A total of 343 research articles published in 41 core library journals in 1980 and a further 708 articles cited in a stratified random sample of 100 of the original (source) articles were examined in terms of subject, research methodology, and number of references. Findings were also compared with those of similar studies. It was found that: (1) library research literature is continuing to grow; (2) the most prominent research methodologies used in the source articles were surveys of libraries or the library public (41.5%), theoretical/analytical research (21.2%), and bibliometrics (10.9%); (3) the source articles were primarily distributed among six subjects, including administration (20.7%), library service (19.8%), materials (15.5%), automation (13.7%), technical processes (13.1%) and history (6.7%); (4) the average number of references per source article was 12.6; (5) over 80% of the research articles cited by the sample source articles were in the field of library/information science; (6) only 38.3% of the journal references made by the sample source articles were to journals outside the 41 core journals; and (7) over half (56.5%) of the cited articles were 5 years old or less. It was concluded that there is a developing body of library research literature that relies heavily on its own recent literature. (ESR)