Presentation given on April 18, 2012 for the Promotion & Tenure Brown Bag Lecture Series at the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University Bloomington.

1. SCHOLARS
IN THE
BLOGOSPHERE
CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CA
Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies
P&T BROWN BAG LECTURE SERIES ▪ 18 APR 2012 ▪ SLIS ▪ IUB

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

3. History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys
ACADEMIC BLOG PORTAL
<http://www.academicblogs.org>
06 | xx population
blogs

4. 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

5. 8a. [CO-BLOGS] POSTED W/IN 1 MONTH
8b. [CO-BLOGS] MEETS SCHOLAR CRITERIA
9. [ALL BLOGS] BLOGGER CONTACT INFO
blogger eligibility

6. part 1

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

8. 107 Single-Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers
eligible bloggers

9. 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)

10. 24 semi-structured
phone interviews
72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest
interviews

11. 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%)

12. results

13. OCCUPATION
%
post-secondary institution
BLOGGER

14. OCCUPATION
Distinguished/
Chaired Prof.
Professor/
Full Prof. + %
(n=58)
BLOGGER

15. AGE
years
mean real age
(range 25 to 70 years old)
BLOGGER

16. AGE
years
mean professional age
(range 0 to 39 years)
BLOGGER

17. ESTABLISHED
PUBLICATION
AND SERVICE
HISTORY
BLOGGER

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

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

20. BLOG HISTORY
%
first blog published to
BLOGGER

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

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

23. MICROBLOGGING
%
do not tweet
BLOGGER

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

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

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

27. POSTING
posts
Average posts per month
(range 1 to 324)
BLOG

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

29. 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).

30. INVITATIONS
%
… to present
BLOGGER

31. INVITATIONS
%
… to collaborate
BLOGGER

32. INVITATIONS
%
… to serve
BLOGGER

33. INVITATIONS
%
… to publish
BLOGGER

34. 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

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 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

39. COMMENTS
So looked at
earlier posts
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. PRESERVATION
%
Agree preservation for public access & use
into the indefinite future (strongly or somewhat)
BLOGGER

47. 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

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

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

50. if?
What

52. SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

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

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

55. 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

56. 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

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

58. 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

59. BLOG DELETION
%
have deleted a blog
BLOGGER PERCEPTIONS

60. 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

61. 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

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

63. first line of
defense

64. first line of
defense

65. final line of
defense

66. part 2
… or, what’s next

67. 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

68. AVAILABLE BUT INACTIVE
Not actively
published to
in previous
3 months
(n=156) %
left no message behind
on where they went or
if they would be back
BLOG

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

70. 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)

71. THANK YOU
CAROLYN HANK
Email: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
Phone: (001)514.398.4684
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/carolynhank/
Slideshow:
QUESTIONS?