EXPLORING RESEARCH PATTERNS AND AREA OF FOCUS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE: A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY OF SELECTED NIGERIAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES.

Abstract

on areas of research by scholars in library and information science. It sought to establish the most prevalent topics and the catalyst that make researcher to concentrate their effort to advance knowledge in the area. Also, the citation pattern was evaluated to establish consistency which impacts on study quality and citation by the scholarly community. The study adopted the total enumeration method an acceptable research design in bibliometric analysis, to evaluate documents for the study in each selected university from 2013 – 2022. The use of a rationally organized checklist helped to determine the crucial information from the texts and use for further analysis. The tools were designed to thoroughly extract data based on the objective of the study. The primary data source for the research was the institutional repositories from the selected universities. The findings reveal diverse and evolving research subject areas including integration of ICT and augmented reality into library services, intellectual communication and service optimization within university libraries, with a particular emphasis on bibliometrics and citation analysis to gauge research impact systematically. Also, adoption of ICT in library operations with emphasize on e-resources and digital archives to broaden access and support research capabilities. The distinct research focuses reflect each institution's strategic priorities in advancing knowledge management, ethical information practices, and technological integration within the field of LIS.