Service-learning and interdisciplinarity: a library science perspective

Much of service-learning research is interdisciplinary, however the degree and implications of this interdisciplinarity have not been adequately analyzed. This chapter uses the library and information science research method of citation analysis, a form of bibliometrics, to assess the degree of interdisciplinary of the service-learning literature as represented in articles in the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning , in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series, and in masters these and dissertations on service-learning and related topics published between 2004-2006. The results show a wide range of disciplinarity both in the departmental affiliation of service-learning scholars and in the research from which they draw.