Abstract

Nowadays, libraries perform variety roles. It causes libraries to be the subject of research across various academic disciplines. The purpose of this study is to find the associations among disciplines. Because each of the academic disciplines has its own perspectives and research methods. The subject of analysis is research that co-cites articles related to the library. The Apriori algorithm one of the association rule mining was applied in the research field to analyze the rules of association. As a result, 28 academic disciplines were made three clusters and two independent clusters. All the academic disciplines are linked by intermediate nodes. Academic disciplines classification ‘professional type’ citing a few fields, ‘general type’ citing a number of adjacent fields, and ‘expanded type’ citing the entire discipline at the center of the cluster, based on the frequency of intermediate nodes. Library and Information Science are categorized into expanded types. But professional types like Chineses Language and Culture or Atmospheric Science don’t have association rules with Library and Information Science. This suggests a demand for researchers who are collaborative in studying libraries like co-research is existing. And the researcher of Library and Information Science can expand academic disciplines, through collaboration with unrelated to professional type.