Humanities and Social Sciences Dissertation Bibliographies and Collections: The View from a STEM University

This study utilized dissertation bibliographies produced at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, a STEM-oriented university, to ascertain how well Purdue’s Humanities, Social Science, and Education (HSSE) Library supports doctoral research. To examine a critical mass of data, the authors gathered all the bibliographies of dissertations written in 11 disciplines within the College of Liberal Arts in 2011 and 2015. Data for each citation included year of publication, language, format type, and local availability in print or digitally. Revealing disciplinary trends in using sources, this study provided critical information for reconceptualizing the HSSE Library’s orientation to learning and research and for engaging with faculty to understand where to strengthen the library’s collections