College and Research Libraries Analyzing the Library Periodical Literature: Content and Authorship Lois Buttlar Sixteen library periodicals were analyzed with respect to various characteristics of their authors, including sex, occupation, affiliation, and geographic location. Sub- ject coverage was also examined, as well as research methodologies employed (if any), and page length of the article. A total of 1, 725 articles are written by 2, 072 authors, of whom 961 (47.83%) are male and 1,048 (52.17%) are female. In spite of the fact that librarianship is female-dominated, there are almost as many articles written by men as by women, although a slow closing of the gap between the proportions of male and female contributors, especially among special librarians, is apparent. No differ- ences in the percentages of research-based studies or non-research based writing by either sex are evident. Academic librarians account for the major share of publication activity (over 61%), although on a percentage basis, library school faculty are the most productive. Full professors publish the most in library schools, closely followed by assistant professors. The Northeast and the Midwest claim the largest share of authors, not too surprising with the large share of academic institutions and library schools located in these two geographic regions. Research-based articles are on the increase, with survey methodology reported the most frequently. The subjects of au- tomation, management, and cataloging are still the most popular. Individual jour- nal titles are also analyzed with respect to the types of authors they publish. haring information in the li- brary profession is largely de- pendent on the library periodi- cal literature. The advantages of the journal include its currency, its ca- pability of addressing many and varied topics, and its ability to disseminate widely the findings of investigations of major problems or specific aspects of them. 1 It is also an important means of helping to close the gap between re- searchers and practitioners. 2 The prolifer- ation of library literature is evidence of the growing maturity of librarianship. Norman D. Stevens points out that li- brary publishing evolved slowly in quan- tity and quality from an emphasis on bib- liographies and other "tools of the trade" to materials of a more scholarly nature ''designed for use by librarians and infor- mation scientists in the performance of their professional duties and in their pro- fessional education and development.'' 3 The profuse, rich, and diverse body of literature that now exists can be attrib- uted to several factors. One, of course, is the requirement of library and informa- tion science faculty to publish in order to receive tenure and career advancement. Some writers suggest that the increased trend toward faculty status for academic librarians is partly responsible; others ar- gue that some libraries provide a work environment that encourages experi- Lois Buttlar is an Assistant Professor at the School of Library Science, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242. 38 mentation with new approaches and technological innovations thus stimulat- ing publication as a means of communi- cating new ideas, techniques, and find- ings. 4 The need to study the literature of li- brarianship and to monitor trends and changes related to its characteristics and its authors is recognized and well docu- mented. 5 David Kaser used the literature to review a century of academic librari- anship in his bicentennial article, as one of several such analyses. 6 Studies that determine "who publishes where and what they publish" also provide a pro- file of what Richard Cole and Thomas Bowers call ''the sociology of the litera- ture. ' ' 7 The periodical literature in the field of librarianship has been analyzed from several points of view. Some inves- tigators, such as Charles McClure and Ann Bishop, 8 John Budd, 9 and Thomas Childers10 have studied its status . Oth- ers, including Stephen Atkins, 11 Gloria Cline, 12 and Patricia Feehan, W. Lee Gragg, W. Michael Havener, and Diane Kester, 13 have analyzed its subject focus, or its format (research-based article, es- say or opinion article , etc .). Some scholars have examined research metho- dologies employed and the use of statis- tics /4,15 while John and Jane Olsgaard's study16 and those of Paula de Simone- Watson17'18 Martha Adamson, and Glo- ria Zamora, 19 have described various characteristics of authors, such as sex, age, education, occupation, affiliation, and geographic distribution. Some studies combined two or more approaches, such as the one by Soon Kim and Mary Kim, which compared two consecutive decades of trends in au- thors' occupations and research metho- dologies employed in College & Research Libraries, and the Feehan, et al., study in which ninety-one library science jour- nals published in 1984 were analyzed for trends in research subjects and metho- dologies. 20 Martyvonne Nour conducted a quantitative analysis of research arti- cles in forty-one core journals published during 1980 to determine methodologies and subject classification, and also ana- lyzed the references, end notes, and bib- Library Periodical Literature 39 liographies following each article. 21 Bluma Peritz, in her comprehensive doc- toral dissertation, analyzed the Ameri- can and British library science periodical literature from many aspects, including growth over the years, research method- ology, subject, author affiliation, accom- panying citations, and type of user. 22 The present study makes a unique contribution by examining the entire contents of periodicals, including non- research articles, research-based arti- cles, reviews, and various communica- tions such as editorials, letters, announcements, and news. Sixteen ba- sic library science journals were ana- lyzed for a two-and-a-half-year period from 1987 to 1989 with respect to author- ship, topical coverage, and type of re- search methodology employed, when applicable . An attempt was made to an- swer the following questions: Is there a difference in the amount of publishing done by males and females in the library literature? What are the occupations, af- filiations, and geographic locations of contributing authors? Which category of librarians and related professionals is the most productive? How much doli- brary educators publish by rank? Which library schools have the most productive faculty members in terms of publication? Which journals are most likely to pub- lish contributions from a certain cate- gory of author with respect to sex, occu- pation, or geographic location; to focus on particular subjects; or to publish re- search-based as opposed to nonre- search articles? METHODOLOGY Sixteen journals were selected, with first preference given to general titles that not only represent the profession as a whole but also include at least some research-based articles. Thus, two major titles, Library Journal and American Li- braries, were excluded because they con- tain numerous, brief nonresearch items. An attempt was made to represent the major types of libraries and categories of library and information science (e.g., ac- ademic, public, school, and special li- 40 College & Research Libraries braries; administration, public services, systems, technical services). The litera- ture was also examined for lists of ''core'' publications and journals so des- ignated in prior studies. Peritz had de- termined that thirty-nine titles repre- sented core journals. 23 David Kohl and Charles Davis24 identified the thirty-one most prestigious journals based on the rankings of ARL (Association of Re- search Libraries) library directors and deans of library and information science schools, a listing used subsequently by Stuart Glogof£25 and Atkins. 26 Journals selected for this study include: College & Research Libraries Information Technology and Libraries Journal of Academic Librarianship Journal of Education for Library & Informa- tion Science Journal of Library Administration Journal of American Society for Information Science Libraries and Culture Library and Information Science Research Library Quarterly Library Resources & Technical Services Library Trends Public Library Quarterly RQ School Library Media Quarterly Serials Librarian Special Libraries The overlap with titles used in pre- vious studies is very high. Thirteen of the titles correspond to those ranked as the top fifteen by library school deans and are also listed as those most valued by ARL directors. Fourteen of the six- teen are on the list of 1980 core journals identified by N our, and ten are on the list of eleven titles Watson identified as major journals in the field. Each journal issue was examined for the period January 1987 through June 1989. The author's sex, occupation, affili- ation, and geographic location, as well as the subject coverage of the article, re- search methodology employed, if any, and the page length of the article were re- corded for each item (article, editorial). Although the extent of coverage given to reviews is covered, individual reviewers January 1991 are excluded in the present study. For each article, a code sheet was completed to gather the above data which were then entered into the KSU main-frame com- puters for frequency distributions and cross tabulation analysis. Sex of the au- thor was based on the first name. In a few instances the gender associated with the name was unclear. These cases were la- beled "nondesignated," after every ef- fort was made to identify gender. A list of twenty-six occupations and fifteen affiliations was compiled based on actual examination of a sample set of journals, and cross tabulations were run to determine how many librarians in a particular occupation (e.g., reference, catalog, etc.) worked in a particular set- ting (academic library, special library, etc.). In an attempt to be consistent with earlier studies, geographic locations were classified from one to five based on the regions designated by the ALA Committee on Accreditations of gradu- ate library school programs. 27 The states that comprise each region are: 1. Northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont; 2. Southeast: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia; 3. Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mis- souri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin; 4. Southwest: Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas; and 5. West: Alaska, California, Colo- rado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. In the case of schools of library and infor- mation science, names of individual schools were also tabulated. A research-based article was defined as one in which a formal research meth- odology was used in order to collect and/ or analyze data (e.g., survey or inter- view, experiment, content analysis, sta- tistical analysis of existing data, devel- j opment of linear programming or other mathematical model, case study, histori- cal study with extensive primary and secondary sources, citation analysis or bibliometrics, and an observation/field study) as opposed to an opinion paper, description of the status quo, editorial, book review, or news/announcements. Because all components of the litera- ture were considered, including brief pieces, subjects were analyzed by the to- tal percentage of pages of coverage each represented. Subject categories were based on analysis of the articles them- selves in a manner similar to Atkins' study of subject trends over a ten-year period (1975-1984). 28 FINDINGS Information was recorded for a total of 1, 725 articles in sixteen journals (see table 1). Specific authors were not attrib- uted to 198 of the items (instances pre- sumably where the journal editorial staff is responsible for content). The 1,527 ar- ticles where authorship is indicated were written by a total of 2,072 authors, taking into consideration cases of multi- ple authorship. It was found that each article had an average of 1.3 authors. Sex of Author Of the 2,072 authors, 961 are male (47.83%) and 1,048 (52.17%) are female, Library Periodical Literature 41 TABLE 1 . DISTRIBUTION OF ARTICLES BY NUMBER OF AUTHORS Articles Authors No . % No author indicated 198 11 .48 Single author 1,045 60.58 Two authors 375 21.74 Three authors 78 4.52 Four authors 23 1.33 Five authors 6 .35 Total 1,725 100.00 as compared to the ten-year study by the Olsgaards, where the percentage of women publishing ranged from 21.2% to 41.3%. 29 Four of the five journals in the Olsgaard study overlap with those in the present study (C&RL, LQ, Library Trends, and RQ) . Table 2 provides the distribution of the sex of authors contrib- uting to different journals. Libraries and Culture has the largest percentage of male authors (75 .38%), followed by the journal of the American Society for Informa- tion Science with almost two-thirds of its contributors being men. Findings re- garding the latter journal support a 1982 study by Gloria Zamora and Martha Adamson, 30 which showed a generally increasing trend in women contributors to Special Libraries (47.5% at the time of their article)-a trend which rose to 60% by 1989. However, the ratio of females to males in SLA membership is about four TABLE 2 DISTRIBUTION OF MALE AND FEMALE AUTHORS BY JOURNAL Males Females Not Journ al No . % No. % Determined Colle¥, & Res. Libs. 106 54.50 84 45 .50 7 Info. ech . & Libs. 64 48.85 67 51.15 0 Jour. of Acad. Lib. 81 54.00 69 46.00 6 f. Amer. Soc. Ir;J. Sci. 127 64.68 67 35.32 21 J. Ed. For Lib. Inf. Sci. 42 30.66 95 69.34 4 J. of Lib. Admin. 56 53.33 49 46.67 2 Libraries & Culture 49 75 .38 16 24 .62 4 Lib. & I~; Sci. Research 48 53.09 39 46 .91 8 Library uarterly 38 67.86 18 32.14 2 Lib. Resources & Tech . Ser. 38 31.93 81 68 .07 . 1 Library Trends 67 47.86 73 52.14 2 Public Library Quarterly 23 57.50 17 42.50 1 RQ 59 40.97 85 59.03 6 Sch . Lib. Media Quarterly 27 21.60 98 78.40 2 Serials Librarian 90 42.86 120 57.14 7 Special Libraries 46 39.66 70 60.34 4 All Journals 961 47 .83 1048 52.17 42 College & Research Libraries to one. 31 On the other hand, as might be expected, School Library Media Quarterly has the largest share (89 .40%) of female writers, with Library Resources & Techni- In spite of the fact that librarianship is female dominated, there are almost as many articles written by men as by women. cal Seroices in second place with 68.07%. In spite of the fact that librarianship is fe- male dominated, there are almost as many articles written by men as by women, and no differences in the per- centages of research or nonresearch based writing by either sex are evident. Sex and f?ccupation of Authors Cross-tabulations of authors by sex and occupation (see table 3) reveal that 56% of the library directors who publish are male, although males account for 20% or less of the total library work force. 32 The percentage of female au- thors increases somewhat for those in January 1991 assistant director or other secondary- level administrative positions. The larg- est percentage of females in manage- ment positions is in the technical ser- vices. Again, female special librarians publish slightly more than 50% of the lit- erature, although their representation in ALA is more than 75%. 33 In the library · school setting, where male and female distribution is approximately equal, 34 males publish only slightly more than fe- males. It is interesting to note that while male library school deans outnumber fe- males, female deans are more highly represented in the periodical literature. 35 In addition, for faculty outside of library schools the proportion of male/female authorship approximates the actual breakdown of male and female higher education faculty for all disciplines which, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Education, is approximately 72% male to 28% female.36 Occupation and Affiliation of Authors Twenty-six different occupations were cross tabulated with fifteen different af- filiations of the 2,017 authors for whom these data were available. They are listed in order of frequency in table 4. Li- TABLE 3 DISTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS BY SEX AND OCCUPATION Males Females OccuEation No . % No . % Lib. Deans/Dirs. 131 56.47 101 43.53 Central Administrators 62 44.93 76 55.07 Head, Public Services 29 34.12 56 65.88 Reference Librarians 77 45.03 94 54.97 Head, TechniCal Services 26 28.89 64 71.11 Tech. Services Librarians 32 32.00 68 68.00 Head, Systems 17 45.95 20 54.05 ~stems Analysts 7 31.82 15 68 .18 ead, Collection Development 14 41.18 20 58.82 Collection Dev. Librarians 10 52.63 9 47.37 Non-Desi~ated Librarians 84 52.17 77 47.83 Library Sc ool Deans 21 42.00 29 58.00 Library School Faculty 210 52.63 189 47.37 Graduate Students 10 33.33 20 66.67 Other Faculty 96 69.06 43 40.94 Non-Librarians 25 48 .08 27 51.92 Special Librarians 31 47 .69 34 52.31 School Media Specialists 6 13.64 38 86.36 Editors 21 42.00 29 58.00 Children's Librarians 0 00.00 4 100.00 Consultants 29 72.50 11 27.50 All Other 28 65.12 14 34.88 Total 966 48.18 1,039 51.82 Library Periodical Literature 43 TABLE 4 MOST FREQUENT OCCUPATIONS/AFFILIATIONS IN RANK ORDER Rank Occueation/ Affiliation No. % 1 Faculty, Library and Info. Sci. Schools 377 18.69 2 Ref./Pub. Serv. Librarians, Acad. Libraries 241 11.95 3 Academic Library Deans/Directors 187 9.27 4 Tech. Serv. Librarians, Acad. Libraries 165 8.18 5 Non-Lib. and Info . Sci. Faculty 151 7.49 6 Special Librarians, S~ecial Libraries 101 5.01 7 Directors/ Admins., pedal Libraries 82 4.07 8 Lib. and Info. Sci. Deans/Directors 63 3.12 9 Editors/Staff, Publishers 62 3.07 10 Consultants 49 2.43 11 Coll. Mgmt. Librarians, Academic Libraries 48 2.38 12 Non-Desig. Librarians, Academic Libraries 47 2.33 13 45 2.23 Systems Librarians, Academic Libraries 14 School Media Specialists, Schools & Districts 39 1.93 Graduate Student, Lib. and Info. Sci. Schools 31 1.54 15 16 Admins ., Publishers 30 1.49 17 Public Library Directors/Admins. 28 1.39 18 ~ecial Librarians, Academic Libraries 27 1.34 19 on-Librarians, Special Libraries 22 1.09 20 Admins., Professional Associations 21 1.04 21 Reference Librarians, Public Libraries 19 .94 22 Adrnins., School Med. Centers and School Dists. 18 .89 23 Non-Librarians, Networks, Utilities, Consortia 17 .84 24 Systems Librarians, s0ecial Libraries 17 .84 25 Admins ., Networks, tilities, Consortia 16 .79 26 Tech . Services Librarians, National Libraries 13 .64 27 Reference Librarians, Special Libraries 13 .64 28 Tech. Services Librarians, Special Libraries 12 .59 29 Admins ., Non-Lib. and Info. Sci. Depts. 10 .50 30 Admins., Consulting Firms 10 .50 31 Tech. Services Librarians, Public Libraries 9 .45 32 Dir./Facult(' Learning Resource Centers 7 .35 33 Reference ibrarians, National Libraries 5 .25 34 Children's Librarians, Public Libraries 4 .20 35 Systems Librarians, Networks, Util., Consortia 4 .20 All Other 27 1.34 Total brary and information science faculty to- tal377, representing the largest category overall. Of the faculty, 140 full profes- sors are the largest group, followed by 118 assistant professors, fifty-two asso- ciate professors, and sixty-seven whose rank is not indicated. If sixty-three deans (or directors) and thirty-one graduate students (almost all at the doctoral level) are also included, there is a grand total of 471 contributors (23.35%) from library schools. Reference and public service librarians in academic library settings total 241, representing the second largest category of authors overall, and also the primary category in College & Research Libraries and, not surprisingly, RQ. Reference li- brarians in all settings total278, as com- 2,017 100.00 pared to 199 technical services librari- ans. A total of 187 authors fall into the category of academic library deans/ di- rectors and their assistants and associ- ates, the third largest category. :rhere are 165 technical services librarians, bringing librarians (excluding faculty) in academic settings to a total of 760 (37.68%), regardless of position. To- gether academic librarians and authors in library schools account for 61.03% of all journal publishing. Another group of 151 faculty members represents those in other departments- primarily computer science, communi- cation, educational and/ or instructional technology programs. Authors in spe- cial library settings are responsible for approximately 13% of the literature; 44 College & Research Libraries public librarians, an additional 3.37%. Library and information science fac- ulty head the list of authors in Journal of Education for Library and Information Sci- ence, Libraries and Culture, Library and In- formation Science Research, Library Quar- terly, Public Library Quarterly, and the Journal of the American Society for Informa- tion Science. In the latter journal, author- ship is almost evenly attributed as well to non-library science faculty, because many of the contributors are computer science faculty or from other academic departments. Likewise, the Public Li- brary Quarterly has an almost equally large group of library directors and ad- ministrators contributing to that journal. Library directors, deans or other admin- istrators are the major contributors in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, the Journal of Library Administration, in Li- brary Trends, and in Special Libraries. In Information Technology & Libraries sys- tems librarians and department heads in academic settings account for the major- ity of contributors; in Library Resources & Technical Services and in Serials Librarian technical services librarians and depart- ment heads in academic settings pub- lished the most. Location of Authors The largest number of authors is in the Northeast. The next largest group is in January 1991 the Midwest, followed by authors in the West, the Southeast, and finally the Southwest. Generally speaking these findings support those of the Olsgaard, and Adamson and Zamora studies. Be- cause academic librarians and library school faculty publish the most, the con- centration of authors in the Northeast and Midwest is due to the number of large academic library collections in in- stitutions in these areas (thirty-one of top fifty) 37 and the preponderance of li- brary schools (sixteen in the Northeast and thirteen in the Midwest). 38 Like- wise, the largest number of the twenty- six public libraries with 1 million or more volumes are found in the Northeast (eight) and the Midwest (nine). 39 The number of authors by journal in each re- gion, as well as Canada and all other for- eign countries (as one group), is indi- cated in table 5. Six of the journals clearly have their largest share of con- tributors in the Northeast: Information Technology and Libraries, JASIS, Library Resources and Technical Services, School Li- brary Media Quarterly, Serials Librarian, and Special Libraries. The largest group of authors contributing to College & Re- search Libraries is almost equally divided between the Northeast and the Mid- west. The Journal of Academic Librarian- ship, Journal of Education for Library and In- formation Science, Library and Information TABLE 5 GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS BY JOURNAL Location Journal NE SE M sw s c Other Coli. & Res. Libs. 46 27 56 15 47 3 3 Info. Tech. & Libs . 38 15 37 19 21 8 3 ]. % Acad. Lib. 33 16 78 9 14 6 1 ]. mer. Soc. I1. Sci. 89 15 32 18 22 1 22 ]. Ed. Lib. & In . Sci. 28 11 47 20 13 12 12 ]. of Lib. Admin. 20 19 17 29 14 2 2 Libraries & Culture 9 3 16 9 12 1 18 Lib. & I~. Sci. Research 12 13 21 16 11 4 13 Library uarterly 7 5 30 1 7 4 1 Lib. Res. & Tech. Ser. 55 13 32 5 5 2 1 Library Trends 45 12 48 11 18 2 4 Public Lib. Quarterly 4 3 4 12 8 2 3 RQ 29 14 66 17 10 5 1 Sch . Lib. Media Quart. 43 27 20 19 9 1 1 Serials Librarian 70 32 38 11 32 4 21 Special Libraries 55 10 24 9 14 3 1 Total 583 235 566 220 257 62 122 Percent All Journals 28.5 11.5 27.7 10.7 12.6 3.0 6.0 Science Research, Library Quarterly, Li- brary Trends, and RQ draw the bulk of their contributors, at least for the time period under study, from the Midwest. The largest percentage of contributors to Libraries and Culture is actually from countries other than the United States and Canada, giving it the most interna- tional perspective of all the journals in the study. The largest percentage of U.S. contributors to Libraries and Culture is located in the Midwest. It should be noted that Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Library and Information Science Research, and Seri- als Librarian also had a large number of international contributors. Only two of the journals attract large shares of con- tributors from the West: Journal of Library A-dministration and Public Library Quar- terly. The distribution of library science fac- ulty by geographic region and the identi- fication of specific library schools with rank of faculty members are provided in Library Periodical Literature 45 tables 6 and 7, respectively. The North- east and the Midwest have the largest number of authors, with the Midwest slightly ahead. Watson notes that studies of publish- ing by academic institutions are '' gener- ally conducted to provide some measure of the excellence of the academic pro- grams in question on the presumption that faculties that are productive in pub- lishing will provide a high-quality edu- cational program for students.'' 40 While institutional requirements and the ex- tent of the library and information sci- ence program are definitely factors in publishing conducted at individual in- stitutions, the quality of the program is obviously also an important variable. When examining the distribution of li- brary school faculty by academic institu- tions, the faculty in library schools at North Carolina and Wisconsin have the largest share with twenty-seven authors each, followed by Louisiana and Illinois with twenty-six and twenty-five authors respectively. Other library schools with TABLE 6 LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE SCHOOL AUTHORS BY GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION Re ion 1. Northeast (Conn., Del., D .C., Maine, Md., Mass., N.H., N.J., N .Y., Pa., R.I., Vt.) 2. Southeast (Ala., Fla., Ga., Ky., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.) 3. Midwest (Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Mich., Minn., Nebr., N.Dak ., Ohio, S.Dak., Wis.) 4. Southwest (Ariz., Ark., La ., Miss., N.M., Okla., Texas) 5. West (Alaska, Calif., Colo., Hawaii, Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg ., Utah ., Wash ., Wyo.) 6. Canada 7. All other countries Total TABLE 7 No . 119 63 129 61 39 28 32 471 LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE FACULTY/GRADUATE STUDENT AUTHORS BY POSITION Position Deans/Directors* Professors Associate Professors Assistant Professors Non-Designated Faculty Rank Graduate Students . Total No . 63 140 52 118 67 31 471 *Includes associate and assistant deans in cases where no other faculty rank was indicated . % 25.27 13.38 27.39 12.95 8.28 5.04 6.79 100.00 % 13.38 29.72 11.04 25.05 14.23 6.58 100.00 46 College & Research Libraries ten or more authors include (in rank or- der) Michigan, Drexel, Indiana, Syra- cuse, Rutgers, Simmons, South Caro- lina, UCLA, Western Ontario, UC (Berkeley), Chicago, Iowa, and Texas (Austin). Authors affiliated with these schools account for 64.53% of all faculty contributions to the literature. The re- maining 35.47% are distributed among fifty-two U.S. and thirty non-U.S. schools (see table 8). Research Methodology Of the 1,725 articles included in the study, a total of 500 meet the criteria for January 1991 inclusion in the category of research- based articles. The majority of the writ- ings, 1,225 items, are not research-based and consist of news announcements, letters, and descriptive or opinion pa- pers. When analyzing the literature in terms of the percentage of total pages, as opposed to number of articles devoted to research and nonresearch, total page content devoted to nonresearch is 61.65% (as opposed to 71% when ana- lyzing by articles), indicating that research-based articles are lengthier than nonresearch-based ones (see table 9). Some studies employ more than one TABLES FACULTY BY RANK AND MOST PRODUCTIVE SCHOOLS Graduate School Deans Facul~ Students Total %* N. Carolina 1 26 0 27 5.73 Wisconsin 2 25 0 27 5.73 Louisiana 5 19 2 26 5.52 Illinois 5 19 1 25 5.31 Michifan 0 21 1 22 4.67 Drexe 0 19 2 21 4.46 Indiana 8 12 1 21 4.46 Syracuse 1 18 1 20 4.25 Rutgers 1 15 0 16 3.40 Simmons 0 16 0 16 3.40 S. Carolina 1 14 0 15 3.18 UCLA 1 6 8 15 3.18 W. Ontario 2 10 2 14 2.97 UC, Berkeley 0 9 1 10 2.12 Chicago 0 10 0 10 2.12 Iowa 1 9 0 10 2.12 Texas 0 8 2 10 2.12 Total 28 256 21 305 64.53t *Percentage is based on total library school authors (471) . +Represents schools with ten or more authors; other 35.47% is distributed among fifty-two U.S . and thirty non-U .S . additional schools . TABLE 9 BREAKDOWN OF RESEARCH AND NONRESEARCH CONTENTBYPAGESOFCOVERAGE Content Pa es Nonresearch 10,459 Survey 1,908 Expenment 629 Content Analysis 143 Statistical Analysis 285 Mathematical Model 293 Case Study 281 Historical Study 1,480 Cit. Anal./Bibliometrics 246 Observation/Field Study 125 Bibliosraphies 827 Interview 148 Model Dev. IV ali dation 142 Total 16,966 % 61.65 11.25 3.71 .84 1.68 1.73 1.66 8.72 1.45 .74 4.87 .87 .84 100.00 research methodology, which accounts for the fact that 526 methodologies are noted in 500 research studies. No at- tempt was made to analyze the type of statistics employed, if any, for collecting or interpreting data. Table 10 shows the breakdown of research-based articles by journal title. Collecting data by means of a survey is still the most popular means of conduct- ing research. It had more pages devoted to it than any other methodology in Col- lege & Research Libraries, Information Tech- nology and Libraries, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Library and Information Science Research, Public Li- brary Quarterly, RQ, School Library Media Quarterly, and Special Libraries. Approxi- mately 30% of the articles are research- based, an increase from the 1984 find- ings of Feehan, et al., who reported that 23.6% of the articles in their study were research oriented, 41 and from the 24.4% Nour found in 1980. 42 It also agrees with Coughlin and Snelson who found that of the papers presented at ACRL confer- ences, 31.5% to 33% have been devoted to research. 43 The current study sup- ports Peritz' indication that journal arti- cles are increasingly based on research, 44 a finding confirmed by Kim and Kim's analysis of College & Research Libraries be- tween 1957 and 1976. 45 Historical studies are also prevalent, Library Periodical Literature 47 with a large number of them in Libraries and Culture, and, to a lesser degree, in Li- brary Quarterly and Library Trends. Sub- ject bibliographies are also a common feature of the library and information science literature. Journal of Academic Li- brarianship has a regular column provid- ing subject bibliographies, as does the Serials Librarian. The Journal of the Ameri- can Society for Information Science led in the use of the scientific experiment, al- though a much larger share of the jour- nal's content is devoted to mathematical and programming models. The Journal of Library Administration devotes the most space to case studies. Subject Coverage Subject coverage was analyzed by computing the percentage of pages de- voted to a total of 130 subjects. Because of the diversity in the extent of articles, it was decided that measuring subject cov- erage by the number of pages devoted to each subject would be a more accurate assessment of how much is written about a topic. The twenty-five most pop- ular subjects are indicated in table 11. Cataloging, automation, management, and library and information science edu- cation head the list. This supports, in part, Atkins' major study of subject trends46 which determined that manage- ment, information retrieval, databases, TABLE 10 DISTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES BY JOURNAL IN RANK ORDER Journal Journal of Amer. Soc. for Inf. . Science College & Research Libraries Journal of Academic Librarianship Library & Information Science Research Libraries and Culture Library Trends RQ .b . Information Technology & Lz ranes Serials Librarian Journal of Ed. for Lib. & Inf. Science Library Quarterly Library Resources & Tech. Services School Library Media Quarterly Public Library Quarterly Special Libraries Journal of Library Administration Total No . . 61 57 45 41 36 35 35 31 31 29 27 24 18 12 10 8 500 % 12.2 11.4 9.0 8.2 7.2 7.0 7.0 6.2 6.2 5.8 5.4 4.8 3.6 2.4 2.0 1.6 100.00 48 College & Research Libraries January 1991 TABLE 11 DISTRIBUTION OF COVERAGE BY TWENTY-FIVE MOST POPULAR SUBJECTS AND OTHER MAJOR CATEGORIES BY PAGES Rank Content 1 Cataloging 2 Automation 3 Management/Personnel 4 Lib. and In£. Sci. Ed. 5 Comparative Librarianship 6 Collection Management 7 Reference Service 8 Networks/Networkin~ 9 Online Public Access atalogs 10 Professional Associations 11 Users 12 Information Retrieval 13 Serials Control 14 Children's and Young Adult Services 15 Escalating Costs (Serials, etc .) 16 Research 17 Change/Futures 18 Bibliogr~hic Instruction 19 ~ecial ollections 20 story 21 Reference Sources 22 Indexing 23 Buildin~ 24 CD-RO s 25 Cooperation Total Most Popular Subjects All Other Subjects (105) Reviews Subject Bibliographies News/ Announcements Editorials/Letters to editor Total All Categories and cataloging were the most popular. However, Atkins perceived that man- agement and cataloging were slowly de- clining, while articles of a technological nature had almost tripled in frequency. Fifteen of the twenty-five subjects most popular in the current study also appear on a comparable list in the Atkins' study. While Feehan et al. 47 found that as much as 28.5% of their sample dealt with automation, this is not the case in the present study. However, if all automation-related topics are com- bined, close to 20% is obtained. For ex- ample, automation could also be consid- ered as a secondary subject because it is so closely associated with cataloging, online reference service, networks/net- working, online public access catalogs, information retrieval, change/futures, reference sources, indexing, CD-ROMs, and cooperation. Automation, as a sub- Coverage in Pages o/o 719 4.24 686 4.04 544 3.21 538 3.17 472 2.78 443 2.61 413 2.43 393 2.32 385 2.27 376 2.21 365 2.15 313 1.84 300 1.77 291 1.72 268 1.58 266 1.57 258 1.52 235 1.39 235 1.39 224 1.32 223 1.31 217 1.28 210 1.24 182 1.07 176 1.04 8,732 51.47 5,306 31.27 1,672 9.86 869 5.12 222 1.31 165 .97 16,966 100.00 ject, appears in twelve of the sixteen journals, as do cataloging and manage- ment. While collection management does not receive as much page coverage, it does appear as a subject in thirteen of the sixteen journals. This is not surpris- ing in light of continued rapid techno- logical change and the need to dissemi- nate information about new innovative procedures and techniques. In answer to whether there are any subjects which men tend to write about more than women, or vice versa, the subjects in table 12 represent the great- est disparity between the two sexes. The primary differe·nces, not unexpectedly, are in the heavy coverage by female au- thors of children's and young adults' services (90. 91%) and bibliographic in- struction (83.67%). A large share of fe- male authors (78.95%) also write about library standards. Men dominate in doc- . I I Library Periodical Literature 49 TABLE 12 SUBJECTS WITH DIFFERENTIAL COVERAGE BY AUTHOR GENDER Subject Males % Automation 43 40.57 Bibliog. Inst. 8 16.33 Bibliog., Subject 21 33.87 Bibliometrics 15 60.00 Cataloging 34 43.04 Child ./Y A Serv. 1 9.09 International Libr. 25 75.76 Continuing Ed. 5 27.78 Costs 24 72.73 Document Retrieval 9 100.00 Libra~ History 10 83.33 Info. etrieval 39 69.64 Lib. and lnf. Sci. Ed. 32 36.78 Research 32 64.00 Prof. Assns. 16 34.78 Serials Control 10 27.78 OPACS 16 32.00 Standards 4 21.05 ument retrieval (100% ), library history (83 .33%), and international librarian- ship (75.76%). In analyzing subject coverage by occu- pation there are no surprises with re- spect to typical occupations of the au- thors. Directors frequently write about management and networking. Refer- ence department heads and reference li- brarians write about reference service and bibliographic instruction, while technical services librarians and depart- ment heads comprise the largest cate- gory of writers on cataloging. Systems li- brarians and managers write about automation-specifically cataloging, CD-ROMs, and circulation. Library and information science deans write about the image of librarians and about library and information science education, which is also covered by faculty mem- bers. In analyzing individual journals for popular subjects, articles related to public services (including access to the online catalog) are well represented in College & Research Libraries. Coverage of public services is also prevalent in Jour- nal of Academic Librarianship, closely fol- lowed by content related to manage- ment. As expected, the Journal of the American Society for Information Science is heavily weighted with content devoted to information retrieval; the Journal of Ed- ucation for Library and Information Science Total Females % Authors % 63 59.43 106 100 41 83.67 49 100 41 66.13 62 100 10 40.00 25 100 45 56.96 79 100 10 90.91 11 100 8 24.24 33 100 13 72.22 18 100 9 27.27 33 100 0 00.00 9 100 2 16.67 12 100 17 30.36 56 100 55 63.22 87 100 28 36.00 50 100 30 65.22 46 100 26 72.28 36 100 34 68.00 50 100 15 78.95 19 100 emphasizes education in the field, and the Journal of Library Administration is strong in coverage of management is- sues. The primary differences, not unexpect- edly, are in the heavy coverage by fe- male authors of children's and young adult's services (90.91%) and biblio- graphic instruction (83.33%). The extensive international coverage of Libraries and Culture is clearly demon- strated by 326 pages devoted to compar- ative and intemationallibrarianship, fol- lowed by a large number of historical studies. User studies constitute the ma- jor group of subjects treated in Library and Information Science Research; manage- ment and personnel are the most preva- lent topics in Library Quarterly, followed closely by library and information sci- ence education. Also not surprising is the dominance of cataloging in Library Resources & Technical Services~ public li- braries in Public Library Quarterly, and reference service and reference ques- tions in RQ. Most subject coverage in Li- 50 College & Research Libraries brary Trends pertains to library buildings, which can be attributed to a single- theme issue with a large number of arti- cles devoted to that topic. While the School Library Media Quarterly and Special Libraries contain a majority of items de- voted to professional associations, the next largest areas of coverage in each are school librarianship and management, respectively. In Serials Librarian, catalog- ing and serials control and management are almost equally matched in coverage. Some subjects appear in a majority (nine or more) of the journals: automa- tion, cataloging, children's and young adult services, circulation, collection management, comparative and interna- tionallibrarianship, cooperation, library and information science education, li- brary and information science periodi- cals, research, management/personnel, networks/networking, online public ac- cess catalogs, and professional associa- tions. CONCLUSIONS In summary, major findings indicate that males and females tend to publish about an equal number of articles and about an equal percentage of research- based articles in the library periodical lit- erature. The present study confirms a slowly closing gap between the propor- tions of male and female contributors, particularly among special librarians, al- though female authors are still poorly represented in SLA. Are women pub- lishing more because in recent years they have filled more positions as heads of organizations, or because they feel more autonomy in their jobs due to in- creased participatory management? While findings indicate an increase in women authors in each of the journals, the real difference can also be attributed to the wider selection of journal titles and, particularly, the inclusion of those covering aspects of librarianship clearly dominated by females, e.g., School Li- brary Media Quarterly, and Library Re- sources & Technical Seroices. However, as Olsgaard noted, data compiled by the National Center for Educational Statis- tics indicate that the proportion of January 1991 women in librarianship in general is about 84%, 48-much higher than that of men. Data compiled by the American Li- brary Association indicate that this breakdown (in academic and public li- braries) is about 75% female and 25% male . 49 In the present study, males pub- lished about 2.7 times more than fe- males; therefore, a much larger percent- age of males than females are publishing, in spite of the fact that this gap seems to be closing, however slowly. These findings suggest the need for further research into possible expla- nations for this discrepancy, including women's attitudes toward publishing or their desires to make career advance- ments and assume more responsible po- sitions. Men and women on library school faculties tend to publish on a more comparable basis . . The major share of publication activity (more than 61%) is accounted for by aca- demic librarians (37.68%, which is greater than their representation in the overall population of either professional or all academic librarians )50 and library and information science faculty (18 .69% or 21.81% including school deans), closely approximating previous find- ings. 51 While full professors publish the most, an almost equally large number of assistant professors are publishing. Be- cause most faculty members aspiring to tenure are probably assistant professors, their higher publishing rate can be at- tributed to this need for career advance- ment and security, including the possi- bility of spin-off articles from dissertations. Academic librarians are publishing more compared to previous studies, supporting the suggestion that the increase in the percentage of rank and file librarians as compared to the earl~ dominance of library administra- tors 2 is due to a larger number of aca- demic librarians who have attained posi- tions with faculty status and increased expectations for research and publica- tion. The trend toward these new re- quirements was noted as early as 1980. 53 On the other hand, Rayman and Goudy found that only 15% of ARL librarians surveyed responded that publication was essential. 54 Other factors include the likelihood that academic institutions are incorporating thrusts for research in their mission statements, as well as the possibility that the general emphasis on participative management styles has heightened librarians' sense of profes- sionalism and responsibility for contrib- uting to the development of the field. Al- though there are many more academic librarians than library science faculty, the latter publish a larger percentage of articles, a finding which is not too sur- prising because more rigorous publica- tion requirements are made of them for promotion and tenure. The rate of pub- lishing by graduate students has re- mained relatively consistent over the last thirty years. 55 Although it might be hypothesized that this would increase with new emphases on research, new technological tools to facilitate research, and more courses that address quantita- tive analysis and methodology, a possi- ble explanation for this stable publica- tion rate is the graduate student's motivation to finish their programs and enter the work force before they devote their energies to research and publica- tion. More authors are located in the North- east and the Midwest than in any other geographic region, confirming the results of earlier studies. Library schools most productive in terms of publication are at North Carolina and Wisconsin- Madison. Of the sixteen schools identi- fied as most productive in terms of fac- ulty publication, ten are located in either the Northeast or the Midwest, where there are sixteen and thirteen schools, respectively. With a large share of aca- demic librarians in the major academic institutions also located in the Northeast and the Midwest, it is not surprising to find that these two geographic regions rank first and second. There is a 67% overlap with schools that Watson found most productive, the difference possibly due to the inclusion of editorials, regu- larly appearing columns, and other types of materials in the present study. Research-based articles are on the in- crease, although they did decline after a Library Periodical Literature 51 peak of 35% in the late 1970s.56' 57 That this decline occurred commensurate with a decline in federal and other sources of research funding may explain this peak and slump, followed by a mod- erate upward trend as scholars identi- fied new ways to finance research . Both sexes write nearly equal percentages of research and nonresearch articles. The general emphasis on participative management styles has heightened li- brarians' sense of professionalism and responsibility for contributing to the de- velopment of the field. Atkins claims that ''a study of subject trends in library and information science publishing is a way for the library pro- fession to learn more about itself. " 58 A fair amount of subject coverage overlaps with previous studies. Recent popular topics are library and information sci- ence education, online public access cat- alogs, CD-ROM, bibliographic instruc- tion, children's and young adults' services, and literature dealing with fu- ture change. While authors' interest in writing about information retrieval has declined somewhat, the subjects of au- tomation, management, and cataloging continue to occupy the minds of contrib- uting authors and, of course, editors. Continued interest in automation is pre- dictable in light of ongoing technological innovations and the filtering down of automation to smaller libraries. Atten- tion to human relations skills and man- agement is also understandable as li- braries are moving toward more participative decision-making and less hierarchical structure . The reasons for the continued increase in cataloging arti- cles are less clear, but possibly due to the increase in publishing by rank and file practitioners, and the trend toward merging, or at least softening, the dis- tinction between the traditional divi- sions of public and technical services. 52 College & Res_earcb Libraries Is this an. indication that librarianship is moving beyond an interest in immediate problems of the job at hand, and another positive sign of a maturing profession? With catalogers being moved to public services areas and tending to perform all activities, professional or otherwise, at one subject or branch location, they have now become involved with the on- line public access catalog. Reference li- brarians, likewise, are providing input into more adequate online subject ac- January 1991 cess, a continued concern for catalogers. Increased attention to international li- brarianship (ranked in fifth place) con- firmed the Atkins study. Is this an -indi- cation that librarianship is moving beyond an interest in immediate prob- lems of the job at hand, and another pos- itive sign of a maturing profession? Periodic analysis of the subject content of library literature and its authors seems particularly important not only because it documents the historical de- velopment of librarianship, but also be- cause it reflects trends in the concerns and issues that concern and confront li- brary and information science educators and practitioners. REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. John Budd, "Publication in Library & Information Science: The State of the Literature," Library ]ournal113:125 (Sept. 1, 1988). 2. S. Nazim Ali, "Library Science Research: Some Results of its Dissemination and Utilization," Libri 35:151-62 (1985) . 3. Norman D. Stevens, "The History and Current State of Library Publishing in the United States," Library ScienceAnnual1 (Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1985), p.17-28. 4. Paula D. Watson, ''Production of Scholarly Articles by Academic Librarians and Library School Faculty," College & Research Libraries 46:334-35 (July 1985). 5. Carol Steer, "CL] Authors are Studied," Canadian Library ]ournal39:151-55 (June 1982); Daniel O'Connor and Phyllis Van Orden, "Getting into Print," College & Research Libraries 39:389-96 (Sept. 1978). 6. David Kaser, "A Century of Academic Librarianship, as Reflected in Its Literature," College & Research Libraries 37:110-27 (March 1976). 7. Watson, "Production of Scholarly Articles," p.334. 8. Charles R. McClure and Ann Bishop, "The Status of Research in Library/Information Science: Guarded Optimism," College & Research Libraries 50:127-43 (March 1989). 9. Budd, "Publication in Library & Information Science," p .125. 10. Thomas Childers, "Will the Cycle be Unbroken? Research and Schools of Library and Informa- tion Studies," Library Trends 32:521-35 (Spring 1984). 11. Stephen E. Atkins, "Subject Trends in Library and Information Science Research, 1975-1984, 11 Library Trends 36:633-58 (Spring 1988). 12. Gloria Cline, "College & Research Libraries: Its First Forty Years," College & Research Libraries 43:208-32 (May 1982). 13. Patricia E. Feehan and others, "Library and Information Science Research: An Analysis of the 1984 Journal Literature," Library and Infonnation Science Research 9:173-85 (1987). ' 14. Denny P . Wallace, "The Use of Statistical Methods in Library and Information Science, 11 Jour- nal of the American Society for Infonnation Science 36:402-10 (Nov. 1985). 15 . Nancy Van De Walter and others, "Research in Information Science: An Assessment, 11 Infor- mation Processing & Management 12:117-23 (1976). 16. John N . Olsgaard and Jane Kinch Olsgaard, "Authorship in Five Library Periodicals," College & Research Libraries 41:49-53 (Jan . 1980). 17. Paula de Simone Watson, "Publication Activity among Academic Librarians," College & Re- search Libraries 38:375-84 (Sept . 1977). 18. Watson, "Production of Scholarly Articles," p.334-42. 19. Martha C. Adamson and Gloria J. Zamora, "Publishing in Library Science Journals : A Test of the Olsgaard Profile,'' College & Research Libraries 42:235-41 (May 1981). Library~eriodical Literatur-e 53 20. Soon D. Kim and Mary T. Kim, "Academic Library Research: A Twenty Year Perspective," in New Horizons for Academic Libraries, Robert D. Stueart and Richard D. Johnson, eds. (New York: K. G. Saur, 1979), p.375-83. 21. Martyvonne M. Nour, "A Quantitative Analysis of the Research Articles Published in Core Library Journals of 1980," Library and Information Science Research 7:261-73 (1985). 22. Bluma C. Peritz, "Research in Library Science as Reflected in the Core Journals of the Profes- sion: A Quantitative Analysis (1950-1975)" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1977). 23. Ibid. 24. David F. Kohl and Charles H. Davis, "Ratings ofJournals by ARL Library Directors and Deans of Library and Information Science Schools," College & Research Libraries 46:40-47 Oan. 1985). 25. Stuart Glogoff, "Reviewing the Gatekeepers: A Survey of Referees of Library Journals," Jour- nal of the American Society for Information Science 39:400-7 (Nov. 1988). 26. Atkins, "Subject Trends," passim. 27. ''Accredited Library Schools,'' The Bowker Annual Library and Book Trade Almanac, 1989-90. 34th ed. (New York: Bowker, 1990), p.327-29. 28. Atkins, "Subject Trends," p .635-36. 29. Olsgaard, ''Authorship in Five Library Periodicals,'' passim. 30. Gloria J. Zamora and Martha C. Adamson, "Authorship Characteristics in Special Libraries: A Comparative Study," Special Libraries 73:100-07 (Apr.1982). 31. Ibid., p.104. 32. Olsgaard, "Authorship in Five Library Periodicals," p.50. 33. Zamora, "Authorship Characteristics in Special Libraries," p.103. 34. Directory of the Association for Library and Information Science Education, 1988-89 (Sarasota, Fla.: The Association for Library and Information Science Education, 1989), p .9-34. 35. Ibid. 36. Digest of Education Statistics (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Education, 1989), p.212. 37. Digest of Education Statistics, p.401 . 38. Directory of the Association for Library and Information Science Education, p.9-34 . 39. Digest of Education Statistics 1989, p.395. 40. Watson, "Production of Scholarly Articles," p.334. 41. Feehan, and others, "Library and Information Science Research," passim. 42. Nour, "A Quantitative Analysis of the Research Articles," passim. 43. Caroline Coughlin and Pamela Snelson. "Searching for Research in ACRL Conference Pa- pers," Journal of Academic Librarianship 9:21-26 (Mar. 1983). 44. Bluma C. Peritz, ''Citation Characteristics in Library Science: Some Further Results from a Bib- liometric Survey," Library Research 3:47-65 (1981). 45. Kim and Kim, "Academic Library Research," p.377. 46. Atkins, "Subject Trends," p.638. 47. Feehan and others, "Library and Information Science Research," passim. 48. Olsgaard, "Authorship in Five Library Periodicals," p.50. 49. Academic and Public Librarians: Data by Race, Ethnicity and Sex. (Chicago: American Library Assn . Office for Library Personnel Resources, 1986), p.3. 50. Mary Jo Lynch, Libraries in an Information Society: A Statistical Summary (Chicago: American Li- brary Assn ., 1987), p.41 . 51. Watson, "Production of Scholarly Articles," passim. 52. Masse Bloomfield, "A Quantitative Study of the Publishing Characteristics of Librarians," Drexel Library Quarterly 15:24-49 Ouly 1979). 53. Ronald Rayman and Frank William Goudy, "Research and Publication Requirements in Uni- versity Libraries," College & Research Libraries 41:32-48 (Jan. 1980). 54. Ibid. 55. Kim and Kim, "Academic Library Research," p .380. 56. Peritz, "Citation Characteristics," p.47-65. 57. McClure and Bishop, "The Status of Research in Library/Information Science," p.130. 58. Atkins, "Subject Trends," p.633.