Relevance of Library Collections for Graduate Student Research: A Citation Analysis Study of Doctoral Dissertations at Notre Dame

Abstract

This study focused on determining the extent to which collections of the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame met the needs of graduate students. This study data (2005–2007) consisted of a citation analysis of 248 dissertations and focused on the following questions: What were the graduate students citing in their dissertations? Did the library own the cited items? How did the disciplines compare in their citation patterns? The data showed that over 90 percent of the 39,106 citations were to books and journals. The libraries owned 67 percent of the items graduate students cited in their dissertations. The libraries owned 83 percent of the Arts & Humanities, 90 percent of the Engineering, 92 percent of the Science, and 75 percent of the Social Sciences sources in the top 1,000 most cited titles, indicating a need for funding for further development of Social Sciences collections in the Hesburgh Libraries.