The Landscapes of Sustainability in the Library and Information Science: Collaboration Insights

Abstract

Despite the fact that the concept of sustainable development was born as early as the late 1980s, in the field of library and information science there has been a significant growth in interest only in recent years. This observation inspired the authors to explore this particular area with regards to productivity both in quantitative and qualitative terms. One of the important factors influencing scientific productivity is broadly understood research collaboration. Interestingly, in the scholarly literature dealing with the topics of scientific productivity, the researchers are most often representatives of the LIS field who study, also applying bibliometric methods, various scientific disciplines. However, so far there have been no studies on scientific collaboration concentrated around the discipline of sustainable library and information science (LIS) itself. Therefore, in this paper, the authors present the results of research into the phenomenon of co-authorship in this specific area. The results indicate not only the most important collaborating entities contributing to the research field and trends in research cooperation, but also verify certain general hypotheses put forward in the areas of the fundamental sustainable development of the discipline of sustainable LIS.