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Bibliography as an interdisciplinary information service - Navigating Among the Disciplines: The Library and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Library Trends, Fall, 1996 by Joan B. Fiscella
INTRODUCTION
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The wide availability of electronic access to published materials might suggest a decreasing importance of published bibliographies. Among the access tools in electronic form are catalogs (of print and nonprint materials); indexes and abstracts of periodic literature; and tables of contents of journals and books. Researchers using a personal computer and modem can search catalogs worldwide at their convenience. Moreover, keyword searching of catalogs and indexes can be done easily, thus freeing searchers from lengthy training and practice needed for highly structured organizational tools such as subject headings or thesauri. One argument against compiling subject bibliographies is that the researcher or the nonscholarly searcher can find extensive materials by using keyword searches in national or local catalogs and in subject indexes. Many catalogs are available through the Internet, and academic and public libraries are providing patron access to these through personal computers. Such ubiquitous availability means that even a lack of subject expertise is not a deterrent to finding at least some information on most topics. In any case, the bibliographic activity which leads to the selection and publication of lists and descriptions of articles or books on a topic takes time which would be better spent on other activities.
This argument is not self-evident, however, for it assumes that bibliographic activity serves only as a "gathering" activity, not a winnowing one. Further, it assumes that all topics for bibliography are congruent with the classification and organization of existing catalogs and indexes, it does not consider areas that are perhaps ripe for bibliography just because these are outside common intellectual organizational schemes. Interdisciplinary topics, for example, are areas in which straightforward searches of catalogs and indexes are of limited help because the work has indistinct boundaries.
The importance of bibliographies for interdisciplinary work can be seen by examining an interdisciplinary field of study. Play is illustrative of a field in which the activity of compiling bibliographies becomes problematic when dealing with electronic bibliographic tools commonly used today. The examination of these problems is preceded by a discussion of two notions of bibliography and a description of "play" and "leisure," two related concepts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A bibliography is a "list or sequence of descriptions of graphic materials on a given subject or area" (Bates, 1976, p. 9). In her 1976 article, Marcia Bates makes a strong case for the value of systematic or enumerative bibliography by providing a foundation for it in terms of both the practical utility of such bibliographies and the skills of information seeking, selection, the organization" (p. 7) required by those compiling such bibliographies. Bibliographies are secondary sources of information, functioning as pointers to other materials (information recorded by human agency). Each item on the bibliographic list carries selected bits of information about an indicated work, such as author, tide, publisher, and date; it may also carry a summary of the work, highlighting those particular aspects relevant to the subject area of the bibliography.
The value of a bibliography lies in its gathering and preliminary screening of information on a subject. It combines and organizes the information about materials from diverse resources, and it evaluates the materials. A good bibliography provides enough information about a set of materials to determine whether or not it is worth reading them. A bibliography performs this function because it is more than a listing of items. Rather, a bibliography connects items in some way, and the principle of that relationship is defined by the subject area under consideration. Bates argues that a bibliography contributes value to the information by creating an integrated structure for physical and intellectual access to recorded materials" (p. 12). She refers to Shera and Egan's (1965) notion of the macrocosmic view of bibliography. A macrocosmic view holds that bibliographies are systems of communication, one related to the other, and serving a common purpose of building an intellectual structure of the area, whereas a microcosmic view of bibliography assumes that each bibliography stands alone, unrelated to other bibliographies.
In contrast to Bates, Patrick Wilson (1992) makes a case for what he calls "pragmatic" bibliography as distinguished from "wholesale" bibliography. He characterizes the activity that leads to, or constitutes, the process of pragmatic bibliography as that of the academic researcher who identifies, selects, and describes materials for a specific purpose or project. "The inquiry might be an attempt to find out something new or might simply be an attempt to find out what, if anything, is already known on the subject" (p. 240). Because a specific limited purpose guides the activity, its key components are search and selection.
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Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »