Feasibility analysis of library collections in supporting graduate students doing research: a case study on the Management CollegeBranch Library of Tunghai University

• Main Authors: Sheng-Hsiung Chen, 陳勝雄
• Other Authors: Huei-Chu Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82774509541966730547

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 圖書資訊學研究所 === 100 === This study aims to measure the support rate of library collections at Tunghai University’s Management College Branch Library to the citation literature of its graduate students’ dissertations and theses. After a detail discussion of different kinds of collection evaluation techniques, the author decided to use citation analysis to evaluate the collections of the Management College Branch Library of Tunghai University. This study acquired dissertation and thesis bibliography samples from the Management College of Tunghai University for the preceding three years (August 1, 2008 to July 31, 2011), analyzing a total of 234 samples, and using citation analysis to analyze the bibliographies which were attached to their papers. The bibliographical references were divided into four different collection types: books, journals, e-books and e-journals, and then were list-checked in the library catalogue of Tunghai University to discover the library collection support rate of the citation literature. The study was guided by the research purpose and research questions. It was organized through citation analysis procedures, such as the quantification of data and statistical analysis using the SPSS software package, after which the findings were summarized. The results are summarized as follows: (1) This study selected 234 dissertation and thesis bibliography samples for research and analyzed 12,031 bibliographical references in total. Every dissertation or thesis cited 51.4 bibliographical references on average. Most of the bibliographical references, which number 4,896, came from the bibliography of Department of Business Administration. The lesser part, amounting to 960, came from the bibliography of the Department of Statistics. This study exclusively analyzed data from cited bibliographical references in books, journals, e-books, and e-journals, which brought the total number of analyzed citations to 6,251. The majority of them are from Department of Accountancy, totalling 1,856; the lesser part came from the Department of Statistics, which had only 400 bibliographical references. (2) The graduate students of the Management College of Tunghai University cited approximately 40.4% of the collections published during 2000-2010, while in the years preceding 1970 they cited only 4.0%. They cited 78.8% of the Chinese language collections published between 2000-2010, and cited only 0.3% of the collections published before 1970. They also cited 36.3% of English language collections published between 1990-1999, and cited only 0.3% of the English language collections published before 1970. (3) Most of the references cited by the graduate students of the Management College of Tunghai University were published in English language. (4) The highest collection support rate among the four types of library collections of the Tunghai University Management College Branch Library in the dissertation and thesis citation literature is for e-journals, reaching up to 43%; the next is journals, 18.2%；and then books, 8.6%; the lowest collection support rate is for e-books, which stands at only 0.4%. (5) When divided by different graduate schools , the highest collection support rate of books is EMBA, reaching up to 18.1%; the highest collection support rate of journals is Department of Accountancy, 27.1%; the highest collection support rate of e-books is Department of Statistics, 1.3%; the highest collection support rate of e-journals is Department of Finance, reaching up to 82.7%。 (6) The Department of Finance has the highest collection support rate among the graduate schools of Management College of Tunghai University, reaching up to 93.3%; followed by the Department of Accountancy(77.3%); the Department of International Business(68.2%); the Department of Business Administration(61.9%)；the EMBA department (53.9%)；while the Department of Statistics has the lowest collection support rate, at only 55.0%. (7) The collection support rate of the Chinese language collections in the graduate schools of the Management College of Tunghai University is approaching 61.6%; the collection support rate for the period 2000-2010 is 49.6%; and for the years before 1970 is the lowest, at only 0.1%. The collection support rate of English language collections in the graduate schools of the Management College of Tunghai University is nearly 72.0%; the collection support rate for the period 1990-1999 is 26.5%; and for the years before 1970 is the lowest, only at 2.7%. (8) In the graduate schools of the Management College of Tunghai University, the Department of Finance has the highest collection support rate among the most highly cited books and periodicals, notably 76%, while EMBA has the lowest, only at 16%. (9) The Management College of Tunghai University is supposed to maintain 12 Chinese core journal collections and 34 English core journal collections. (10)The Department of Accountancy possesses ten Chinese core journal collections while the Department of Statistics has none. Not enough samples of the Chinese language citation literatures of the Department of Statistics were collected to be grouped into three sections according to Bradford’s Law. The Department of Accountancy owns 32 English core journal collections while the Department of Finance only owns 3 English core journal collections. Based on the results of this research, this study offers some advices : (1) Evaluate library collections on a regular basis. (2) Implement library collection expenses distribution rate. (3)Establish core collections of various graduate schools. (4)Think highly of the relation on support and need between core collections and academic research.