The state of L-Schools: Intellectual diversity and faculty composition

In recent years, studies of Library and Information Science (LIS) disciplinarity developed original methods for examining the disciplinary composition of the field (Wiggins and Sawyer, 2012; Wu et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2013). However, most of these studies focused on one fragment of the field, specifically, iSchool programs. In order to gain a fuller understanding of LIS development as a whole, our study applied some of the recently proposed disciplinary measures to a sample of L-Schools, defined here as ALA-accredited LIS programs offering PhD degrees and not part of the iCaucus. Analysis of the faculty training and current research interests indicates that L-Schools are characterized by a strong presence of the LIS areas and notable interdisciplinary trends. The article speculates about some of the factors contributing to the iSchool and L-School differences and suggests directions for future research.