THE ROLE OF PUBLICATION TYPE IN THE EVALUATION OF LIS PROGRAMS

In evaluating library and information science programs, how important is it to differentiate publication types when counting faculty publica tions? Do books need to be counted along with journal articles? Drawin g on data from an internal university review, publications and citatio ns for a comparison cohort of senior faculty at four library and infor mation science (LIS) programs, (University of California-Los Angeles ( UCLA), Illinois-Champaign, Indiana-Bloomington, and Michigan-Ann Arbor ) are presented. These results shed light on issues regarding publicat ion types (and, to a lesser extent, use of citations) in studies of pr ogram quality in the field. It is suggested that faculty publication t ypes should be differentiated in program evaluations, that book produc tion by faculty is important to such evaluations, and that the role of humanities-oriented LIS faculty may be misread or lost without attent ion to book production. Finally, based on these considerations, a form ula is suggested for LIS program evaluation.