PUBLISHING PATTERNS IN THE EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, A NON-TRADITIONAL GEOSCIENCE PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

The analysis of the publication patterns of the UCI Earth System Science faculty researchers will compare publications and research between UCI and more traditional geology departments. Additionally, this analysis will provide insights into the research habits and publication patterns of the Earth System Science (ESS) faculty. The information presented will exemplify specialized collection development experiences in a university library setting as well as highlight current changes in information usage in the geosciences. These changes not only have an impact on library users, but also those responsible for collection development in support of research. The ESS instruction and departmental research emphasis changes are a dynamic reflection of interests in current issues and global environmental concerns--not static reflections of standard physical science programs.

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) was founded in 1965. In 1989-90, the School of Physical Sciences examined the possibility of establishing a geosciences program where, up until this time, there had been no geology program included in the UCI campus science curriculum. The Earth System Science Department has its roots in the atmospheric chemistry research of F. Sherwood Rowland's laboratory group in the Department of Chemistry. The focus of the proposed geosciences program was nontraditional and did not emphasize the usual "rock" geology. In 1990 Ralph Cicerone, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry and former director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Atmospheric Chemistry Division, joined the UCI faculty. With Dr. Cicerone came a change in the focus for the departmental curriculum; it took on the "global change agenda," and the founding faculty members were hired in the atmospheric sciences, geochemistry and oceanography.