Determining the Scope of Collection Development and Research Assistance for Cross-Disciplinary Areas: A Case Study of Two Contrasting Areas, Nanotechnology and Transportation Engineering

The study examined the extent of cross-disciplinarity in nanotechnology and transportation engineering research. Researchers in these two fields were determined from the web sites of the U.S. News and World Report top 100 schools in civil engineering and materials science. Web of Science searches for 2006 and 2007 articles were obtained and the journals in which the articles appeared were classified using Library of Congress call numbers. Nanotechnology was found to be more cross-disciplinary than transportation engineering. Implications for collection development and research assistance were given. (Contains 2 figures.)