A Review of Citation Analysis Methodologies for Collection Management.

Busath, Kellie

Hoffmann, K., & Doucette, L. (2012). A review of citation analysis methodologies for collection management. College & research libraries, 73(4), 321-335.

This article reviewed how multiple institutions went about doing a citation analysis for collection development purposes. Citation analysis is reviewing the citations used by faculty at the institution to see what areas of expertise needed to be accommodated by the library. It included collecting materials that were listed in citations if they were not already acquired by the library and also collecting materials linked to the citations used. This would be done by reviewing citations and then researching what other articles or resources had used that same citation. The citations were also reviewed to spot trends in research for the institution, collecting materials that would aid in future research endeavors. The article itself was a review of the different methodologies that each institution would use for their citation analysis. It was found that many institutions did not have a set methodology, but instead, everyone at the institution would go about it a little differently. Some common things that librarians would look at when doing a citation analysis was:

1. Type of resource

2. Age of resource

3. Frequency of citation

4. Presence of resource in the library

I found this article very interesting. I had heard about doing a citation analysis, but I wasn’t quite clear on the purpose or method behind it. I learned a lot about both! Doing a citation analysis could be helpful for research institutions, depending on the goals of your library. I belong to a research institution, but our collections policy is to only collect for undergraduate curriculum so faculty research interests may or may not align with that curriculum. In addition, I am currently trying to collect for our Communications College and the faculty there do not have the same publishing requirements as the rest of the University, so it is harder to tell what their interests are. Still the methodologies in this article give good insight into doing this type of analysis for collection development.