AUB University Librarians co-author scholarly article about Library Collection Development and Management

January 27, 2017

AUB University librarians Dima Ahmadieh- Collection Development Librarian, Salpy Nalbandian- Head of Science and Agriculture Library and Khaled Noubani- Head of Engineering and Architecture Library joined efforts to co-author and publish an article entitled “A comparative citation analysis study of master’s theses at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon”.

Published in Collection Building journal, this article seeks to determine and compare the type and age of cited literature in master’s theses of three academic disciplines at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon. It also aims to improve the existing monograph and serial collections at AUB.

In their research, the authors conducted citation analysis of all AUB master’s theses completed between 2004 and 2013 in the disciplines of biology, mechanical engineering and political science. They extracted Bibliographic data from citations in the reference lists and analyzed the data. Availability of the cited books and journals was checked against the library catalog.

The findings indicated that engineering and biology students use a significantly greater number of scholarly journal articles in comparison to political science students and that all disciplines rely on recent publications.

This paper’s findings will prove useful to develop lists of core journals for the UL and will help in managing existing collections and providing a base for informed decision-making regarding journal subscriptions and/or cancellations.

When asked about this publication, the authors said, “It is an unprecedented collaborative effort between three librarians from AUB to share their experience and knowledge about citation analysis.” Adding “It was a new, challenging experience and an opportunity to share our work and knowledge with colleagues nationally and internationally. It was also a great way to know more about our master students’ research to understand and meet their needs.”

The authors unanimously agreed that working on this case study was a challenge at the beginning; to the extent that there were times where they almost lost faith in completing the work. However, they insisted on continuing until the end to get the work published.

This study is one of a few of its kind in the Arab world and will serve to facilitate collection development and management in the region.

To read the full article click here.

Citation:

Ahmadieh, D., Nalbandian, S., & Noubani, K. (2016). A comparative citation analysis study of master’s theses at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Collection Building35(4), 103-113. doi: 10.1108/CB-06-2016-0013

Link: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.aub.edu.lb/doi/full/10.1108/CB-06-2016-0013

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