How Disciplinary Partnerships Shape Research Landscape in U.S. Library and Information Science Schools

2026-01-28

AI Summary

This study investigates how the organizational structures of Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in the United States shape the evolution of their research agendas. Drawing on a corpus of 14,705 publications by 1,264 faculty members across 44 institutions, and employing computational methods such as word embeddings and topic modeling, the research systematically identifies three major research dimensions for the first time. It reveals that the LIS field exhibits a diversified structure dominated by “Human-Centered Technology” (HCT), challenging the prevailing narrative of computational dominance. The findings indicate that 51.4% of LIS schools are shifting toward HCT; departments affiliated with computer science tend to concentrate on computationally intensive research, whereas standalone information schools demonstrate the highest research diversity. These insights offer empirical grounding for strategic planning and policy-making in the discipline.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: (Computational) Cognitive Architectures
• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Other Foundations of Data Mining & Knowledge Management

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Computational social science
• Semantics and Knowledge: Scalable techniques for the creation, curation, publication, maintenance, and consumption of large, Web-based, structured, reusable, knowledge graphs and ontologies
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Models for Web evolution

Abstract

This study provides the first comprehensive empirical mapping of how organizational structures and research portfolios co-occur across U.S. Library and Information Science (LIS) schools. Analyzing 14,705 publications from 1,264 faculty members across 44 institutions (2013--2024), we employ computational methods including word embeddings and topic modeling to identify 16 distinct research themes organized into three foundational dimensions: Library and Knowledge Organization (LKO), Human-Centered Technology (HCT), and Computing Systems (CS). Our mixed-method analysis reveals significant differences in research composition across organizational types: Computer-affiliated schools cluster tightly in computationally-intensive research and differ significantly from all other school types, while independent Information schools demonstrate the greatest research diversity. Temporal analysis of LIS schools reveals complex evolutionary dynamics: 51.4% are moving toward HCT, 37.8% toward CS, and 37.8% toward LKO, with many schools simultaneously shifting along multiple dimensions. Contrary to narratives of computational dominance, HCT emerged as LIS's primary growth vector. These patterns challenge assumptions about field fragmentation, revealing structured diversification shaped by but not determined by organizational positioning. The study provides empirical foundations for institutional strategic planning, accreditation policy, and understanding LIS's evolving disciplinary identity amid computational transformation.

Problem

• Library and Information Science
• disciplinary identity
• organizational structure
• research landscape
• computational transformation

Innovation

• word embeddings
• topic modeling
• research diversification
• disciplinary identity
• computational methods