FACILITATING COLLABORATION: EXPLORING A SOCIO-TECHNICAL APPROACH TO THE DESIGN OF A COLLABORATORY FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE MONICA LASSI 2014 Monica Lassi Facilitating collaboration: Exploring a socio-technical approach to the design of a collaboratory for Library and Information Science ISBN 978-91-981654-0-1 ISBN 978-91-981654-1-8 (pdf) http://hdl.handle.net/2320/13583 ISSN 1103-6990 Series: Skrifter från Valfrid, no 56 Cover: Jennifer Tydén Printed: Ale tryckteam, Bohus, 2014 The work reported in the thesis has been funded by Swedish National Graduate School of Language Technology, University of Gothenburg and Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. 6 SVENSK SAMMANFATTNING ................................................................................. 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................10 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1. AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................. 3 2. SETTING THE SCENE ......................................................................................... 6 2.1. SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION ................................................................... 6 2.2. COLLABORATORIES AS TOOLS FOR SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION ..........10 2.3. LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE AS A COLLABORATIVE DISCIPLINE 14 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...........................................................................19 3.1. STUDYING AND DESIGNING ICTS ...........................................................19 3.2. SOCIAL ACTORS – PEOPLE USING ICTS ...................................................21 3.3. DESIGNING FOR ONLINE COMMUNITIES .................................................25 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND DESIGN PROCESS ...................................................30 4.1. PHASE ONE: UNDERSTANDING NEEDS ...................................................34 4.1.1. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................35 4.1.2. EMPIRICAL STUDY ...........................................................................35 4.2. PHASE TWO: DESIGNING A PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY ....................41 4.3. PHASE THREE: EVALUATING A PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY ..............46 4.4. LIMITATIONS ...........................................................................................49 5. SUMMARY OF PAPERS .....................................................................................51 5.1. PAPER I: IDENTIFYING FACTORS THAT MAY IMPACT THE ADOPTION AND USE OF A COLLABORATORY WITHIN LIS: A SYNTHESIS OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH 51 5.2. PAPER II: SHARING DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS: PERCEPTIONS OF FACILITATORS AND CHALLENGES FOR A LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE COLLABORATORY .................................................................................................53 5.3. PAPER III: THE SOCIO-TECHNICAL DESIGN OF A LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE COLLABORATORY .........................................................54 5.4. PAPER IV: EVALUATION OF A PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY FOR SHARING DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE ................................................................................................................55 6. SYNTHESIS OF RESULTS .................................................................................. 57 6.1. UNDERSTANDING NEEDS PHASE ............................................................ 58 6.1.1. THE PURPOSE OF AN LIS COLLABORATORY .................................... 58 6.1.2. CONCERNS WITH THE QUALITY OF SHARED DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS .................................................................................................. 60 6.1.3. REWARDS FOR CONTRIBUTING TO LIS COLLABORATORY ............... 62 6.2. EVALUATING A PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY PHASE .......................... 64 6.2.1. MEDIAWIKI AS PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY PLATFORM ............. 65 6.2.2. ENGLISH AS PROTOTYPE COLLABORATORY LANGUAGE .................. 65 7. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................... 67 7.1. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DISCIPLINE ....................................................... 68 7.2. IMPLICATIONS OF A DIVERSE TARGET AUDIENCE................................... 70 7.3. IMPLICATIONS FOR AN LIS COLLABORATORY DESIGN .......................... 73 7.3.1. CREATING VERSUS SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES ............................. 75 7.3.2. REWARDING CONTRIBUTIONS ........................................................ 77 7.3.3. ENSURING QUALITY DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS ................. 78 8. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................ 79 8.1. FUTURE RESEARCH ................................................................................. 82 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 84 APPENDIX 1A. ENGLISH REQUEST FOR INTERVIEW, STUDY II ............................. 92 APPENDIX 1B. SWEDISH REQUEST FOR INTERVIEW, EXAMPLE, STUDY II ............ 93 APPENDIX 2. CONSENT FORM, STUDY II ............................................................. 94 APPENDIX 3A. ENGLISH INTERVIEW GUIDE, STUDY II ....................................... 96 APPENDIX 3B. SWEDISH INTERVIEW GUIDE, STUDY II ........................................ 98 APPENDIX 4. CODING SCHEME, STUDY II ......................................................... 100 APPENDIX 5. MEDIAWIKI SETTINGS, STUDY III ................................................ 101 APPENDIX 6A. ENGLISH TASK DESCRIPTIONS, STUDY IV .................................. 110 APPENDIX 6B. SWEDISH TASK DESCRIPTIONS, STUDY IV .................................. 111 APPENDIX 7A. ENGLISH OBSERVATION PROTOCOL, STUDY IV......................... 112 APPENDIX 7B. SWEDISH OBSERVATION PROTOCOL, STUDY IV ......................... 113 APPENDIX 8A. ENGLISH INTERVIEW GUIDE, STUDY IV ..................................... 114 APPENDIX 8B. SWEDISH INTERVIEW GUIDE, STUDY IV ..................................... 116 APPENDIX 9A. ENGLISH CONSENT FORM, STUDY IV ........................................ 118 APPENDIX 9B. SWEDISH CONSENT FORM, STUDY IV ......................................... 120 APPENDIX 10A. ENGLISH ANALYSIS THEMES, STUDY IV .................................. 122 APPENDIX 10B. SWEDISH ANALYSIS THEMES, STUDY IV .................................. 123 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Activities related to work coupling ....................................................... 8 Figure 2 Research methodology and design methodology compared ...........31 Figure 3 Timeline of the studies and papers in the thesis.. ..............................32 Figure 4. Data display using card sorting with colour coding. ........................39 Figure 5 Main page of the prototype collaboratory ...........................................46 ABSTRACT The thesis explores the potential of one way of facilitating and stimulating collaboration in Library and Information Science (LIS), namely through a specific scientific collaboration activity: creating, sharing, using and reusing data collection instruments, such as interview guides, questionnaires and observation protocols. The research presented in the thesis has two study objects: 1) LIS as a discipline which does not have a strong tradition of collaboration; and 2) collaboratories as facilitators of collaboration. Thereby, the aim of the thesis is to explore how collaboration can be facilitated within the LIS community by means of an LIS collaboratory. The thesis builds upon four studies, in which the design of a prototype collaboratory has a central role. The research process is thus also a design process. The thesis takes a socio-technical approach according to which technology affects the people using it, while people affect the technology by using it. The four studies reported in the thesis can be read as a linear narrative, as each study builds on the previous one and contributes to the next one. Together the narrative of the four studies describes the process of starting by exploring social and contextual aspects of LIS, requirements and the actual design and development of a working collaboratory prototype, and finally how this prototype collaboratory was perceived by LIS professionals. The first two studies contribute to understanding the needs of an LIS collaboratory: for a general perspective, a review and a synthesis of literature related to design, adoption and use of collaboratories, and for a specialized perspective, an empirical study of perceptions of members of the LIS community concerning the potential of an LIS collaboratory. The findings of the two studies contribute to the design of an LIS collaboratory and the implementation of a working prototype collaboratory. Finally, an empirical study has been conducted to evaluate the prototype collaboratory. Two theoretical models have contributed to the interpretation and analysis of the results of the four studies as a whole: the online community life-cycle model and the social actors model. The online community life-cycle model contributes with a perspective on designing the social aspects of a collaboratory, e.g. interaction between collaboratory