The literature of national libraries

Abstract

This article reports a study of the literature of national libraries, as evidenced by the content of three bibliographic databases – Library and Information Science Abstracts, Library and Information Science and Technology Abstracts and Web of Science – for 2014–2015. The results, which are neither comprehensive nor systematic, give an indication of the size of the literature, the sources, languages of publication, authorship pattern and content. The aim is to gain an overview of what is happening, currently, within publications from, and about, national libraries. The study suggests that the national library literature comprises about 100 items annually; the smallest body of literature for any of the main sectors of librarianship. This literature shows a Bradford scatter, with 94 journals and a few book and proceedings sources identified in this study. The main language of publication is English, although a variety of European languages are represented. National libraries worldwide are covered, with a focus on reports from Europe, North America and Australasia. Content is concentrated on general descriptions of libraries and their services, on collections and documents and on technology issues. Digital curation is a major part of 20% of the set. Issues of dataset curation per se have no almost presence in this set of national library literature.