of the cited literature by bibliographic format, language, subject, and age.

The methodology employed was the documentary approach. Data were gathered using the technique of citation analysis. A total of 4,631 citations were gathered. The statistical techniques applied to the citation data were Price Index and Bradford's distribution.

The findings revealed that (a) monographs were the most cited form of publication (57.2 percent), followed by journals (31.1 percent); (b) English was the most cited language (89.8 percent); (c) psychology and computer technology and its application were the frequently cited subjects; (d) the analysis of the citations by age using Price Index indicated that the literature is a 'research front' subject; (e) the six core journals were: Journal of Documentation, Library Resources and Technical Services, American Society for Information Science Journal, Library Association Record, Aslib Proceedings, and Library Science with Slant to Documentation; (f) the two core papers were: Prolegomena to Library Classification, 3rd ed. 1967, by S. R. Ranganathan, and Classification and Indexing in Science, 2nd ed. 1958, by B. C. Vickery; (g) the only core author was S. R. Ranganathan; the highly cited authors were found to be socially linked to the two most active national classification research groups: the Documentation Research Group (India) and the British Classification Research Group; (h) the application of Bradford's distribution to the data of this study showed that the data on the cited journal titles and authors conformed to the law, while there was less conformity in the data on the cited papers.

It was determined in this study that there exist a strong number of core journals but a weak core literature in bibliographical classification. The lack of a strong core literature suggests that the knowledge base in the field is spread over many titles.

MPACT Scores for Michael Afolabi

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:07:25

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