Emerging Trends in LIS Research with Reference to Preservation and Conservation

1. INTRODUCTION

Research is a means of continuously developing a discipline. It endows a discipline with the ability to utilize the knowledge generated in other disciplines. Research comprises "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications." It is used to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the results of previous work, solve new or existing problems, support theorems, or develop new theories (Research, 2019). A research project may also be an expansion on past work in the field. To test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects, or the project as a whole. The research in Library and Information Science (LIS) in the past was considered primarily to provide a theoretical foundation to professional practice. Later on when LIS strengthened as an independent discipline research for the purpose of education also emerged. The main areas of LIS research are Information needs and seeking behaviour (User studies), Bibliometric/Citation analysis/Scientometric studies, ICT and Library automation, Status surveys, Information sources and services (Use), Library professionals/staff, Collection development, LIS Education, Resources sharing, Financial management, Information literacy, Library legislation, Marketing of LIS services and products, Cataloguing, Classification and Preservation and Conservation. Therefore research in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) is increasing everyday resulting in voluminous publications which are multidisciplinary in nature.

1. To trace the trends of research in preservation and conservation in 2018. 2. To identify the number of articles on preservation and conservation in respect to the total number of research in field of Library and Information Science (LIS) based on keyword search in LISA database. 4. To determine the contents of research based on keyword analysis. 5. To study the collaborative pattern of authorship. 6. To analyze the country wise distribution of articles. 7. To determine the diversity and trends of research in the area of preservation and conservation.

The scope of the study is limited to a number of articles and period of study. The study covers research articles published in journals in the year of 2018. Information for study and analysis has been extracted from LISA, J-Gate, SCOPUS, Springer Link, Taylor and Francis, and Web of Science databases respectively. A total of 47 articles are considered for study which is on preservation and conservation research. The articles which are already considered from a database are excluded from the study when the same appeared in another database to avoid repetition.

We performed a broad search to collect published LIS research studies on preservation and conservation in 2018.We collected our data from the ‗SCOPUS‘,‘J-Gate‘, ‘Springer Link‘, ‘Taylor & Francis Online‘, ‘Web of Science‘ and ―LISA‘ and applied review of article method to conduct our study. We utilized Boolean combinations of Preservation and Conservation as keywords or related terms to retrieve relevant articles published in 2018. Our total attempt after using different combination for several times gave the result as 47 articles. Each articles of journal was examined carefully and required data was collected related to the objective of study. MS-Excel and worksheet was used as an instrument for recording of data. The collected data were recorded on a Microsoft excel work-sheet with pre-designed columns i.e. number of articles, authorship pattern, country wise distribution and author provided keyword analysis.

5. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

The results of this study are presented as per the objectives indicated. The findings are discussed as well as represented in tabular and graphical formats as per requirements. The findings of this study revealed that a total of 899 publications(100%) are listed in LISA database under the heading of ―Library and Information Science‖, 258 publications(28.69%) are listed under the heading of ―Preservation of Library materials‖ and 138 publications(15.35%) are listed under the heading of ―Library and Information Science‖ AND Preservation in the year of 2018. The 138 publications included research on preservation of manuscripts, rare books and library resources as well as preservation of museum art and artifacts. We have taken into account the 47 articles which are solely focused on preservation and conservation of library resources from LISA as well as other databases. This shows that preservation and conservation of library resources as an area of research is quite a lesser discussed topic among LIS researchers. 5.2 Analysis of the publishing sources The question on where LIS researchers publish their research was addressed through an analysis of the sources in which the researchers publish their articles. A list of journals along with number of articles published in it and their percentages is prepared on the basis of findings which are represented in the table 1. It is that a total of 28 journals featured articles on preservation and conservation research in 2018.

In order to determine the subject areas in preservation and conservation research an analysis of keywords was conducted. Table 2 provides the keywords that featured prominently in the literature which is arranged in order of decreasing frequency and the percentage of frequency is calculated on a total of 75. The

preparedness reflect the range of research within the field of preservation and conservation.

Table 3 and fig. 1 describes the collaborative authorship pattern of articles published in 2018 on preservation and conservation. Out of 47 (100%) articles, the majority of the articles were written by single author 18 (38.30%), 16 (34%) by more than two authors and 13 (27.70%) authored by double author. So, in case of preservation research, researcher preferred either single authorship or more than two contributors.

An analysis of the number of publications according to the country of the author‘s affiliation produced the productive country was Nigeria, which produced a total of 12 publications accounting for 25.53% of the total number of publications published by the country on preservation and conservation. The second most productive country was United States, which yielded a total of 8 publications on preservation and conservation, which contributed 17.02% of the total published articles. Out of total 47 articles, 6 (12.77%) publications are produced by Indonesia. While United Kingdom contributed 4 (8.51%) articles and India produced 3 articles which is 6.38% of the total publications. Each of the following country published one article which is 2.13% of the total publications. They are respectively Malaysia, Spain, Ethiopia, Egypt, China, Finland, Romania, France, New Zealand, Australia, Quatar, Portugal, Thailand and Pakistan.

In this context diversity is viewed in the light of methods of research and focus of research represented in fig. 3 and 4 respectively. Fig.3 illustrates the methods of research on preservation and conservation. Majority of research on preservation is theoretical in nature. Out of 47, 40 articles were theoretical in nature which is almost 85% of the total research. Rest of the 7 articles (15% approx.) was experimental which were also interdisciplinary in nature. The focus of research on preservation and conservation is illustrated in fig. 4. It was seen that the focus was more on digital aspects of preservation than on traditional preservation. Out of 47, 30 (64% approx.) articles are on digital preservation and remaining 17 articles (36% approx.) are on traditional preservation.

The present study is on emerging trends in LIS research with reference to preservation and conservation in the year of 2018.The results indicate that whereas LIS research is progressing, the sub discipline of Preservation and Conservation research is less researched. Possible reasons for this pattern can be that there are very few researchers whose research focus areas include preservation and conservation. The interdisciplinary nature of Preservation and Conservation research is reflected in the fact that research on this area is also conducted in the field of Chemistry. Furthermore it can be seen that research on digital preservation and digitization is trending upon conventional preservation research.

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S/O Sh. Suresh Wadhwa, B.Tech, M.B.A, B.LISc, M.Lib