Research in librarianship should be able to contribute to establishing information science as an academic discipline. Librarians, however, may be fundamentally uncomfortable with or hostile to research. Two recently published reviews of some of the literature on citation analysis and subject catalog use reveal assumptions about academic research that conflict with the author's understanding of its practice.
A theoretical model based on one proposed for information science by Laurence B. Heilprin is used to explain the author's view of academic research. This model helps draw attention to similarities and differences in the intellectual processes of indexing and authoring and to differences in search and research possibilities afforded by indexes vs. original documents. The usefulness of citation indexing to the practicing researcher gains graphic representation. The roles of personal memory and research comfort demands on the part of a research author are emphasized.
In conclusion, comparisons are made to applications of similar iconic models by two other authors, one for documentation and information processing in general and the other more specifically for the academic library. Heilprin's work is hailed as helpful in developing a cognitive view of information science.