Supporting community-building in digital libraries: A pilot study of LibraryThing

✍ Scribed by Adam Worrall

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 93 KB
• Volume: 47
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.14504701389

✦ Synopsis

Digital libraries should improve their support of social interactions, especially the building of communities around and within themselves, to integrate better with social groups and communities across boundaries. This poster reports on ongoing work that has developed an online survey instrument to measure support for community-building activities in digital libraries. In a small pilot sample of users of LibraryThing, the level of support for communitybuilding was low and the social networks of participants with regard to LibraryThing and its users were not wideranging or dense. Community-building activity occurred, but without the support of LibraryThing as a boundary object. Continuing research will survey larger samples from a broader population, add open-ended questions to the instrument, and incorporate qualitative methods, improving validity and generalizability. This research into communitybuilding in LibraryThing and other digital libraries will contribute to the important tasks of learning more about and improving support for the social contexts of digital libraries.