This article reports the findings of a study exploring the nature and extent of research on diversity in library and information science (LIS) doctoral dissertations from 2000 to 2009. By systematically examining the last decade of dissertations in the field, this study is meant to reveal the levels of interest in diversity research among doctoral…

The "use" of library resources and services is frequently presented in library and information science (LIS) literature as a primitive concept: an idea that need not be defined when it is being measured as an operational variable in empirical research. This project considered representations of library "use" through the…

The area of archival studies today transcends the professional field of archival science. It encompasses an ever-broadening array of disciplinary discussions and methodological approaches that are identifying, critiquing, and addressing the shifting social, cultural, philosophical, and political, as well as the technological, imperatives of record…

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research…

The need for postpositivist or antipositivist methods in the social sciences, including library and information science, is well documented. A promising alternative synthesizes critical realism and phenomenology. This method embraces ontological reality in all things, including human and social action. The ontology underlying the realist…

Criticisms of library and information science (LIS) research abound and most focus on method, in the broad sense. This article examines the discourse on LIS from the standpoint of rhetoric and argument. Rhetorical and argumentative strategies are used in almost all formal communication, and these strategies themselves communicate purpose and point…

Focuses on utilizing organizational theory in understanding the progress of constructing a new departmental identity in a former library and information science school that was merged with an education school. Findings indicate that members of the former library and information science school faced pressure both to become more like education and…

Reports the findings of a study of library and information science faculty and compares results to a previous study of social science and humanities scholars. Topics addressed include collegial research relationships, publishing, professional association activities, attitudes toward scholarly and professional literature, computer skills and uses…