Presentation given on October 11, 2012 at the Social Media Lab at Dalhousie University. Abstract: This presentation provides an overview of the decisions, strategies and protocols informing the research design for four studies recently completed or underway. Funded in part through a Eugene Garfield Dissertation Fellowship awarded by Beta Phi Mu, the first is a descriptive study of blogging scholars, and their blogs, in the areas of history, economics, law, biology, chemistry and physics. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and blog analysis. Sampling for this study resulted in the identification of many blogs found to be publicly available but no longer actively published to. This led to the second study, “Dispatches from Blog Purgatory.” It entails content analysis of the final posts published to scholars’ publicly available, but inactive blogs. The third study utilizes questionnaires, interviews, and blog and CV analysis to examine and contrast two subsets of bibliobloggers: blogging academic librarians and blogging information and library science faculty and researchers. The final study adopts a multiple-case approach to examine library and information science faculty and students’ practices, perceptions and expectations when interacting informally through Facebook. Data is collected through focus group and individual interviews, questionnaires, and policy analysis.

1. INVESTIGATING BLOGS &
FACEBOOK IN ACADEME
RESEARCH APPROACHES & CONSIDERATIONS
CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CA
Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY ▪ 11 OCTOBER 2012 ▪ HALIFAX, NS

2. part
one

3. TEACHING
IN THE AGE OF FACEBOOK
AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA:
LIS FACULTY AND STUDENTS’ FRIENDING
AND POKING IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE
facebook

4. WHO
WHY
HOW
2012 ALISE Research
Grant Competition

5. Carolyn Hank
PI (McGill)
Cassidy Sugimoto
Co-PI (IUB)
Jeff Pomerantz
Co-PI (UNC)

6. Carolyn Hank
PI (McGill)
Cassidy Sugimoto
Co-PI (IUB)
Jeff Pomerantz
Co-PI (UNC)

7. Carolyn Hank
PI (McGill)
Cassidy Sugimoto
Co-PI (IUB)
Fred
Jeff Pomerantz Stutzman,
Co-PI (UNC) Advisor
(UNC)

8. SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
59%
OF ADULT INTERNET
USERS USE 1+ SNSs
BASED ON 79% OF AMERICANS WHO
REPORT USING THE INTERNET (N=2,255)
Data Source: Hampton et al. (2011)
Image Source: Donovan (2010)

9. SNS USERS ON FACEBOOK
92 %
Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

10. FACULTY USE OF FACEBOOK
57 %
VISITED FACEBOOK IN
THE PAST MONTH (N=1,920)
Source: Moran et al. (2011)

11. FACULTY USE OF FACEBOOK
43 %
POSTED TO FACEBOOK IN
THE SAME PERIOD (N=1,920)
Source: Moran et al. (2011)

12. FRIENDS
HIGH SCHOOL
EXTENDED FAMILY
CO-WORKERS
COLLEGE FRIENDS
IMMEDIATE FAMILY
PEOPLE FROM VOLUNTEER GROUPS
NEIGHBORS
229 FACEBOOK FRIENDS REPORTED, FOR AVERAGE FACEBOOK USER IN SAMPLE
Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

13. FACULTY &
STUDENT …
“FRIENDS”
229 FACEBOOK FRIENDSknown about howFACEBOOK USER IN SAMPLE
Little is REPORTED, FOR AVERAGE students and
faculty interact informally on Facebook

14. DUAL RELATIONSHIPS
TEACHER
MENTOR
SUPERVISOR “… a professional tries
to simultaneously fill
EMPLOYER two or more different
COLLABORATOR roles.” Rupert & Holmes, 1997, p. 661
COLLEAGUE
FRIEND

15. CONTEXT COLLAPSE
TEACHER
MENTOR
SUPERVISOR
BLURRED BOUNDARIES
EMPLOYER BETWEEN OUR
COLLABORATOR PERSONAL AND
COLLEAGUE PROFESSIONAL LIVES …
FRIEND AMONG A VARIETY OF
RELATIVE CHANNELS
PARTNER
ETC.

16. GUIDANCE ON DUAL RELATIONSHIPS
HONOR
CODES/
CODES OF
CONDUCT
SNS
POLICIES
Metzger et al. (2010)

17. Describe LIS faculty and
students’ informal
interactions via
Facebook
research objectives

18. Inform social network
and communication
policy decision-making
at LIS programs
research objectives

19. Inform future
approaches for other
academic units,
regardless of discipline,
to investigate
connections between
pedagogy and social
network sites, including
Facebook
research objectives

20. HOW?
Develop and pilot test an
approach to studying …

21. … LIS faculty, students’ and
administrators’ perceptions,
experiences, practices, and
decision-making for
managing communications
with one another, if at all, via
Facebook;

22. … their expectations for
such communications,
including issues related to
disclosure and privacy;

23. … and the impact of
classroom and institutional
policies, if any, on such
interactions.

24. RESEARCH DESIGN
MCGILL
IUB SETTINGS
UNC

25. RESEARCH DESIGN
FOCUS 1:1 POLICY WEB-BASED
FOCUS
GROUPS INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEWS ANALYSIS SURVEYS
GROUPS
FACULTY ASSOC. DEANS/ SYLLABI Q1: FACULTY
STUDENTS DIRECTOR SOCIAL MEDIA Q2: STUDENTS
-UG INST’L POLICIES
-MLIS -SCHOOL
-PhD -FACULTY
-UNIVERISTY
SPRING-SUMMER 2012 SUMMER-FALL 2012 FALL-WINTER 2012
EXPLORATORY TOOLS DESCRIPTIVE

26. SOURCES … so far
Hampton et al. (2011). Social networking sites and our lives. Washington,
DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://pewinternet.org/
Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks.aspx
Moran, M., Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2011). Teaching, learning, and
sharing: How today’s higher education faculty use social media.
Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions. Retrieved from
http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/educators
/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf
Rupert, P.A., & Holmes, D.L. (1997). Dual relationships in higher
education: Professional and institutional guidelines. Journal of Higher
Education, 68(6), 660-678.
[Image Source] Donovan, K. (2010, January 29). Social media heart
collage. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/
kdonovan_gaddy/4314365065/

27. part
two
four studies from 2006 through today

28. BLOGS &
PRESERVATION
General Bloggers
- CHOEMPRAYONG & SHEBLE (2006-2008)
- BLOGFOREVER: EU-FUNDED PROJECT (http://blogforever.eu)
Scholar Bloggers
- HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS
-HISTORY, ECONOMICS, LAW, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS
- BIBLIOBLOGGERS

29. 2006-2008
1 GENERAL BLOGGERS
QUESTIONNAIRES
n=223
SNOWBALL SAMPLING
Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey of blogging behaviors.
In Proceedings of the Third International Digital Curation Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.

30. 2006-2008
1 GENERAL BLOGGERS
Findings Future
Blog:Blogger not 1:1 Method
Content dynamic Responsibility
Bloggers interested in DP Access scenarios
Save some but not all Use scenarios
Personal responsibility Intellectual Property
Capability, though? Versioning
Access, use and extent? Process in time
conclusions

31. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
BLOG
n=93
QUESTIONNAIRES
INTERVIEWS
BLOGGER
n=153 BLOG ANALYSIS
HISTORY, ECONOMICS, LAW, BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & PHYSICS
Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and perceptions impacting digital
preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).

32. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
How do scholars who
blog perceive their blog
in relation to their
cumulative scholarly
record?
research questions

33. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
How do they perceive
their blog in relation to
long-term stewardship?
Who do they perceive
as responsible as well
as capable for blog
preservation?
research questions

34. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
What blog characteristics
impact preservation?
What blogger behaviours
impact preservation?
research questions

35. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Multiple instances
Multiple authors
? Scholar blogger(?)
Scholarly blog(?)
Currency
Timing
design considerations

36. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Questionnaires
BLOGS
Interviews
BLOGGERS Blog Analysis
data sources/units of analysis

37. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
NEEDLE IN A
HAYSTACK
population
sampling issues

38. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
CHAMELEON IN
A HAYSTACK
population
sampling issues

39. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Purposive Sampling
Academic Blog Portal
644
<http://www.academicblogs.org>
blogs
History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys
sample source

40. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
HOMOGENEITY
SAMPLE
Blogs & bloggers
CODING Nine criteria
SYSTEM
sampling

41. BLOG ELIGIBILITY
CONTINUED
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH
KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG
TIME-STAMPED POSTS
ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO
AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD
PERSONAL IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP)

42. CONTINUED
AUTHORED BY 1 OR MORE SCHOLARS
SCHOLAR CRITERIA
a) 1+ descriptor: Ph.D., Dr., Professor, Reader,
Lecturer, Doctoral Student, or Doctoral
Candidate
b) 1+ descriptor (Scholar, Academic, Researcher,
Research Director, Fellow, Biologist) and
institutional affiliation
c) Link to blogger’s CV or the like with 1+
citation to a journal article
d) Graduate student and explicit reference to
area of study or pursuant degree

43. ASSESSMENT
History Econ Law Sciences
Criterion
Freq (%) Freq (%) Freq (%) Freq (%)
Publicly available 168 (90%) 163 (85%) 113 (95%) 126 (88%)
Published in English 159 (84%) 151 (79%) 111 (93%) 123 (85%)
Knowledge or
146 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 119 (83%)
personal blog
Time-stamped posts 145 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 118 (82%)
Actively published to 68 (36%) 83 (43%) 58 (49%) 62 (43%)
At least 1 year old 58 (31%) 66 (34%) 53 (45%) 54 (38%)
Personal identifiers in
53 (28%) 59 (31%) 48 (40%) 48 (33%)
regard to authorship
Authored by 1 or more
bloggers meeting 46 (24%) 51 (27%) 47 (40%) 44 (31%)
scholar parameters

44. ELIGIBLE BLOGS
(29%)
125 Single-Blogs | 63 Co-Blogs
sampling frame one

45. BLOGGER ELIGIBILITY
CO-BLOGS : POSTED W/IN 1 MONTH
CO-BLOGS: MEETS SCHOLAR CRITERIA
ALL BLOGS: BLOGGER CONTACT INFO

46. ELIGIBLE BLOGGERS
107 Single Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers
sampling frame two

47. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Lenhart & Fox (2006)
Herring et al. (2005a, b)
Morton and Price (1999)
Olsen et al. (2009)
Do not
Rainie (2005)
White & Winn (2009)
Hank et al. (2007)
reinvent
the wheel
instrument design

48. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
QUESTIONNAIRES
Q1 (single-bloggers): 41 to 58 questions
Q2 (co-bloggers): 41 to 62 questions
Qualtrics
questionnaires

49. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
PRE-TESTING
us/uk
bloggers
researchers
preservationists
questionnaires

50. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
All eligible bloggers invited (N=294)
Personalized Email
Salutation | Blog Title | Blog URL | PIN
Manual
Invite and 2 reminders
Timing of invitation email
Available for 3 weeks
No inducements
questionnaire administration

51. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
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)
completed sample

52. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
24 semi-structured
phone interviews
72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest
interviews

53. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Concurrent to other data collection
11 to 14 questions
Protocol | Debriefing sheet| Pre-testing
24 phone interviews
Semi-structured
15 to 25+ minutes
interviews

54. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Coded 93 blogs: 61 single/32 co-blogs
(SR: 49.5%)
Authorship Attributes
Blog Elements & Features
Rights & Disclaimers
57 to 63 Indicators Authority & Audience
(ON/OFF BLOG) Blog Publishing Activity
Post Features
Archiving
blog analysis

55. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
…tick tock tick tock
Time in Single-Blog Co-Blog Count
Minutes Frequency (%) Frequency (%)
≤9 17 (28%) 5 (15%)
10 to 19 32 (52%) 24 (73%)
20 to 29 9 (15%) 2 (6%)
30 to 39 2 (3%) 1 (6%)
≥ 40 1 (2%) -
blog analysis

56. REMEMBER …
History Econ Law Sciences
Criterion
Freq (%) Freq (%) Freq (%) Freq (%)
Publicly available 168 (90%) 163 (85%) 113 (95%) 126 (88%)
Published in English 159 (84%) 151 (79%) 111 (93%) 123 (85%)
Knowledge or
146 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 119 (83%)
personal blog
Time-stamped posts 145 (77%) 140 (73%) 93 (78%) 118 (82%)
Actively published to 68 (36%) 83 (43%) 58 (49%) 62 (43%)
At least 1 year old 58 (31%) 66 (34%) 53 (45%) 54 (38%)
Personal identifiers in
53 (28%) 59 (31%) 48 (40%) 48 (33%)
regard to authorship
Authored by 1 or more
bloggers meeting 46 (24%) 51 (27%) 47 (40%) 44 (31%)
scholar parameters
WHAT ABOUT THOSE INACTIVE,
BUT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE BLOGS?

57. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Available but
not actively
published to %
in previous
3 months left no message behind
(n=156) on where they went or
if they will be back etc.
blog analysis

58. 2011-PRESENT
3 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE)
BLOGX BLOG ANALYSIS
n=909
N=1779 no new posts
> 3 months
HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS
Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from scholars’ inactive blogs.
#Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia

59. 2011-PRESENT
3 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE)
“SENTIMENT ANALYSIS” BY HAND PRELIMINARY!
556
ACTIVE BLOGS
(61%) 353 (39%)
INACTIVE BLOGS
currently published no new posts
“farewell” post?
230NONE
(65%) 77 (22%)
LAST POST
ONLY

60. 2012-PRESENT
4 BIBLIOBLOGGERS
BLOG
X
BLOG
QUESTIONNAIRES
INTERVIEWS
BLOGGER BLOG ANALYSIS
CV ANALYSIS
OCLC/ALISE Library & Information Science Research Grant Program
ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS &
BIBLIOBLOGGERS? INFORMATION AND LIBRARY SCIENCE
not bible … FACULTY/RESEARCHERS

61. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
results(?)
BIBLIOBLOGGERS
2012-PRESENT
4 BIBLIOBLOGGERS

62. 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)
2 Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W.,
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS & Helland, P. (2002)

63. SCHOLARLY 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%
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

64. INVITATIONS
… impact & reward
%
… to present
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

65. INVITATIONS
… impact & reward
%
… to collaborate
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

66. INVITATIONS
… impact & reward
%
… to serve
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

67. INVITATIONS
… impact & reward
%
… to publish
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

68. PRESERVATION
%
preservation for public access
& use into the indefinite future
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

69. 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%
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

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

71. 100%
90%
80% Blogger
Co-Author(s)
70%
Provider/Host/Network
60% Search Engine
50% Public Trust
40% Nat'l Library
Nat'l Archive
30%
Inst'l Library
20%
Inst'l Archive
10% Inst'l IT Dept
0%
RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY
2 preservation
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

72. Better things to do
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

73. PRESERVATION PRIORITY
Journal articles
Books
Blogs
Peer-Reviewed Pubs Blogs
Published Papers
Journal articles
Filter
Dissertations
Teaching materials
& Theses
Blogs
Pedagogical Research & Tools Class
Self-Publications Blogs
Traditional Publications
Lab Notebooks Select
Scientific & Scholarly Research
Monographs Blog Posts
Works-in-progress
Email
Informal Publications
Law review articles Personnel
Book Reviews Books Communications
HIGHER LOWER
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

74. Better things to do
Personal responsibility
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

75. SAVING
Subscription
services
Export tools
Personal
back-ups
Document/text files
Via syndication
services %
Purposefully save entire blog via an
archiving service or independently
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

76. SAVING
Export tools
Personal
back-ups
Document/text files
Via syndication
services %
Purposefully save some
blog components
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

77. Better things to do
Personal responsibility
Personal communications
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

78. DISCLAIMERS
THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG IS PART OF THEIR SCHOLARLY RECORD …
Own
opinion
Not
responsible
Advice %
have an explicit or implicit
disclaimer-style statement
BLOG
2

79. Better things to do
Personal responsibility
Personal communications
Bad experience
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

80. more … SOURCES
Association of Research Libraries. (1986). The changing system of scholarly
communication. Washington, DC: Author.
Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W., & Helland, P. (2002). Institutionalizing a broader view of
scholarship through Boyer’s four domains: ASHE-ERIC higher education report.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and
perceptions impacting digital preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest
Dissertations & Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).
Hank, C., Sheble, L., & Choemprayong, S. (2007). Informing blog appraisal through
bloggers’ perspectives on selection and preservation. Paper presented at the
Conference on Appraisal in the Digital World, Rome, Italy.
Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from
scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring
influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Herring, S.C., Kouper, I., Paolillo, J.C., Scheidt, L.A., Tyworth, M., Welsch, P., Wright,
E., & Yu, N. (2005). Conversations in the blogosphere: An analysis “from the
bottom up.” In Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on
System Science. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press.

81. more … SOURCES
Herring, S.C., Scheidt, L.A., Wright, E., & Bonus, S. (2005). Weblogs as a bridging
genre. Information Technology & People, 18(2), 142-171. doi:
10.1108/09593840510601513.
Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet’s new story tellers.
Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/Bloggers.aspx.
Morton, H.C., & Price, A.J. (1989). The ACLS survey of scholars: Final report of views
on publications, computers, and libraries. Washington DC: Office of Scholarly
Communication and Technology, American Council of Learned Societies.
Olsen, D., Berlin, E., Olsen, E., McLean, J., & Sussman, M. (2009). State of the
blogosphere: 2009. Technorati. Retrieved from http://technorati.com/
blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/.
Rainie, L. (2005). The state of blogging. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American
Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2005/The-
State-of-Blogging.aspx.
Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey
of blogging behaviors. In Proceedings of the Third International Digital
Curation Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.
White, D., & Winn, P. (2009). State of the blogosphere: 2008. Technorati. Retrieved
from http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2008/.

82. THANK YOU …
CAROLYN HANK
Email: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
Phone: (001)514.398.4684
SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/carolynhank/
Slideshow:
THANKS TO …
FACEBOOK: ALISE 2012 RESEARCH GRANT
BLOGS: OCLC/ALISE LIS RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAM;
BETA PHI MU (EUGENE GARFIELD DISSERTATION AWARD
QUESTIONS?