Examining the Education Dissertations at Andrews University

Citations from the bibliographies of Andrews University education doctoral dissertations completed in 2013-2017 were analyzed to understand the needs of graduate education students for collection management purposes. The study looked at type, citation age, and availability of the sources cited. The citations from the 31 dissertations were mainly periodicals (47%) and books (37%), with smaller percentages of dissertations, Web sites, and other forms of resources. A majority of the sources had a citation age of less than 20 years. The findings showed a weakness in the book collection, as only 44.54% of book citations were held by the library. In contrast, between 82-92% of the dissertations and periodicals were held by the library. The study generated a long list of periodical titles with a wide dispersion. Of the 24 periodicals that were cited ten or more times, 16 were found in at least one of the seven periodicals ranking lists in similar studies. Information from this study will help the library respond to the needs of the graduate education students.