Tribes and Territories in LIS

A conceptual and relational analysis of descriptors, keywords, and abstracts of recent American dissertations in Library and Information Studies reveals cultural and disciplinary patterns in LIS research, which were examined to see whether recent assertions by library practitioners and employers in the U.S. and Canada that the curricula and research in universities that confer the first professional degree for librarians are disconnected from the needs of practice. Rooted in the conceptual anthropological framework developed by Tony Becher and Paul Trowler (2001) in Academic Tribes and Territories, this study examines the increasingly diverse culture of LIS, looking at disciplinary and faculty factors in an effort to delineate the field's current parameters as a field of practice and an academic discipline. The sample was limited to a random selection of dissertations completed between 2000 and 2006 at North American institutions that both offer doctoral programs in library and information studies and confer the ALA-accredited Master's degree.