RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2011
www.PosterPresentations.com
What is a Personal Learning Network?
Three Types of Social Capital (Ellison et al., 2007):
1. Bridging—link to weak ties, loose connections that may
provide useful information/new perspectives
2. Bonding—tightly knit, emotionally close relationships, like
family & close friends
3. Maintaining—keeping in touch with existing relationships
Social Capital Theory
Results
Results Continued
Twitter users tended to be
younger and earlier in their
career than non-Twitter
users, who were much
further along in their
career and higher in age.
Non-Twitter Users may
have had more
opportunities to meet
other catalogers
throughout their career. We
might assume that they had
high Social Capital due to
their relationships made
through traditional or in-
person meetings.
For future study, it might
be interesting to interview
Catalogers further along in
their career as well as
newer Catalogers, to
determine if this
assumption is correct.
References
Contact Info
Diagram created by Bev Novak appears in her blog NovaNews. Published here with
permission. Further distribution with acknowledgement is permitted
Twitter may serve as a PLN for
librarians who:
• Choose to Follow other
librarians or lists of librarians
on Twitter
• Discuss library related issues
spontaneously or during
scheduled #libchats
• Have other common interests
• Reading tweets by like-minded
individuals
• Stay connected with colleagues
from real life
• Share resources
• Generally, be more connected
The study examined
Catalogers and the three
types of Social Capital as
well as their Satisfaction
as a Cataloger. The survey
also asked how often they
use Twitter, age and length
of their career.
In each of the
categories, there is no
statistically significant
differences between the
Tweeters and the Non-
Tweeters; each of the
confidence intervals /
margins of error overlap to
some extent.
The Tweeters and Non-
Tweeters are statistically
equivalent in terms of
their agreement and
disagreement on their rate
of Social Capital.
Cataloging and Metadata Librarian & Learning Commons Coordinator
Weinberg Memorial Library
University of Scranton
570-687-0293
#contactinfo
Adler, P. S., & Kwon, S.-W. (2002). Social Capital: Prospects
for a New Concept. The Academy of Management
Review2, 27(1), 17-40.
Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The
Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College
Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. doi:
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x.
Warlick, D. (2009). Community-Formerly Known as Audience.
Davidwarlick.com. Retrieved from
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2020.
Twitter as PLN
Characteristics of a Personal Learning
Networks (PLN) (Warlick, 2009):
• Personal—completely up to the needs
of the individual
• Spontaneous and Directed—cultivated
by the user, or happen because of the
connections
• Connective—held together by ideas
Definitions of Social Capital
(Adler and Kwon, 2002):
My theory was that Cataloging Librarians who use Twitter as a
Personal Learning Network would have a higher level of Social
Capital than non-tweeting Catalogers. I surveyed Catalogers
to determine their level of Social Capital compared to their
use of Twitter. I surveyed Cataloging Librarians using a Survey
Monkey survey. I received 307 responses.
The StudyTwitter Users
Non-Twitter Users
Cataloger’s Age
Length of Career
Twitter Users: 105 respondents tweet weekly Non-Twitter Users: 154 respondents never tweet
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Cataloging (Technical Services) is a good job
to be in.
I feel that I am part of
the cataloging community.
I am interested in what goes on in the
cataloging community.
I am willing to spend time to support
cataloging activities.
Interacting with other catalogers makes me want to try new things.
Interacting with other catalogers
reminds me that
everyone in the world is connected
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
020406080
100120140160180
Cataloging (Technical Services) is a good job
to be in.
I feel that I am part of
the cataloging community.
I am interested in what goes on in the
cataloging community.
I am willing to spend time to support
cataloging activities.
Interacting with other catalogers makes me want to try new things.
Interacting with other catalogers
reminds me that
everyone in the world is connected
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
Bridging
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
There are several other catalogers I trust to solve my
cataloging related problems
There is another cataloger I can turn to for advice about
making very important decisions
The catalogers I interact with would
be good job references for me
I do not know other catalogers well
enough to ask for important career
advice or serve as a professional
reference
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
There are several other catalogers I trust to solve my
cataloging related problems
There is another cataloger I can turn to for advice about
making very important decisions
The catalogers I interact with would
be good job references for me
I do not know other catalogers well
enough to ask for important career
advice or serve as a professional
reference
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
Bonding
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
I’d be able to find out about cataloging
events/workshops/etc. from catalogersI know.
If I needed to, I could ask other catalogers to do a
small favor for me.
I’d be able to find information about a job from other catalogers I
know.
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
I’d be able to find out about cataloging
events/workshops/etc. from catalogersI know.
If I needed to, I could ask other catalogers to do a
small favor for me.
I’d be able to find information about a job from other catalogers I
know.
Please select one answer per row.
strongly disagree
disagree
slightly disagree
neither agree nor disagree
slightly agree
agree
strongly agree
Maintained
Special Thanks
• Magical Metadata Fairies • Troublesome Catalogers
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