Event: Digital Curation Institute Symposium November 22, 2011 4:30-6:30pm iSchool, University Of Toronto Abstract: This presentation reports select findings from two descriptive studies of blogs and bloggers in the areas of history, economics, law, biology, chemistry and physics. The first study focused on scholar bloggersʼ preferences for digital preservation, as well as their publishing behaviors and blog characteristics that influence preservation action. Findings are drawn from 153 questionnaires, 24 interviews, and content analysis of 93 blogs. Briefly, questionnaire respondents are generally interested in blog preservation with a strong sense of personal responsibility. Most feel their blogs should be preserved for both personal and public access and use into the indefinite, rather than short-term, future. Over half of questionnaire respondents report saving their blog content, in whole or in part, and many interviewees expressed a sophisticated understanding of issues of digital preservation. However, the findings also indicate that bloggers exhibit behaviors and preferences complicating preservation action, including issues related to rights and use, co-producer dependencies, and content integrity. The second study, currently on-going, looks toward the public availability of scholar blogs over-time, with findings drawn from a sample of 644 blogs. Content analysis is currently underway on inactive blogs, characterized as available, but with no new posts published within three months of coding. Initial analysis of the most recent post published to these inactive blogs shows that some bloggers did provide indicators of their respective blogʼs declining activity or, in some cases, blog stoppage. However, such indicators are only present in a clear minority of publicly available, yet inactive blogs. These preliminary findings offer implications for both personal and programmatic preservation approaches, including, notably, issues related to selection and appraisal.

1. BLOGADEMIA TODAY,
TOMORROW?
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS’ PRESERVATION
PERCEPTIONS, PREFERENCES & PRACTICES
CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CA
Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies
DIGITAL CURATION INSTITUTE SYMPOSIUM ▪ 22 NOV 2011 ▪ iSCHOOL ▪ TORONTO

2. BLOG
Questionnaires
Interviews
BLOGGER
Blog Analysis
03 | xx units & data sources
research questions

3. Purposive Sampling
Academic Blog
Portal
<http://www.academicblogs.org>
source

4. Purposive Sampling
Academic Blog
Portal
<http://www.academicblogs.org>
source?

5. History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys
06 | xx population
blogs

6. 1. PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
2. PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH
3. KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG
4. TIME-STAMPED POSTS
5. ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO
6. AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD
7. PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP)
8. AUTHORED BY 1 OR MORE “SCHOLARS”
06 | xx blog eligibility
population

7. 8a. [CO-BLOGS] POSTED W/IN 1 MONTH
8b. [CO-BLOGS] MEETS SCHOLAR CRITERIA
9. [ALL BLOG] BLOGGER CONTACT INFO
blogger eligibility

8. part 1

9. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How do scholars who
blog perceive their blog
in relation to their
cumulative scholarly
record?
scholarship?

10. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How do scholars who
blog perceive their blog
in relation to long-term
stewardship?
Who do they perceive
as responsible as well
as capable for blog
preservation?
stewardship?

11. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What blog characteristics
impact preservation?
What blogger behaviours
impact preservation?
preservable?

12. History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys
(29%)
125 Single-Blogs | 63 Co-Blogs
06 | xx eligible blogs (N=644)
population

13. 107 Single-Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers
eligible bloggers

14. RR 1: QI: 63% | QII: 46% | QI/II: 52%
Completed sample:
153 respondents
Outcome rates derived from Internet surveys of specifically named persons
from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR, 2009)
questionnaires (N=294)

15. 24 semi-structured
phone interviews
72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest
interviews

16. Coded 93 blogs
Authorship Attributes
Blog Elements & Features
57 to 63 Indicators Rights & Disclaimers
Authority & Audience
(on/off blog)
Blog Publishing Activity
Post Features
Archiving
blog analysis (SR: 49.5%)

17. results

18. 100% have
ESTABLISHED
published
at least 1
unit types.
PUBLICATION
49% 7+
unit types.
AND SERVICE
HISTORY
BLOGGER

19. peer-reviewed article
conference proceedings
essay.article.op-ed (other)
book chapter book review
monograph (author) comment (journal)
book review (other) monograph (editor) textbook
BLOGGER

20. SERVICE
91% have
performed
at least 1 of
Journal editor/ 38% these service
associate editor activities
Manuscript/book 70%
evaluator
Journal article 79%
referee
0% 100%
BLOGGER

21. BLOG INSTANCES
%
publish to 2 or more blogs
BLOGGER

22. BLOG HISTORY
%
first blog published to
BLOGGER

23. BLOG AGE
years
mean blog age
(57% between 5 to 8 years old)
BLOG

24. BLOGGING OVER TIME
About the same 35%
Somewhat less 25%
A lot less 17%
Somewhat more 14%
A lot more 8%
BLOGGER

25. MICROBLOGGING
%
do not tweet
BLOGGER

26. HOST LOCATION
Paid host
Blog network
Commercial Server
%
free blog publishing
and hosting service
BLOG

27. APPLICATION
%
use Blogger or WordPress
BLOG

28. IDENTITY
84 %
8% 13%
Real name | Both | Pseudonym
BLOG

29. POSTING
%
make all of their posts
publicly available
BLOGGER

30. POSTING
%
update their blog 1+
times per week
BLOGGER

31. POSTING
%
published a new post
within the previous week
BLOG

32. POSTING
posts
Average posts per month
(2,726 posts published August 1-31, 2010; outlier 324)
BLOG

33. POST ANALYSIS
Text 99% Links 82% (avg. 5)
544 total words Photos 16%
79 quoted words
465 original words Other image elements 16%
BLOG

34. PRIMARY AUDIENCE
Everyone else 8%
students, family, friends, others
General public 32%
Colleagues and
61%
professional peers
0% 100%
BLOGGER

35. ENGAGEMENT
%
employ a post
commenting feature
BLOGGER

36. ENGAGEMENT
%
respond to comments
BLOGGER

37. COMMENTS
%
of most recent posts
had zero comments
BLOG

38. COMMENTS
So looked at posts
from 1 year earlier
BLOG

39. COMMENTS 2009
45%
40%
35%
30%
POSTS
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0 1 2-3 4-5 6-10 11-19 ≥ 20
COMMENTS
BLOG

40. RIGHTS & USE
Copyright
Statement
(n=34)
Creative
Commons
(n=13)
%
no rights or use statements
at blog or post level
BLOG

41. DISCLAIMERS
Own
opinion
Not
responsible
Advice %
have an explicit or implicit
disclaimer-style statement
BLOG

42. COMMENT POLICY
Moderation
Tone &
language
Copyright &
licenses %
have an explicit or implicit
comment policy or guidelines
BLOG

43. EDITING
Spelling/
Grammar
Rephrasing
Incorrect Info
Published before %
ready
edit posts after publication
BLOGGER

44. … only 2 blogs included
a policy or statement
BLOG

45. DELETING
Duplicate
Post
“Post Regret”
Too sensitive or
revealing %
delete posts after publication
BLOGGER

46. SCHOLARSHIP
Public 100%
Allows use and
Scholarly exchange 94%
record
80%
Subject to
critical
review 68%
66% agree with
all three criteria
Association of Research
Libraries (1986).
Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W.,
BLOGGER & Helland, P. (2002).

47. INVITATIONS
%
… to present
BLOGGER

48. INVITATIONS
%
… to collaborate
BLOGGER

49. INVITATIONS
%
… to serve
BLOGGER

50. INVITATIONS
%
… to publish
BLOGGER

51. SCHOLARY LIFE
PROMOTION
GREATER VISIBILITY
WORK ENJOYMENT
TEACHING QUALITY
SHARING PRE-PUBS IMPROVED
WRITING EFFICIENCY NEITHER
WRITING QUALITY IMPAIRED
RESEARCH QUALITY
RESEARCH CREATIVITY
RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
BLOGGER

52. PRESERVATION
%
Agree preservation for public access & use
into the indefinite future (strongly or somewhat)
BLOGGER

53. PRESERVATION
Personal access/use 16%
Short-term future
Public access/use 19%
Short-term future
Personal access/use 76%
Indefinite future
Public access/use 80%
Indefinite future
0% 100%
BLOGGER

54. SAVING
%
Purposefully save entire blog via an
archiving service or independently)
BLOGGER

55. SAVING
Export tools
Personal
back-ups
Document/text files
Via syndication
services %
Purposefully save some
blog components
BLOGGER

56. ACCESS
Google 98%
Technorati 77%
Internet Archive 80%
Library of Congress 50%
BLOG

57. if?
What

59. SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

60. Pretty
bad.
Devastated,
both emotionally and
professionally.
Very
sad.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

61. I’d do something
drastic [in response].
Mad as hell.
Pretty
peeved. Angry
& upset.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

62. I don’t have to
do it anymore. I get half an
hour of my
life back.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

63. Probably
have a drink &
forget about it.
Not welcomed
but not tragic …
I’d get over it.
Pour another cup
of coffee & get
Drop out … back to work.
until something else
comes along.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

64. It would take an
extreme catastrophe.
How would
that happen?
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

65. PRESERVATION PRIORITY
Works-in-
progress
Scientific & Book
Scholarly Reviews
Research Books Books
Traditional
Books Peer-
Publications
Books Reviewed Dissertations
Law review Published Publications & Theses
articles Papers Peer- Self- Class
Published Reviewed Lab Publications Blogs
Papers Publications Notebooks Select
Journal Blog Posts Filter
Pedagogical Monographs
articles Research & Tools Books Blogs
Informal Blogs
Journal Teaching Journal Publications Filter
articles materials Teaching articles Blogs Blogs
Blogs Blogs
Journal materials Blogs Blogs
Blogs Email
articles Journal Blogs
articles Journal Journal Personnel Blogs
Blogs
articles articles Communications Blogs
HIGHER LOWER

66. BLOG DELETION
%
have deleted a blog
BLOGGER PERCEPTIONS

67. 100%
90%
80%
70% Blogger
Co-Author(s)
60%
Provider/Host/Network
50% Search Engine
Public Trust
40%
30%
20%
RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY
BLOGGER PERCEPTIONS preservation

68. 100%
90%
80% Blogger
Co-Author(s)
70%
Provider/Host/Network
60%
Search Engine
50% Public Trust
40% Nat'l Library
30% Nat'l Archive
20% Inst'l Library
Inst'l Archive
10%
Inst'l IT Dept
0%
RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY
BLOGGER PERCEPTIONS preservation

69. Better things to do
Personal responsibility
Personal communications
Bad experience
BLOGGER PERCEPTIONS

70. first line of
defense

71. first line of
defense

72. final line of
defense

73. Dynamic, changing
Co-producer dependencies
Understandability
Versioning
Rights and Use
Some Archiving Activity

74. part 2
… or, what’s next

75. 1. PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
2. PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH
3. KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG
4. TIME-STAMPED POSTS
5. ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO
6. AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD
7. PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP)
8. AUTHORED BY 1 OR MORE “SCHOLARS”
BLOG

76. SAME TIME,
NEXT YEAR?
BLOG

77. 1. PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
2. PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH
3. KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG
4. TIME-STAMPED POSTS
5. ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO
6. AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD
7. PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP)
8. AUTHORED BY 1 OR MORE “SCHOLARS”
BLOG

78. DEAR JOHN …
THE BLOG
BREAK-UP POST
BLOG

79. AS OF FRIDAY …
THE BIBLIOBLOGOSPHERE
A Comparison of Communication
and Preservation Perceptions and
Practices between Blogging
LIS Scholar-Practitioners and
LIS Scholar-Researchers
Awarded 2012 OCLC/ALISE LIS Research Grant
(Co-PI: Dr. Cassidy Sugimoto, Indiana-Bloomington)

80. OTHER WORK …
SIGNIFICANT PROPERTIES OF BLOGS
TWITTER & BLOGS & GARVEY &
GRIFFITH
PERSONAL BLOG ARCHIVING
INVENTORY
BLOGFOREVER (http://blogforever.eu/)

81. THANK YOU
CAROLYN HANK
Email: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
Phone: (001)514.398.4684
Web: http://ils.unc.edu/~hcarolyn
Slideshow:
QUESTIONS?