Library and Information Science

A citation counting is regarded as one of the most popular and available methods of investigating the use of literature.

Since Gross and Gross first suggested this method in 1927, there have been many reports on the use of literature, especially of various fields of natural science. There are some remarks such as extension of subject of study, variety of it's objects, quantitative and qualitative improvement of studies by introducing a computer, as an increasing attention is recently paid to bibliometric analysis.

However, it seems that there are few quantitative studies of the library and information science literature.

In this report, the author counted the citations used in 113 graduation theses presented to the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS), Keio University, in 1973 and 1974, and found that 2,486 (62.2%) of all citations (3,996) came from journals. The age of citations of more than 50% of all was under 4 years old. The rate of citations from foreign literature was 23.1%. Nine titles covered the citations of more than 50% in domestic journals, and eight titles in foreign journals.

The main purpose of this study was to measure the use of the journal collection of Keio University Libraries and Information Centers (KULIC) to which the library of SLIS is included. KULIC contributed to 80.8% of whole citations of which the library of SLIS alone contributed 72.9%. Therefore, it was obvious that KULIC, especially the library of SLIS is an important information source for the students.