Librarians as Advocates of Social Media for Researchers: A Social Media Project Initiated by Linköping University Library,Sweden

ABSTRACT

Librarians at Linköping University help researchers keep abreast of developments in their fields and to increase the visibility of their work. Strategic, professional use of social media ought to be an essential part of a researcher's communication strategy. This article investigates the level of awareness of the professional use of social media among LiU researchers. The investigation showed that use of social media was not significant; however, a small number saw potential. The purpose of this article is threefold. The first purpose was to evaluate the potential of using social media as a tool for communicating research outside LiU. Second, the article presents a study in which views of LiU researchers on social media were ascertained via seminar discussions, informal feedback, and interviews. The study has a case study approach involving eight researchers. Third, the article covers how LiU Library created a web-based information package to support researchers in social media use.     

Competency or Capacity: Measuring Librarians’ Potential for Success

Abstract

Core competencies have long been established in the competitive world of business and industry. These tenants lend themselves to individualization and branding, being exclusionary tools by their very nature. So how do core competencies fit in the world of libraries and information centers, particularly when considering potential employees? The concept of individual capacity is a better fit for information fields, being more inclusive and reflective of diverse knowledge bases and skillsets that working in this field requires. Juxtaposing the two, core competencies and individual capacity, will help us re-focus our efforts on user-centered information work rather than business rhetoric and conformity.     

Walking in Your Users’ Shoes: An Introduction to User Experience Research as a Tool for Developing User-Centered Libraries

In the past decade, User Experience research and design has gained significant traction in the business world. It also has much to offer to academic libraries. In this framework, the center of attention is always the users and their experience with an organization at all physical and digital touchpoints. User Experience research can be used to discover how patrons interact with the library as well as any potential trouble spots, where patrons become frustrated or even choose not to use the library at all. This research can then be used to inform user-centered design. User Experience research is an iterative process, and the work of discovering how patrons experience the library is never done.     

Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Maintained Research Institutes’ Libraries in India: Towards Digitization and Networking

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) was established for development of social science research in India. It provides grants to 27 research institutes and six regional centers in India. These institutes have established close links with scholars in the region through activities such as seminars, workshops, training, and consultancy programs. Some of the institutes are closely associated with national and state level planning development agencies and have thereby strengthened the links between research and policy-making. The present study includes 22 institute libraries and three regional libraries in different Indian states. The study analyses their annual acquisition of books; periodicals; CD-ROMs; annual budgets; computerization; hardware and software; Internet; library network; and interlibrary loan and photocopy facilities available in these libraries. Digitization provides a solution to traditional library problems such as conservation, preservation, multimedia documents, and remote access to information, collection, and storage space. ICSSR institute libraries are replacing conventional storage and network systems with digital systems. The progress is a bit slow. Only a few ICSSR institute libraries are subscribing to electronic journals and having electronic documents. ICSSR institute libraries have started computerized operations and are making vigorous attempts to have digitized collections. However, these libraries are required to understand literature growth and use patterns in the social sciences.     

Leveraging Springshare’s Appointments Scheduler for Research Consultations: Experiences and Recommendations

Providing research consultations is an essential job responsibility for all academic librarians. One software option that can help to facilitate the process of scheduling research consultations is Springshare’s Appointments Scheduler (SAS), a feature within their LibCal software product. SAS has a number of features that make it easy for patrons and librarians to create, manage, and optimize the appointment. This article describes the SAS product and provides tips and recommendations that will help librarians to leverage all of its features.     

The Relationship between Traditional Mass Media and “Social Media”: Reality Television as a Model for Social Network Site Behavior

Social cognitive theory suggests a likely relationship between behavior modeled on increasingly popular reality television (RTV) and user behavior modeled on social networking sites (SNSs). This study surveyed young adults (N = 456) to determine the extent to which RTV consumption explained a range of user behavior in the context of social network sites. Results show a consistent relationship between RTV consumption and the length of time spent on these sites, the size of users' networks, the proportion of friends not actually met face to face, and photo sharing frequency while controlling for age and gender.     

Adolescents’ Avoidance Tendencies and Physiological Reactions to Discussions about Their Parents’ Relationship: Implications for Postdivorce and Nondivorced Families

A model was constructed to test the argument that when the topic of the parents’ relationship is introduced in conversations between parents and ‘adolescents, adolescents from divorced families may be especially likely to feel caught between their parents due to a need for protection (of themselves, their parent, and their relationship), which should make them anxious (i.e., self-reported anxiety) and physiologically aroused (i.e., changes in skin conductance levels or SCL). When adolescents feel aroused, we argued that they should attempt to avoid talking about their parents’ relationship with their parent. Self-report and observational data, as well as physiological data, were collected from 112 parent-adolescents dyads. The results revealed that divorce predicted adolescents’ feelings of being caught, which influenced their need for protection. This need for protection, in turn, predicted adolescents’ self-reported anxiety and changes in SCL. Unlike what was hypothesized, SCL was not associated with adolescents’ avoidance tendencies. Nevertheless, self-reported anxiety was associated with adolescents’ self-reported topic avoidance. The implications of these results, and a new observational coding scheme for avoidance, are discussed.     

Brand’s Social Media Presence as Networks: The Role of Interactivity and Network Centrality on Engagement

Despite ample research on brand engagement via social media, little research considers the aggregate effect of multiple same-brand accounts on engagement. Multiple same-brand accounts are common because they allow brands to extend their reach, tailor their messaging, and cross-promote their products/services. Therefore, this study tests whether interaction between same-brand social media accounts and centrality within same-brand conversational networks is related to user engagement. An analysis of 3,380 brand accounts found that after controlling for interactions with users, interactions between brand accounts contributed significantly to user engagement and that account centrality measures were associated with measures of engagement.     

“I Can Air My Feelings Instead of Eating Them”: Blogging as Social Support for the Morbidly Obese

The morbidly obese, defined as people who are 100 pounds or more overweight, are the fastest growing population among the obese. They often live with health risks, face discrimination, and lack traditional social support. This article explores the use of weight loss blogs by the morbidly obese (N = 50) and argues that blogging provides invaluable computer-mediated social support for them in four ways: (a) it allows for empathy; (b) it ensures accountability to others; (c) it provides venting and advice seeking; and (d) it shares validation of the weight loss experience. Additionally, the article argues that social support scholars must move beyond chat rooms and message boards as media and explore more media-rich environments such as blogging and social networks.     

War Veterans’ Memoirs as Narrated to Students: An Intergenerational Service-learning Project for Interpersonal Communication

Objective: To increase understanding of interpersonal communication theories and concepts, to apply interpersonal skills studied in class, and to develop an intergenerational relationship by means of an interview project

Course: Interpersonal Communication     

News or Noticias: A Social Identity Approach to Understanding Latinos’ Preferred Language for News Consumption in the United States

For Latinos in the United States, decisions reflecting which language they prefer for news media consumption can have substantial effects on the quality of the content they receive. However, little is known about what influences Latinos’ language preferences for news media consumption. This project looks to fill that void to the immediate appeal of academics and media analysts by asking, What influences Latinos’ language preference for news? This project builds on social psychology theories highlighting the role played by social identity and self-categorization for inspiring culturally consistent behaviors. This social identity approach focuses on the embrace of Latino characteristics and the complementary nature of Spanish-language media outputs relative to those characteristics. Using the 2006 Latino National Survey, the role of identity is explored. The results indicate that language preferences for news consumption are indeed related to various social identity measures among Latinos in the United States.     

Improving Distance Education for Students with Special Needs: A Qualitative Study of Students’ Experiences with an Online Library Research Course

This article describes a study in which seven students with diverse disabilities participated in a one-credit online library research course which had been adapted to be accessible using the best practices literature on distance education for students with special needs. Students provided feedback on the design of the course and participated in in-depth interviews. Results of this study suggest any given class may have students with different types of disabilities, with different paths toward learning. Using the principles of universal design for learning can improve distance education not only for students with special needs, but for all types of learners.     

The Office was asking for it: “that’s what she said” as a joke cycle that perpetuates rape culture

In this essay, we argue that the popular joke, “that’s what she said” is a symbolic representation of rape that contributes to and insulates rape culture. Drawing on Joseph Boskin’s notion of the “joke cycle” and extant literature on rape culture and misogynistic humor, we critique several instances of the joke on the popular television series The Office. From there, we extend our critique of the joke cycle, noting the conspicuous absence of concern over the joke and its implications in other scholarly treatments of the program. Our primary contention is that the joke cycle, which may be the most prominent cycle in recent decades, reinscribes rape culture by normalizing discourses that dismiss and silence rape victims, justify violence against women, and even blame victims for having been assaulted. “That’s what she said” avoids the critical eye because it disguises itself as a joke like any other.     

The evolution of the operational earthquake forecasting community of practice: the L’Aquila communication crisis as a triggering event for organizational renewal

The scientific community of earthquake experts has long grappled with how to communicate earthquake probabilities successfully to non-scientific publics. Perhaps most central to their concern is the widely held belief that scientists can actually predict earthquakes when, in fact, they cannot. The potential consequences of this miscommunication problem were appallingly realized as a result of the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Failed risk communication among scientists, a public official, and L’Aquila residents prior to the earthquake resulted in 309 deaths, 1500 injuries, and 65,000 people displaced from their homes, as well as the sentencing of six scientists and one public official to six years in prison for manslaughter. This paper examines how and why the L’Aquila Earthquake communication crisis ultimately redefined the international scientific earthquake community of practice and its discourse beyond that of community resilience to organizational learning and renewal.