1. Social aspects of digital libraries: A theoretical exploration and research agenda Howard Rosenbaum hrosenba@indiana.edu December 11- 12, 2008

2. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Social aspects of digital libraries I. About digital libraries (DLs) Origins II. A critical look at social research on DLs What’s being done What’s not being done III. A research agenda for DLs What we should do IV. Social informatics and DLs DLs as a computerization movement

3. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities. Waters, D. (1998) What are digital libraries. CLIR Issues, 4 www.clir.org/pubs/issues/issues04.html#dlf

4. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries Digital libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical capabilities for creating, searching, and using information … they are an extension and enhancement of information storage and retrieval systems … and exist in distributed networks. Digital libraries are constructed – collected and organized – by (and for) a community of users and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community. Borgman, C. (2007). Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet. MIT Press. 17-18.

5. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries The field of digital libraries has always been poorly- defined… “Digital libraries”: this oxymoronic phrase has attracted dreamers and engineers, visionaries and entrepreneurs, a diversity of social scientists, lawyers, scientists and technicians. And even, ironically, librarians – though some would argue that digital libraries have very little to do with libraries … or the practice of librarianship. Others would argue that the issue of the future of libraries … forms perhaps the most central of the core questions within the discipline of digital libraries Lynch, C. (2005). Where Do We Go From Here? The Next Decade for Digital Libraries. D-Lib Magazine, 11(7-8). www.dlib.org/dlib/july05/lynch/07lynch.html

6. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries DLs have a rich history that pre-dates the web Lynch traces the key ideas underlying the field to the turn of the 20 th century Visions of technologically enabled knowledge organization Engineering and technical developments in the 1960s Commercial information services, library automation, document structuring and manipulation, HCI work Z39.50 and distributed search in the 1980s The field was jump-started by government funding in the 1990s

7. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Large scale DLs came from the government Two NSF-ARPA-NASA Joint DL Initiatives awarded ~$50 million to fund research projects developing new technologies for DLs in mid to late 1990s DLs were defined as a technological phenomenon The working definition: “ storehouses of digital information available through the net ” Goal: to advance the collection, organization and storage of digital information Also: make it available for searching, retrieval and processing via networks - in user-friendly ways I. About digital libraries

8. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University This programmatic funding shaped and legitimized the field A reasonable path for academic researchers and graduate students They developed and studied DL prototypes focusing the underlying technologies and social implications surrounding these systems It also seeded a research community with journals and conferences Became interdisciplinary and international ACM and IEEE sponsored conferences I. About digital libraries

9. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries There are actually two main streams of R&D on DLs: One is technology-intensive and heavily funded This work occurs in academic settings and focuses on technical issues involved in digitizing, storing, organizing, and providing access to DL content Another is low technology and is done on a shoestring This work is taking place among librarians and information professionals in public and K-12 school libraries As they offer internet services to their patrons, they are building “public” DLs

10. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries Examples UC Berkeley Digital Library project elib.cs.berkeley.edu/ Goal: to develop technologies for intelligent access to massive, distributed non-text collections Social goal: to support “collaborative knowledge” work of distributed users UC Santa Barbara Alexandria Digital Library Project alexandria.sdc.ucsb.edu/ Goal: users access and manipulate geographically- referenced information in a distributed set of digital collections

11. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Digital Library Initiative: Federating Repositories of Scientific Literature dli.grainger.uiuc.edu Goal: to provide federated search across publisher collections by searching multiple views of a single virtual collection University of Michigan Digital Library Project www.si.umich.edu/UMDL/ Goal: to provide a decentralized infrastructure that lets patrons and publishers work together within a single library

12. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University I. About digital libraries Stanford University Digital Libraries Project dbpubs.stanford.edu:8091/diglib/ Goal: to provide access to a vast array of Web topics by focusing on interoperability of networked information sources Carnegie Mellon’s Informedia Digital Video Library www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/ Goal: to improve search and discovery of digital videos through full-content and knowledge-based search and retrieval via desktop computer and metropolitan area networks

13. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University DLs are also important outside of universities Public libraries use DLs to address the digital divide Develop useful content, and applications that meet the needs of low income and underserved populations State libraries are developing DLs to provide access to historical and cultural material DLs for primary schools augment children’s education Druin, A. (2000). Children Shaping the Future of Digital Libraries. First Monday 5(6) International Childrens’ DL to “inspire the world's children to become members of the global community” www.icdlbooks.org/ I. About digital libraries

14. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Social aspects of digital libraries I. About digital libraries (DLs) Origins II. A critical look at social research on DLs What’s being done What’s not being done III. A research agenda for DLs What we should do IV. Social informatics and DLs DLs as a computerization movement

15. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php

16. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Digital library research has been going on since the late 1990s Most of the early work was technical Main questions revolved around the design and development of DLs Databases, data conversion, middleware Federating heterogeneous data sources Working with non-textual data Innovative search algorithms and interfaces Working with metadata II. A critical look at social research on DLs

17. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries is one of the premier venues for DL research TopicConference Education 01 03 04 05 06 07 08 Evaluation/usability 01 02 03 04 07 Uses 01 04 06 07 08 Users 00 01 02 03 04 08 Context 00 01 03 07 These are examples of social research on DLs since 2000 II. A critical look at social research on DLs

18. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University More specifically Education 01; 03; 04; 05; 06; 07; 08 DLs for education, teaching. learning 01; 04; 05; 06; 07; 08 DL in the classroom 03 DL curriculum 06 Evaluation/usability 01; 02; 03; 04; 07 User studies and user interfaces 07 Cross-cultural usability 02; 03 Measuring reputation of sites 01 II. A critical look at social research on DLs

19. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Uses 01; 04; 06; 07; 08 Search behavior and personalization 04; 07 How people use features of DLs 08 Usage and relationships 06 End user building of DLs 01 Public use of community info systems 01 II. A critical look at social research on DLs

20. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Users 00; 01; 02; 03; 04; 08 Understanding information needs and perceptions 04; 08 Users lost in information 08 Studying user behavior 00; 02 Collaboration and group work 04 User interaction 03 DL communities and change 02 Trust and epistemic communities 02 End user building of DLs 01 II. A critical look at social research on DLs

21. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Context 00; 01; 03; 07 Social networks 07 Managing technical resources and services (but technical) 03 Social practice in design and implementation 00 Managing change on the web 01 Ethnographic study of technical support workers 01 II. A critical look at social research on DLs

22. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs Although selective, this reveals something interesting The DL in education theme has been part of the conference since the beginning It primarily focuses on an instrumental view of DLs as tools for improving teaching and learning The evaluation/usability research is typically based on an individualistic and psychological version of HCI Research on uses typically conceptualizes “use” as individualistic and context-free The work in community information systems is an exception (one paper)

23. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs The research on users is based on an individualistic and context-free conception of the person The two papers on collaboration and communities are exceptions The research on context is the closest to the type of social research that will increase understanding of the social aspects of DLs Even this work is not using a deep or rich conception of “social” The work on social networks and the ethnographic study of technical support workers come closest

24. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs Argument: research on the social aspects of DLs uses an impoverished conception of the “social” Also a superficial conception of the “organization” Why has this happened? Technological determinism fueled by the two waves of DLI1-2 funding Early emphasis on solving technical problems and building prototypes Lack of funding for social research in the DL community Lack of interest among social scientists

25. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs What are the consequences of this situation? Underestimating the importance of social, political, cultural, and economic factors on DL development, maintenance and use A lack of understanding of the role of the DL in the organization and in organizational change Daily routines involved in maintenance and management, changes in work and use practices Costs of development and maintenance A lack of understanding of trajectories of success and failure

26. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University II. A critical look at social research on DLs What are the consequences of this situation? Developing DLs without a clear sense of purposes and applications Exception: studies of DLs in education although few examine effects on learning outcomes Using an empty and stereotypical conception of the “user” Missing the importance of group and collaborative uses Exception: the American Memory Project Not understanding the issue of sustainability

27. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Social aspects of digital libraries I. About digital libraries (DLs) Origins II. A critical take: social research on DLs What’s being done What’s not being done III. A research agenda for DLs What we should do IV. Social informatics and DLs DLs as a computerization movement

28. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs How can we research the social aspects of DLs with a richer conception of key concepts? This will require researchers stepped in social science Social informatics is well suited The interdisciplinary study of the design, uses, and consequences of ICTs that takes into account their interaction with institutional contexts Kling, R., Rosenbaum, H., Sawyer, S. (2005). Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics. Information Today. This leads to a multilevel research agenda for investigating social aspects of DLs

29. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs Basic questions that focus on the nature of DLs What is a DL? What are its essential characteristics? What makes a DL a distinct social and organizational phenomenon? How do you know when you see one? What functions does it serve and what roles does it play? What kind of activities and services are part of a DL?

30. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs Micro How do people actually use them? What is involved in children’s sense making in DLs What are the effects of personalization and customized search? How do people determine information quality and relevance in DLs? What factors motivate use and non-use of DLs? How do they support collaboration and group work? What makes DLs usable?

31. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs Middle range Where should DLs be in organizations? How do DLs fit in to organizational structure and processes? How are DLs managed and maintained (governance)? Organizationally (for the long run)? Technically? In terms of accounting and costs? In terms of control and decision making? What is involved in digital librarianship?

32. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs Middle range What do we know about work practices and DLs? What do digital librarians and others involved in DLs do? How do people design and develop DLs? What social and organizational issues are involved in digital preservation, archiving and curation? What are the social practices involved in DL use? The social consequences of DL use and non-use? The social interactions and relationships in DL use?

33. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University III. A research agenda for DLs Macro How are DLs changing scientific and other forms of publishing and various forms of scholarship? How do DLs help maintain epistemic communities? How are DLs impacting the future of research and public libraries and librarianship? How do DLs affect learning environments and outcomes? What is the role of DLs in information infrastructures? How are DLs affecting digital divides? What is the role of DLs in social and cultural change?

34. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Social aspects of digital libraries I. About digital libraries (DLs) Origins II. A critical take: social research on DLs What’s being done What’s not being done III. A research agenda for DLs What we should do IV. Social informatics and DLs DLs as a computerization movement

35. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University IV: Social informatics and DLs An example of a macro level analysis of DLs A computerization movement is a social movement A “collective enterprise to establish a new order of life” “[It] … takes on the character of a society. It acquires organization and form, a body of customs and traditions, established leadership, an enduring division of labor, social rules and social values – in short, a culture, and a new scheme of life” Blumer (1951; 8)

36. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Computerization movements depend on collective action They stand in two relations to the social order Revolutionary: attempt to change the order Reform: attempt to change a restricted domain within the order There are two types General: societal in scope Specific: submovements within a general movement IV: Social informatics and DLs

37. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University They also involve a “Struggle over the production and counter-production of ideas and meanings associated with collective action” Iacono and Kling (1998; 6) They have trajectories To persist, they require organizational structures These allow people to engage in collective action: “They can raise money, mobilize resources, hold meetings and formulate positions” (Iacono and Kling, 1995; 5) IV: Social informatics and DLs

38. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Components: A core ICT or ICTs Organizational structures: CM organizations Collective action Public discourse; technological framing Ideology and myths: revolutionary and reform Organizational practices Historical trajectory Types: general and specific Organized opposition: Counter CMs IV: Social informatics and DLs

39. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Recent work by Hara and Rosenbaum expands the concept of CMs with a typology of CMs based on five criteria External - internal (to organizations) Market-driven - non-market-driven (impetus) Wide - narrow (breadth of impact) Stand-alone - bundled (ICT configuration) Positive – negative (perceived social impact) DL as internal, non-market driven, narrow, bundled, and positive Hara, N. and Rosenbaum, H. (2008). Revising the conceptualization of computerization movements. The Information Society, 24(4), 229-245. IV: Social informatics and DLs

40. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University As a computerization movement, DLs depend on the social actors and groups whose collective actions shape and propel the movement Librarians, professional associations, academics, technology writers, journalists, vendors, policy makers, administrators, technical people It originates in a time and place, gathers momentum, and then follows one of several paths It has an ideology of revolution or reform based on a deeply held belief that the core ICTs can cause fundamental positive social change IV: Social informatics and DLs

41. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University People involved in DLs have an ideology where they engage in “organized, insurgent action to displace or overcome the status quo and establish a new way of life” (Kling and Iacono, 1994; 17; Iacono and Kling, 1995; 5) Within a CM, activists and advocates claim that core ICTs will “bring about a new social order” (Kling and Iacono, 1994; 4) This is accomplished by technological framing and shaping of public discourse IV: Social informatics and DLs

42. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University DLs have a technological frame that contains socially constructed meanings ascribed to specific technologies It connects relevant actors and the particular ways in which they understand a technology as ‘working’ (Iacono and Kling, 1998; 6) Framing “describes the actions and interactions of actors, explaining how they socially construct a technology” (Bijker, 2001:15526) IV: Social informatics and DLs

43. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University While the frame is developing, the ICT that is its focus is interpretively flexible Over time the frame is built up in professional and public discourse and fixes (relatively), the meaning of the movement’s core ICTs It shapes public discourse and perceptions and simplifies complex information for external audiences Technological frames and the public discourse may actually “misrepresent actual practice for long periods of time” (Iacono and Kling, 1998; 8) IV: Social informatics and DLs

44. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University The discourse about DLs reflects the “triumphalism of Web 2.0 proponents” Has been adapted from Web 2.0, which began as a marketing term to sell products and services Leads to technological determinism “Contextualized within familiar tropes of treating technology as semiautonomous, monolithic, discrete, and ahistorical” Changes in libraries are driven by technological innovation Scott. (2007) Bubble 2.0: Online Organized Critique of Web 2.0 IV: Social informatics and DLs

45. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Technological determinism underlies a lot of vendor and evangelist discourse Leads to a rush to acquire and implement tools Especially if open source Entranced by shiny things How can we use these technologies? Not: how will these technologies help meet needs or improve services What are the costs of the implementation and use of DL technologies? IV: Social informatics and DLs

46. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Also leads to technological utopianism The transformative power of technology brings about positive social change Often accompanied by an assumption that this is inevitable DLs as involving “collaborative uses of technologies” with “participatory, egalitarian, and democratic potential” DLs make their host organizations relevant by empowering users who will shape the organization Scott (2007) IV: Social informatics and DLs

47. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University The discourse about DLs is decidedly utopian Another example of of exuberant irrationality around different types of Web 2.0 technologies User control as a “paradigm shift” affecting the people who use it socially, culturally, and politically How the discourse is shaped Evangelist forecasts and predictions, hyperbolic advertising and marketing, fictional narratives, and popular news stories regarding technologies These become evidence for cultural projection about organizational transformation IV: Social informatics and DLs

48. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University There are also problems with the term Describes “a cluster of new applications and related online cultures” It has conceptual unity to the extent that we can find significant shared socio-technical characteristics Utopian claims: “reworking hierarchies, changing social divisions, creating possibilities and opportunities, informing us, and reconfiguring our relations with objects, spaces and each other” Beer, D. and Burrows, R. (2007). Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations. Sociological Research Online, 12(5) www.socresonline.org.uk/12/5/17.html IV: Social informatics and DLs

49. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University To sum up: “Digital library” is a contested term: Can easily lead to a technological determinist conception of 21st century libraries Turning librarians into technicians ~or~ moving you further back from your patrons Moves library space into the network and away from physical space Library management becomes influenced by the “wisdom of the crowd” IV: Social informatics and DLs

50. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University What is the sociotechnical context in which this CM is unfolding? DL users operate in an “attention economy” Information consumes attention so a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention (Simon) A “fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few” Nicholas Carr media.urbandictionary.com/image/large/adhd-18223.jpg IV: Social informatics and DLs

51. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University These participants seem to be happy because of their interest in pursuing self-expression or socializing and do not seem interested in making money It is clear that the economic value of each individual contribution (blog entry…) is trivial However, when these activities are aggregated on a web-wide scale the business becomes lucrative They operate happily in an attention economy while the owners of the services operate happily in a cash economy IV: Social informatics and DLs

52. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University The attention economy does not operate separately from the cash economy It is simply a means of creating cheap I inputs for the cash economy As we rush to implement DLs, the effect is to broaden the base of the attention economy The unintended effect is to increase the flow of capital to the owners of these means of production Digital librarian - the capitalist tool! www.quarterman.com/images/learnenglish-central-stories-animal-farm-330x220.gif IV: Social informatics and DLs

53. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Conclusion: comments about the future of DLs as a CM can be divided into those dealing with infrastructure, organizations, education, and society IT: There are choices to be made about the types of tools to use in building DLs There is considerable risk in committing institutional resources to building a sustainable DL infrastructure with proprietary tools Web 2.0 applications tend to have a short lifespan However, open source tools come with a cost Are these tools free as in kittens or free as in beer? IV: Social informatics and DLs

54. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Organizations: There are choices to be made about the ways in which DLs will be managed in the long run They begin as research projects guided by Pis who are often neither managers nor librarians What will be the processes of governance and control that sustain DLs over time? What are the best ways to ensure that curation and preservation efforts are effective? How will organizations balance accessibility and exclusivity in DLs? We have much to learn about the economics of DLs IV: Social informatics and DLs

55. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Pedagogy: There will be unintended consequences for DLs if computing takes place in the cloud Who owns and can access the data? If collaboration is a root metaphor of Web 2.0 (Milliron), the individualist metaphor at the root of much of educational practice is bankrupt The individual learner is at odds with the deep sociality of the web Companies outsource problem solving (Netflix, InnoCentive) How will this affect the role of DLs in education? IV: Social informatics and DLs

56. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Society: What will be the social role of DLs? The success or failure of DLs will depend on the extent to which they fit into the institutional world around them DLs may be disruptive technologies in a number of ways Issues of audience, economics and control The production and authentication of professional knowledge They may become important boundary objects Playing an important role in memory practices IV: Social informatics and DLs

57. Rosenbaum: Social Aspects of Digital Libraries School of Library and Information Science @ Indiana University Maintaining DLs We need to educate DL patrons and ourselves about Ownership and uses of data and information The intricacies of copyright and the protection of IP Current conception of privacy The intended and untended consequences of technology implementation and use The ethics of this new information environment The economics of this new socio-technical environment IV: Social informatics and DLs

58. www.slis.indiana.edu/hrosenba/www/pres/taiwan_08/taiwan_08.htm Howard Rosenbaum hrosenba@indiana.edu December 11- 12, 2008 Social aspects of digital libraries: A theoretical exploration and research agenda