Literature Retrieval for Interdisciplinary Syntheses

THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SUGGESTIONS for retrieval of bibliographic data: (1) by those interested in revealing interdisciplinarity, and (2) by those interested in being interdisciplinary. It is the latter who are most likely to produce interdisciplinary syntheses. Retrieval depends on bibliographic markers of various kinds, some of which divide disciplines. A major bibliographic indicator of interdisciplinarity is occurrence of the same marker on both sides of a disciplinary divide. Bibliographic markers, however, are not reliable for distinguishing lesser kinds of syntheses from high-level integrations ofsubstance. Dialog's RANK command is demonstrated as a means of revealing interdisciplinarity in any field, using various search terms as starting points in LC MARC-Books and the citation databases of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Next discussed are retrieval techniques for persons who are interested in synthesizing work from their own discipline (e.g., library and information science) with work from another discipline. Searchers can begin with authors or subjects from outside their own field and learn how these have been used within it, or they can begin with authors or subjects from within their own field and learn how these have been used outside it. Examples are given for all retrieval techniques. Interspersed are discussions of creativity, the connection of hitherto unconnected literatures, the retrieval and assessment of syntheses, and the nature of library browsing.