Helen Sheehy
Head of the Social Sciences Library at the Paterno Library, Pennsylvania State University
About
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She has been a government information librarian and active member of GODORT and IFLA for over 20 years. She has presented nationally and internationally and published extensively, particularly in the area of international government information.
Helen’s current research will involve a citation analysis of ten core journals from 1995-2010 in medicine and health sciences to understand the impact of internet access on usage patterns for government information in scholarly scientific publications. The Reynolds award stipend will be used to fund the coding and analysis of citation data. Helen’s study is part of a broader Pennsylvania State University Library study of changing patterns of government information use by scholars in different disciplines. This research is timely given the increased availability of online government information, and will offer a more nuanced view of scholarly communication and the role of government information. It also has potentially significant implications for government information collection and reference practice in academic libraries. Helen will share the results of her study through a journal article and GODORT Occasional Paper.