Lis journals in the process of professional communication

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Lis journals in the process of professional communication

Анотація

Бібліотечно-інформаційні журнали в процесі професійної комунікації

Г. В. Шемаєва, доктор наук із соціальних комунікацій, професор,

Ю. О. Шевцова, аспірант

Висвітлюються результати аналізу бібліотечно-інформаційних журналів США, Великобританії, Німеччини, Франції, Італії, що індексуються в міжнародній базі даних SCOPUS. Підкреслюється роль журналу як засобу посилення професійної комунікації. Надається характеристика за тематичною спрямованістю журналів, що користуються підвищеним попитом серед українських бібліотечних фахівців. Узагальнюються актуальні проблеми і напрями бібліотечної галузі, що є предметом дискусій на сторінках електронних бібліотечних журналів різних країн.

Ключові слова: бібліотечно-інформаційні журнали, електронні журнали, бібліотекознавство, професійна комунікація, імпакт-фактор.

Аннотация

magazine library publication

А. В. Шемаева, доктор наук по социальным коммуникациям, профессор, Харьковская государственная академия культуры, г. Харьков

Ю. А. Шевцова, аспирант, Харьковская государственная академия культуры, г. Харьков

БИБЛИОТЕЧНО-ИНФОРМАЦИОННЫЕ ЖУРНАЛЫ В ПРОЦЕССЕ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ

Освещаются результаты анализа библиотечно-информационных журналов США, Великобритании, Германии, Франции, Италии, проиндексированных в международной базе данных SCOPUS. Подчеркивается роль журнала как средства усиления профессиональной коммуникации. Журналы, которые пользуются повышенным спросом в украинских библиотечных специалистов, характеризуются по тематической направленности. Обобщаются актуальные проблемы и направления библиотечной отрасли, которые составляют предмет дискуссий на страницах электронных библиотечных журналов разных стран. Ключевые слова: библиотечно-информационные журналы, электронные журналы, библиотековедение, профессиональные коммуникации, импакт- фактор.

H. V. Shemaieva, Doctor of Science in Social Communications, Professor, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, Kharkiv

Y. O. Shevtsova, postgraduate student, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, Kharkiv

Annotation

LIS JOURNALS IN THE PROCESS OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

This paper presents the results of the analysis of Library and Information Science (LIS) journals of the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy indexed in the international database SCOPUS. The role of journal as a means of enhancing professional communication is emphasized. Journals that are popular among Ukrainian library specialists are characterized according to their thematic focus. The current problems and area of focus of Library Industry which are the subject of scholarly discussions in electronic library journals around the world are summarized.

Key words: LIS journals, electronic journals, library and information science, professional communication, impact factor.

Periodicals remain the leading channel of information exchange in the present-day conditions of social communications system development. The popularity of the periodicals amongst professionals and scientists is determined by the fact of their covering the latest information on research, discoveries and inventions. In some cases, publication in a journal allows the author to create new informational messages and to generate new knowledge, in other cases, it makes it possible to understand and to decode existing ones.

The current situation in Ukraine is characterized by a limited access to foreign periodicals for library specialists and scientists. There are several reasons, among them: a significant decline in foreign periodicals subscription, the lack of lists of Library and Information Science printed and electronic journals in Ukrainian libraries, barriers for free and open access to full-text information in the electronic environment. That is why describing the foreign LIS journals as a means of enhancing professional communication of the Ukrainian library specialists is relevant.

The above outlined issue is the subject of attention of Ukrainian scientists. In particular O. Voskoboinikova-Huzeeva [1] describes modern means of professional information communications. The role and importance of Ukrainian Book Science periodicals in the system of professional communication is alalyzes by Y. Soshynska in her PhD dissertation [4]. Foreign scientists also actively study LIS journals. T. Eremenko, E. Nykonorova and E. Shybaeva [2; 3] focus on professional communication of library specialists through modern services and Internet resources. Judith M. Nixon, Rachel Hessey, Peter Willett [6-9; 13] present the research results on Bibliometry and ranking LIS journals. Sei-Ching Joanna Sin [10] analyses the longitudinal changes in geographical patterns of authorship, collaboration types, and factors affecting the citation impact of the seven top LIS journals over a period of 29 years. This paper also includes specific findings relating to Asian countries. However, they lack information on modern state of foreign LIS periodicals, their thematic focus as the instrument of influence on the communicative activity of Ukrainian librarians.

The aim of the paper is to describe the results of the analysis of LIS journals indexed in international scientometric databases, as the means of enhancing the processional communication.

Solving problems relating to library development, library services' quality to a high extent depend on the state/level of professional communications. Active professional communications contribute to applying innovation in Library and Information industry and information sharing of new ideas, new approaches and theoretical basics of library reformation and their practical implementation in response to dynamic changes in society.

Periodicals are an important source of obtaining new information and knowledge. That is why publications in LIS journals are the key to information sharing and professional improvement of library specialists. The research results and practical findings published in periodicals make it possible to transfer new knowledge to a wider circle of colleagues, who could use it or produce their own new knowledge. It is only the synthesis of professional information taken from different sources that can be the basis for new opinions forming on already known facts [11].

LIS journals contribute to setting the priority goals of modern libraries, major problems and the ways of solving them. They gather the materials according to the topics and issues that otherwise would be spread across different individual research studies. They also allow us to become familiar with particular research papers before their completion and encourage the development of library science and practice and serve as the professional forums.

Periodicals facilitate systematic monitoring and help accumulate reliable information. Their content reflects the main trends in the development of Library Science and the library as a socio-communicational and sociocultural institute [3]. They are considered as an important link of obtaining information on the theoretical research and its practical implementation [1]. The analysis of periodicals allows us not only to get an overview of publications, their content, form, depth of analysis, the publisher, but also to get information about the areas of focus of professional communication both internationally and in individual countries.

LIS journals in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy take a leading position in professional communication system, because these countries have strong old traditions in Library and Information Science and their library institutions are in a constant development.

During the research the journals indexed in the international database SCOPUS were analyzed. There were 84 journals published in Great Britain, 8 journals published in Germany and 4 journals published in France indexed in 2013 in the SCOPUS database. The statistics of two more years is shown in table 1.

The number of LIS journals indexed in SCOPUS database

Nowadays the importance of the citation indexes of the publications is increasing and it is affecting the journals' ranking [5]. Certainly these figures do not always reflect the objective role of the journal in professional communication of library scholars and practitioners. Studying the impact factor of the foreign LIS journals popular among Ukrainian library specialists gave the opportunity to find out that not all the journals have the impact-factor (have zero impact factor) even though they are also popular by the foreign library specialists. IFLA Journal is an example. This journal publishes the news of the current IFLA activities and the world experience in Library Science. The content ranges from the issues that deal with the freedom of access to information, the preservation of cultural heritage, the development of library and information services, providing services to the visually impaired and intellectual property. But the Research Gate site (the social networking site the main goal of which is providing help in establishing collaboration networks between the scientists and making available the records of the current and 5 years period impact factor of the journals) shows that impact factor of IFLA Journal is 0,00.

The other journal with the zero impact factor published in Great Britain deserve attention of Ukrainian library specialists. This journal is Performance Measurement and Metrics. Its remit focused specifically on measuring quality of library and information services. The journal publishes conceptual papers, empirical research, literature reviews, practical case studies and book reviews. These are the following journal sections: Quantitative and qualitative analysis, Benchmarking, Organizational effectiveness, Training and education, Performance measurement and metrics methodologies, Assessment tools, Emerging technologies, Standards.

Journals published in Germany (Information-Wissenschaft und Praxis, International Journal on Digital Libraries, Knowledge Organization, Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, Libri, Microform and Digitization Review, Microform and Imaging Review) and indexed in the SCOPUS database (2013) have also zero impact factor except Zeitschrift Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie. Of great importance for the system of international professional communication is International Journal on Digital Libraries (Germany). Specialists from Europe, America and Africa publish their works in this journal. In 2000 20,59% of articles were published the authors of which were from foreign countries, in 2005 the number of articles is 31, 82%, in 2010 - 35,29% and in 2013 - 14,29% [9].

On the whole, LIS journals compared to other fields have a low impact factor (the range is from 0,00 to 2.0). The highest impact factor among the analyzed LIS journals have the journals of information and documentation disciplines. The current impact factor of Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) is 1,727, Library & Information Science Research is 1,386. Among the journals published in Europe and indexed in the SCOPUS database Journal of Documentation (UK) has the highest impact factor (see in the table 2) as a result of deep historical traditions, focusing on theory, concepts, models, structure and philosophy of information. The impact factor of journals published in the USA and Great Britain is near 1. First of all, they are journals of Library Associations:

- Journal of the Medical Library Association (US) -- 0,99;