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Dissertation Information for Ann Gould Allan

NAME:
- Ann Gould Allan

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Case Western Reserve University (USA) (1976)

ADVISORS:
- Tefko Saracevic

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Phyllis A. Richmond
- Donald B. Cleveland
- Donald R. Whitman

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A Method for determining Interdisciplinary Activities within a University

Abstract: This study develops an objective and systematic method for grouping members of a university faculty into potential interdisciplinary classes. The method developed is of value to university administrators and faculty alike.

The method allows for the clustering of individual faculty members into classes based upon certain relationships, namely subject relatedness. Two main experiments are carried out. Experiment I bases the relationships of faculty members upon common Dewey Decimal Classification numbers assigned to the publications and reported research of each member. Experiment II bases the relationships of faculty members upon publications by the members in journals of the same title. In an additional experiment, Experiment III, the data collected in Experiment I for individual faculty members is cumulated by academic department for purposes of determining departmental relationships based upon common Dewey classification numbers.

The data base upon which these experiments are conducted is the full-time faculty members of a medium-sized Midwestern university who produced publications or reported research during the years 1965-1972 and who were at the university in 1972. A total of 325 faculty members and 1,993 items are involved.

Quite different pictures of faculty relationships emerge in comparing the results of Experiment I with the results of Experiment II. The differences lie in the relationships among academic departments and among individual faculty members.

Experiment I, based upon establishing subject relatedness through common classification numbers for all publications and reported research, exhibits the most useful results for administrative purposes. Not only is the subject relatedness among faculty well displayed, but the composition of existing interdisciplinary centers is visible, and faculty members who could be added to or withdrawn from such centers are identifiable. In addition, departments align themselves differently than in Experiment II, where common journal titles are the basis for class construction. Also of note is the fact that more interdisciplinary relationships are apparent, a greater number of the faculty are class members, and more departments are represented in Experiment I vis a vis Experiment II> An additional benefit in the technique of Experiment I is that faculty members who publish in different journals with the same subject orientation can be included in the classes when they are derived from common classification numbers.

In Experiment III, where classes are constructed of academic departments rather than of individual faculty members, the information gained has administrative value with regard to organizational structure, physical location and interdisciplinary activities.

MPACT Scores for Ann Gould Allan

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:05

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