Blogging as a tool for building identity and creating social networks : A qualitative study of librarians’ use of the weblog

Weblogs, or blogs, are frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries, generally in reverse chronological sequence. This thesis focuses on the rapid-growing phenomenon of weblogs and the fact that individuals with a background in library and information science are frequent users of weblogs. Since this is an explorative inductive study the ultimate purpose can be described as to find out what “blogging” as activity is about. The research questions posed are: Why do individuals with a background in library and information science use weblogs? How does their professional identity affect their blogging? And finally; how do they use the weblog to create networks with other bloggers?The empirical material consists of audiotaped interviews with five informants who are all employed in knowledge work, either as librarians or information specialists. All informants maintain each at least one active weblog. A theme that turned out to be central in the interviews is the possibility weblogs offer people to link to each other; my analysis therefore mainly relies on theories of networking. Additionally, the collection of data revealed that issues of self-identity and drawing boundaries were also of importance. Therefore the theoretical framework is also built around Goffman’s theories of identity and social interaction. The result of the study shows that blogging is a social activity intimately related to the informants’ profession. A weblog offers an individual the possibility of creating and expressing him/herself through different roles, not always known to the audience. In doing so the informants often use the role of the librarian. Simultaneously, the weblog is used to create and maintain relationships with other bloggers, relations that can be used as a resource offline.Uppsatsnivå: