Editorial: 50 years of library and information studies at Aberystwyth

Citation

Broady-Preston, J. (2015), "Editorial: 50 years of library and information studies at Aberystwyth", Library Review, Vol. 64 No. 6/7. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-07-2015-0077

Editorial: 50 years of library and information studies at Aberystwyth

Article Type: Editorial From: Library Review, Volume 64, Issue 6/7

In October 1964, 12 postgraduate students were enrolled onto a new course designed and delivered by five staff, who were also beginning the process of planning a brand new campus and recruiting more staff to develop the discipline further. Their mission did not relate solely to developing the discipline in and for Wales and the UK as a whole, but significantly, they were concerned, even at this early stage, with making a major contribution to the development of the discipline and allied professions globally. Thus, this special issue falls firmly within the remit and scope of Library Review, a journal with global developments in information and knowledge at its heart.

A reflective history of the origins and development of the wider information studies discipline at Aberystwyth was addressed ably by a friend and former colleague, Lucy Tedd, in her editorial for a special issue of Education for Information, published to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the discipline at Aberystwyth (Tedd, 2005). This issue included not only a reflective history of developments at Aberystwyth, but also published papers by staff and students, past and present, from across the globe, reflecting on aspects of contemporary significance for the discipline and profession. To revisit and repeat this for the 50th anniversary seemed to be merely that – a repetition and updating of a significant body of work, and one which would be derivative rather than innovative. Aberystwyth has prided itself over the years on its innovative approach to the design and delivery of the discipline, including the establishment of distance education in 1986. In 2016, it will be celebrating a further anniversary – 30 years of innovation in this aspect of education. Fifty years is a significant milestone; to acknowledge this, the current staff wished to offer a publication more reflective of this tradition of innovation in Aberystwyth, rather than merely to revise and update an existing work.

This special double issue of Library Review marks this historic milestone by offering a snapshot of the work and output of a selection of doctoral research students currently studying at Aberystwyth, showing the range and scope of the research groups, looking forwards into the future for the discipline to celebrate the past. The papers included here are a sample from the student body, co-authored with their supervisory teams; not all doctoral students were in a position to publish, as their work was not at an appropriate stage. Moreover, students were invited to contribute rather than required to do so. The work of the doctoral students is accompanied by two papers from current staff, David Ellis and Julie Mathias, both of whom offer a reflection on the impact of scholarly research from differing perspectives and traditions, and which open and close this special issue. All papers have been through the Journal’s standard double-blind peer review, and the process overseen by another friend and colleague, Steve O’Connor, currently editor of Library Management, and who has also kindly and very ably acted as Editor-in-Chief during my recent absence.

Given the contemporary emphasis and attention devoted to measuring impact across a range of fields, disciplines and sectors, the paper by David Ellis which examines the use of impact factor analysis to evaluate journals is a timely and apposite addition to this debate. Presented in the paper is an original citation and impact factor analysis of three medical journals over a decade, examining content and referencing to determine whether these were sufficiently significant to explain the higher ranking of the General Medical Journal in relation to specialist journals. Interestingly, while there was a significant quantity of self-referenced non-citeable material in the Journal, this was insufficient in itself to explain the far higher ranking enjoyed by the General Medical Journal.

Following on from the above, Shehata et al. investigate changes in informal scholarly communication practices in four universities in the UK, employing a naturalistic inquiry approach. A new model of scholarly communication is outlined, reflecting these changes in communication, including categorising scholarly behaviour into one of three types: the Orthodox, Moderate and Heterodox.

Asma Al-Wreikat applies grounded theory in her study of the information-seeking behaviour of social scientists in Jordanian Universities searching both Arabic and English academic databases. A key finding is that the information needs of the subjects varied according to the language used; as a result, a cross-language information-seeking behaviour model is proposed and developed.

Moving from a consideration of scholarly information seeking to that of the everyday, Janet Mawby’s study examines the role of peers and family in influencing individual information-seeking behaviour. Janet’s work identifies and introduces a new type of information-seeking behaviour, categorised as “Disposable Information Seeking”:

Disposable Information is task specific and likely to only be required by an individual on a one off basis, causing different everyday life information seeking (ELIS) patterns to emerge. Ultimately, people are only prepared to expend effort to get quality information if they perceive a value or further, continued use for that information (Mawby, 2015).

Changing the focus from the individual to the organisational, Saowapha Limwichitr et al. highlight key challenges in examining organisational cultural change as a critical supportive influence in developing a learning organisation. Key among these challenges is that there is no agreed-upon definition of the concept of “learning organisation”, together with a lack of practical approaches and measures to assess the achievement of the cultural change. A need for in-depth studies which focus on current practices and related problems in this regard is also revealed. The systems approach is proposed as a suitable approach for the holistic investigation of all critical elements with the potential to influence and impact upon the establishment of a learning organisation in the university context.

The final paper from Julie Mathias is the second of those from the Aberystwyth staff. She completes this special issue with an examination of the courses in library service jointly developed and run by the University and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth between 1917 and 1928. These Summer Schools (as they were known) had a significant impact not only on the establishment and development of the discipline at Aberystwyth, but also looking ahead to the 2016 anniversary, on the development of distance education for those currently in professional practice.

I hope you enjoy this special issue which reflects past, present and future developments in relation to the discipline of information studies, celebrating the achievements of scholars in the field over a considerable period.

On a personal note, I should also like to take this opportunity to thank the team at Emerald, Eileen and Adrian, and the editorial team of the Journal, Amanda, Anne, Anoush and Sarah, for all their efforts during my enforced absence. Special thanks must go to Steve O’Connor, who undertook the usually thankless caretaker role of Acting Editor extremely ably.

Thank you too for your continuing support for the Journal as readers, authors and reviewers. I look forward to the remainder of 2015 and an equally exciting and interesting year in 2016 for the Journal. If you would like to contribute in any way, as author or reviewer, please do get in touch with me.

Judith Broady-Preston

Editor, Library Review, Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK

Reference

Tedd, L. (2005), “40 years of library and information studies education in Wales”, Education for Information, Vol. 23 Nos 1/2, pp. 1-8.