Mapping Knowledge Domains of Global Digital Library Research Output: A Scientometric Assessment

Abstract

Digital Libraries have emerged as an essential component of worldwide information infrastructure, adopting the latest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote an organizational structure that encourages communication and resource sharing between academicians and researchers across the countries. The study explored global digital library literature that has been carried out in the years 2007-2021 based on various scientometric indicators such as publication output, prolific author, collaboration network by author, productive institution, and country. The key term "digital library" was used in our search strategy from the Web of Science. The data was saved and imported into R Studio and VOS viewer for analysis and illustration of our data. We accessed 5855 records retrieved from the Web of Science. The United States had the most documents published, followed by China and England. The journals of Electronic Library were ranked first. The University of California System was the top organization with many scientific publications with 5549 citations. This research gives scholars and practitioners a thorough overview of the key research issues and trends in digital library research worldwide. Digital libraries worldwide have impacted the research society. It is an extension of a physical library into an electronic library. This study is very significant in the current scenario to know the global growth rate of scientific literature.

Keywords

• mapping knowledge
• digital library
• scientometric
• citation
• h-index
• g-index