The Library and Information Science in the Social Networks of the Internet (and 5): Conclusions

Web 2.0 and more specifically the Social Web are concepts that have become popular in the last two years but which has not been studied in sufficient depth and implementation success within the professional fields. Specifically, within the community of the Library and documentary efforts to promote these new technological tools have increased without a clear conscience if he actually was producing interaction and actual use of them. One of the tools and more forward-is undoubtedly the Social Networks on the Internet where information professionals build, show and share (Depending on the case) the professional relationships that have developed over time.

In the texts preceding it (whose links are below) tried to harmonize the different possibilities and characteristics of three major networks are currently used in Spain by the Internet, namely Facebook, Xing and LinkedIn. In our brief introduction to the reality of social networks, we stopped in a Social Network General, which intersect different options for entertainment and communication, and two with a strong professional profile which seeks professional interaction beyond the options share photos and experiences offered in a much more vigorous Facebook. Facebook's popularity is clearly overwhelming on the other two, so in the chart below, we can see traffic growth among the three web sites, distancing itself largely Facebook.

In contrast, we must place the two other studied professional Social Networking, LinkedIn and Xing, as the former is developing very popular, compared to the second oldest in the Hispanic area, and certainly the largest number of profiles. However, LinkedIn is starting to find its niche in the Spanish language interface developed specifically for this language so its popularity is expected to increase between hispanohablantes. Moreover, the mistake on the Xing business model behind the purchase of two other popular social networks eConozco and neuron may have been a competitive advantage within this market, LinkedIn and Xing that cost him recover.

We made a very basic approach into the three networks, further analyzing their potential and the game could provide a future for the realization of a deeper and more detailed study of the professionals who keep their profiles into them that learning the lessons interesting. In fact, we were surprised that the presence of library and information declared within Facebook was almost anecdotal, perhaps because it is a product that is not necessarily designed to establish their relationship strictly professional and so users perceive, despite having options and the potential to be. This low presence of persons who have completed their profiles declaring themselves as information professionals leads us necessarily fall under the consideration of analyzing the percentage of full company profiles available in the networks studied. Of course this would be one of the most interesting to study, since the quality and quantity of information to collect and analyze necessarily happen at that point.

Another aspect of criticism "and accepted all is said" to this first approach is the basis of our consultations. Our reader Gamoian warned us of the necessity of using other language combinations with other varieties of the Spanish state as a librarian or librarians in Catalan, because otherwise we were bypassing a portion of the population that had given high in networks used the language commonly used in their usual workplace. This point is, without doubt, very interesting in that if you stop to conduct a study within the geographical scope Spanish, while it would require the preparation of a list of terms under which the information professionals are identified within these networks, for example, information architects. Moreover, achieving a much more detailed study by geographical area would be both suggestive, but should be expanded vocabulary control to other terms used in Latin America and Library Science at the expense of our Library.

The depth on which searches are conducted within the databases these social networks is another aspect in which to stop. According to the experience acquired in this small study, the most interesting results we would get in the Xing (That enables us to query on the entire database to 300 entries) to the detriment of LinkedIn that in its most basic form us back up to 100 results although its paid version do not reach the figure of 300. We must also bear in mind that users have created two profiles are similar to the forgetting of keys which would give us duplicate records with one date information than the other.

Also interesting is the use of language that is made in these two Social Networks. Thus, it detects use of the term Anglo Spanish Librarian within the scope much larger than LinkedIn Xing, possibly because until recently did not offer an interface LinkedIn translated into Castilian.

The number of relationships is another extreme entirely necessary to study, and the activity that users within these networks deployed. Of course, the richness of both professional networks beyond Facebook, locating other information professionals from other linguistic and geographic areas is unquestioned, while its volume is detected and the number of relationships. Moreover, the university made to the practice, the amount of work performed, in which organizations and their quality are other data to study which, however, we limit access by the policies of privacy of these sites, In addition, the configuration of the system, we are limited to the number of profiles to recover discarded relevant results we can achieve as we launch search which equations and the detection of actual use on a population certain of its users for comparison between the two Social Networks.

More information:

1. Librarianship and Documentation of Internet Social Networks (1): Introduction
2. Librarianship and Documentation of Internet Social Networks (2): Facebook
3. Librarianship and Documentation of Internet Social Networks (3): LinkedIn
4. Librarianship and Documentation of Internet Social Networks (4): Xing
5. The Library and Information Science in the Social Networks of the Internet (and 5): Conclusions