The utility of bibliographic databases as indicators of international research: Factors influencing the development of an international database

摘要

The field of population studies, which was most active not only as an academic discipline but as a popular cause in the 1960s and 1970s, was an international and mission-oriented attempt to find resolutions to the problems arising from and inherent to a growing world population. The Library of the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was one of the focal points of activity domestically and internationally, until its focus was sharply redirected in 1974 to domestic activities. An analysis of the records in the Population Bibliography, the database developed by the Library, was conducted to determine the organizational and discipline-related variables that affected its international development, and to assess the degree to which the database represented international research in the field. While one picture of the database was drawn using statistics from the file and policies and staffing patterns as reported in the Library's archives, quite a different picture emerged when organizational variables—specifically, database editing and staff practices — were taken into account. The importance of going beyond examination of the database itself to understand the development of an international database and its relationship to the field it covers are stressed.