5 Gopalakrishnan Madras Institute of Technology Anna University Chennai

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1 Annals of Library and Information Studies 49, I; 2002; A WEBOMETRIC STUDY ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE LITERATURE 5 Gopalakrishnan Madras Institute of Technology Anna University Chennai R Ambuja Madras University Library University of Madras Chennai Seetharama Department of L & I Sc University of Madras Chennai World Wide Web has created a sea change in information transfer. Information scientists have undergone a perceptible change and have become IT centered, which is evidenced by their citing pattern. This article examines the nature and pattern of citations of Information Scientists in Seminar proceedings of Indian origin and also one volume of an international journal in the field of Library & Information Science. The study reveals that the trend of citations has changed over time and web citations would replace other citations in future. INTRODUCTION New technologies and applications have made the Internet an important medium of communication and information dissemination [1]. Internet is also an information processing platform constantly accumulating new layers of information. But the application potential of the Internet platform goes beyond the promotion and retrieval of a huge amount of information [2]. Internet has created a sea change in information transfer. The use of Internet provides a muchenhanced interface between the user and information. Further, the realization of its importance has been clearly seen by its utility in citations of journal articles. The Web, through its open standard, set the foundation for global communication and access to resources that millions of computer users enjoy today. It is commonly said that any system can prove to be only as good as the manner of its use and its upkeep. Increasing importance of Web is clearly seen in the form of references/citations in the present day publications. The reference to Internet sources in articles has prompted this study. WEBOMETRICS Research of all network-based communications using informetric or other quantitative measures is called webometrics [3]. In World Wide Web (WWW), the Web pages are the entities of information, with hyperlinks from them acting as citations. Quantitative analysis on the WWW is being carried out in the same way as is tradition in citation databases. OBJECTIVES The objective of the study is to examine the nature and pattern of citations in the present day library literature and to analyze how far library and information professionals have made use of web citations in particular. HYPOTHESES In this study, the following hypotheses have been framed: 1. Trend of citations has changed with time 2. Most of the journal articles carry web citations 3. are more prevalent in conference proceedings vis-a-vis journal articles Vol 49 No 1 March

2 , S Gopalakrishnan, R Ambuja and S Seetharama METHODOLOGY The methodology followed for this study consisted of studying the nature and pattern of citations in seminar proceedings of Indian origin and also one volume of an international journal for the year 1999 in the field of Library and Information Science. Accordingly, the following two have been examined: 1. Annual Seminar on "Electronic Sources of Information" held at DRTe, Bangalore. 1-3 March Journal of Documentation, Vol. 55, 1999 DATA COLLECTION The references cited in the articles of the seminar proceedings were tabulated according to their nature. There are 40 articles in the seminar proceedings, which had a total of 326 citations. In a similar manner, the "Journal of Documentation" was taken up for the study. There were 26 articles published during the particular year which accounted for 829 citations. On the whole, in this study, 66 articles with 1155 citations were analyzed. DATA ANALYSIS It may be observed from Table 1 that of the 66 papers, 60 are from conference proceedings and 40 from the Journal in question. Authorship pattern The author wise distribution in the 66 papers is shown in Table 2. Table 1 of papers selected for study Seminar volume Journal of Papers Percentage Table 2 Author wise distribution Seminar Journal Single author Two authors contd. 30 Ann Lib Inf Stu

3 A WEBOMETRIC STUDY ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE LITERATURE Journal Seminar contn. (table 2) As can be seen from the Table 2, majority of the papers (89) are either single or two authored. The pattern of distribution appears similar irrespective of whether it is a seminar volume or a journal. in the sample The occurrence (in numbers and percentages) of web citations in the selected sample is indicated in Tables 3 and 4. Table 3 Citation occurrence (individually) in Seminar proceedings & Journal only Seminar Journal 26 + others Without Without citations x nnn /i! ---, web._no any WebcilationI Wllhoot Will10ut citations webdlallcns Figure 1 Citation occurence (individually) in Seminar proceedings & Journal Vol 49 No 1 March

4 r----- S Gopalakrishnan, R Ambuja and S Seetharama Table 4 Web citation only Citation occurrence Seminar /0 (collective) of articles Journal /0 + others Without Without citations o While in seminar proceedings, web citations are provided in 47.6 of articles, in Journal of Documentation, 73 of articles provided web citations. (Table 3). On the other hand, when the sample is taken as a whole, both seminar proceedings and Journal of Documentation individually account for 28.8 and collectively to However, 42.4 of the articles have not provided any web citations. It appears that web citations will dominate over document citations in future, especially in journals as of the 39.4 of the sample, 28.8 are web citations. It may also be inferred that the profession is in a transition stage as indicated by the fact that both traditional documents and websites have been cited by 57.6 of the total sample. Citation pattern in articles The citation pattern of different types of documents/websites based on an analysis of individual articles of both seminar proceedings and journal is given in Table Table Journal 5 Seminar Citation Pattern Item Books Journals WWW Others 32 Ann Lib Inf Stu t-~----~-~~-~-

5 A WEBOMETRIC STUDY ON LIBRARY AND INFORMA non SCIENCE LITERATURE From the Table 5, it can be seen that if considered individually, 41.1 in the seminar proceedings and 26.4 in journals are web citations, collectively, Le. sample taken as a whole, web citations account for It may be observed that there is a perceptible (attitudinal) change in the modern information professionals like their counterparts in other disciplines as they are citing websites. In other words, it appears that information professionals are becoming IT centered in their academic and research activities. Analysis of Web cited articles The articles that carry web citations from the seminar volume and journal have been analyzed further to determine the degree/depth of occurrence of web citations in individual articles. - Table 6 (A) SEMINAR OthersWeb /0citations VOLUME of citations (B) JOURNAL Vol 49 No 1 March

6 S Gopalakrishnan R Ambuja and S Seetharama From table 6, it is observed that a} 19 articles in the seminar volume and the journal contains web citations. b} While 61 of citations are web citations in the seminar volume, only 26 are web citations in the journal analysed. c} Citation analysis of individual articles had indicated that in 14 out of 19 articles in the seminar volume and 4 out of 19 articles in the journal concerned web citations account for more than 50 (individual article analysis was done). d} In relation to citations in the seminar volume, 4 of the individual articles have given only web citations, one articles has given 88 and another 75 of web citations have become a regular feature in the seminar volume. e} On the other hand, web citations have not gained the same degree of popularity in case of the journal analyzed. f} The above observations is, perhaps, indicative of the fact that current trend in citing is towards web citations as for as current/nascent information publishing (as reflected in the seminar volume) Others N:l. of citations o of Web citation Figure 2. Web Citation - Seminar Volume web cbllonl Figure 3. Web Citation - Journal 34 Ann Lib Inf Stu

7 ~- A WEBOMETRIC STUDY ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE LITERATURE FINDINGS From the foregoing webometric analysis, the following findings can be observed. 1. The study clearly exhibits that the trend of citations has changed with time. (Table 3,4 & 5). 2. More than half of the total articles carry web citations. (Table 3 & 4). 3; occur more frequently in seminar volumes than in journals (Table 3). 4. The web citations are likely to replace other citations in coming years. (Table 6(a) and 6(b)). The above-mentioned findings are in conformity with the hypotheses mentioned in the paper. This is a pilot study and a detailed study covering a wider sample of conference volumes and journals is in progress. CONCLUSIONS To conclude, it may be said that the library and information science professionals do not resist information technology applications. Contrary to the oft-repeated comments that library and information professionals are conservative in outlook, there seems to be a perceptible (attitudinal) change in them as they, like their counterparts in other subject fields are becoming IT - centered. Perhaps, observations of Lancaster and Sandore [4] that" librarians are seeking new professional roles, and some see themselves as performing as knowledge engineers... "and De Buse [5]" some librarians will become hypertext engineers... " seem to be coming true. To be successful, however, there is a need for a rather different approach to education for the library and information professionals. The focus in curriculum necessarily should shift from library as an institution/building to a place wherever information exists. The implication is that library and information profession must change, if not others will replace it. REFERENCES 1. McKNIGHT (L W) and BAILEY (J P). Internet economics: when constituencies collide in cyberspace. IEEE Internet Computing. 1, 6; 1997; BENDA (M). Applications of the Global computer. IEEE Internet Computing. 1, 3; 1997; ALMIND THOMAS (C) and INGWERSEN (Peter). Informetric analyses on the World Wide Web: methodological approaches to "Webometrics" Journal of Documentation, 53, 4; 1997; cis/abstract3.htm 4. LANCASTER (F W) and SANDORE (B). Technology and management in library and information services. 1997; Library Association Publishing. London. 5. DE BUSE Quoted in LANCASTER (F W) and SANDORE (B). Technology and management in library and information services. 1997; Library Association Publishing London. Vol 49 No I March