How to measure the interdisciplinarity of library and information science courses? Based on empirical research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract

The article proposes interdisciplinary indicators suitable for measuring and evaluating the interdisciplinarity of Library and Information Science (LIS) curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the aim of addressing the problems that arise in interdisciplinary education through suggestions. The interdisciplinarity of the curriculum is simulated on the Coursera platform and the interdisciplinary indicators are adopted to measure the interdisciplinarity of the disciplines and the curriculum. The results of the interdisciplinary simulations show a wide range of disciplinary knowledge and a high degree of interdisciplinarity. The interdisciplinary process of the curriculum shows that certain courses have a significant impact on the number of discipline categories. The comprehensive evaluation results for the three measures are consistent, indicating that the impact of the interdisciplinary measures varies from course to course. This study aims to provide constructive ideas for interdisciplinary curriculum design and talent cultivation in the field of Library and Information Science. In addition, the measurement and evaluation method can provide a reference for other disciplines.

Keywords

Evaluation interdisciplinary courses LIS measurement

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brillouin

Charles

(1962) Gottschalk. Science and information theory. Physics Today 15(11). DOI: 10.1063/1.3057866

Chen

Yao

(2023) Research on the interdisciplinary talent training path and supporting mechanism of top American liberal arts college. Heilongjiang Higher Education Research 41(02): 99–104.

Chen

Liang

(2004) Disciplinary interflow of library and information science in Taiwan. Journal of Library and Information Studies 2(2): 31–55.

Chen

(2013) New Exploration and empirical research on domain intersection analysis indicators and methods. Journal of Intelligence 32(11): 1184–11995.

Grant

Jammine

Thomas

(1988) Diversity, diversification, and profitability among British manufacturing companies, 1972-84. Academy of Management Journal 31(4): 771–801.

Hamers

Hemeryck

Herweyers

, et al. (1989) Similarity measures in scientometric research: The Jaccard index versus Salton’s cosine formula. Information Processing & Management 25(3): 315–318.

Leydesdorff

(2007) Betweenness centrality as an indicator of the interdisciplinarity of scientific journals. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58(9): 1303–1319.

Leydesdorff

Rafols

(2011) Indicators of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Diversity, centrality, and citations. Journal of Informetrics 5(1): 87–100.

Zhi

(2011) Analysis of the degree of interdisciplinary intersection based on the E-I index - taking five disciplines such as information science as examples. Library and Information Work 55(16): 33–36.

10.

Fan

Rong

, et al. (2023) Analysis of the growth trend of interdisciplinary knowledge growth points from the perspective of kinetic energy theory: Taking the field of library and information science as an example. Information Theory and Practice 46(03): 9–15.

11.

Miao

(2020) Research on interdisciplinary education in Japanese library and information science. Library Research and Work 5(10): 77–84.

12.

Montgomery

Wernerfelt

(1988) Diversification, Ricardian rents, and Tobin’s q. Rand Journal of Economics 19: 623–632.

13.

Porter

Chubin

(1985) An indicator of cross-disciplinary research. Scientometrics 8(3/4): 161–176.

14.

Porter

Cohen

David Roessner

, et al. (2007) Measuring researcher interdisciplinarity. Scientometrics 72(1): 117–147.

15.

Porter

Rafols

(2009) Is science becoming more interdisciplinary? measuring and mapping six research fields over time. Scientometrics 81(3): 719–745.

16.

Rafols

Meyer

(2010) Diversity and network coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: Case studies in bionanoscience. Scientometrics 82(2): 263–287.

17.

Rinia

van Leeuwen

van Raan

AFJ

(2002) Impact measures of interdisciplinary research in physics. Scientometrics 53(2): 241–248.

18.

Shannon

(1948) A mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal 27(3): 379–423.

19.

Shu

Feng

Qiu

(2021) The evolution of doctoral research topics in library and information science in North America from an interdisciplinary perspective. Library and Information Knowledge 38(05): 95–106.

20.

Simpson

(1949) Measurement of diversity. Nature 163: 688–688.

21.

Stirling

(2007) A general framework for analysing diversity in science, technology and society. Journal of The Royal Society Interface 4(15): 707–719.

22.

UK Joint Research Council (2000) One of the selected reports in the Interdisciplinary Research Series, Interdisciplinary Research: Developments in Theory and Practice (in Chinese). Available at: http://www.nopss.gov.cn/GB/220182/227704/15318717.html (accessed 25 July 2023).

23.

Wang

Zhang

(2020) Comparative analysis of knowledge flow and interdisciplinary research in library and information science at home and abroad. Books and Information 193(03): 34–40.

24.

Xiong

(2022) Cross scientific measurement theory, progress and prospects. Library and Information Work 66(21): 132–144.

25.

You

Zhang

, et al. (2022) Research on interdisciplinary knowledge fusion in the library and information domain under data measurement. Journal of University Library and Information Science 40(04): 129–133.

26.

Zhang

Wei

ZLY

, et al. (2011) Interdisciplinary research based on complex social networks. Journal of Intelligence 30(10): 25–29.

27.

Zhang

Gao

Zhang

(2019) Measuring the diversity and cohesion of the Interdisciplinarity of Curriculum: The MOOC Case. Fudan Education Forum 17(05): 47–54.

28.

Zhang

Rousseau

Glänzel

(2016) Diversity of references as an indicator of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Taking similarity between subject fields into account. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 67(5): 1257–1265.

29.

Zhang

(2020) Overview of interdisciplinary research systems. Library and Information Work 64(14): 112–125.