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

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 Library Thing, the level of support for community-building was low and the social networks of participants with regard to Library Thing and its users were not wide-ranging or dense. Community-building activity occurred, but without the support of Library Thing 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 community-building in Library Thing and other digital libraries will contribute to the important tasks of learning more about and improving support for the social contexts of digital libraries.

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