A local study of journal use

Abstract

This paper reports an investigation carried out some fifteen years ago and unpublished at the time. It presents a comparison between a local study of journal use, based on items selected for inclusion in Social Work Information Bulletin (SWIB) and the indicators of importance derived from citation studies of the scholarly literature. Sadly, SWIB has been one of the victims of the cuts in local government expenditure that have been implemented over the past fifteen years. However, it is worth noting that SWIB was the last of a number of such services to cease publica tion and that it owed its comparative longevity in part to the evaluation reported and to a further evaluation of user reac tion to the service. The paper is offered at this late date for two reasons: first, because there has been some discussion of the issue in recent years, and, secondly, because the Editor of Journal of Information Science commented to the author on the extent to which research exists which does not get reported in the literature for a variety of reasons and which may yet have validity. It is believed that this paper may fit that description.