Social Networking Webs ites : An Exploratory Study of Student Peer Socializing in an Online LIS Program lili I uo ()rw l\'l, h lfJ.lifO/1 Squ.Ift:��, )( hoof (II L,b"if\ .m el ItlfOTflMI o n X lencl', S.1n Jo~e Sld leo Uni H:��f si r ~. ~.m 10"1:' CA 'J5 19.! ��OO.?Y, ( -m,'i!: M iluo f!'sfis. sjsu.edu Thi~ p.lper presentsa " u r\t:'y ..Iud)' mve..nganng how ..tudents in an unline MUS p ru - W ,lI ll U ,(' ..ocral nervorkiug websues to socialize w ith their peers an d to developa p n ue .... iona l network . Bot h ge ne ra l-purpose socia l networking ..ites such as Facebook ,\Ill! d school- vvide ..oc tal networking site l SlI SLifeJ are studied. Findi ngs indi cate that '(l( i.l l lHl working \ Veh"llt'.. Mt, the secon d most popula r ve nue fo r stude nts' peer so- i.lliYin g an d a re con..,idpft,d .1 pr o duct ive channel fu r e..t.lb lish ing socia l ne two rks .lfll o n~ students. However. the tack oi tu ne and tht' large va riety of soc ia l ne two rki ng website choices ha ve hindl'rl'd stude nts' engagement in soc ial net working w ebs.tes. In res ponse to these roadb locks. the study proposes seve ral inin.nives that online US p roW.lm ", CdO make to stre-a mline the process oi Invol ving soc ial Ol'l\\orking w e bsites in co mmun ity buildin g ('jimt... Keywo rds: Soci al Iwtworl..ing w ebsttes. o nline edoc.rnon . professional network, "0- ci.l lizing, ..urvev Introd uction SU:ial l. ncrwcrkine Wd "'lI t'.. CS NW .., have ga med tremendouv populari ty 10 recen t )ea r... T hey arc de fine d a .. " Web-ba-ed ..ervice .. that allow individu- a l..to (a )con..truer a publi c or semi- public profile \\, ith in a bo unded ..p teIll . (0) a rtie- ul at c a 1i..1 of othe r u..cr.. wit h w homthey ..hare a connectio n. and le ) vie w and Ira- ve r..c thei r Ii ..t of co nnec tio n, and thu..e made 0 )" o the r.. within the ,y ..tern" (boyd & Elli..on. 10mL p. 1 11 ), Th ey fa cilit ate inte raction a mong mem ber s by providi ng a dynamic pla tfo rm rh.u enables co nte nt ..hann g. di..c uss ionc . and o rganizatio n of acnvi nev and event.. t Cac hia . Com pa no . & Da Co ..ta. 10( 7). In ot he r words. Ihc) 'Upptlrl the e ~ pa n..ion of m)l,Jt.. Il' .g.. indi o \id ua l, . Ihrou~h "flCia l Iinl .. (e .g.. rd a- IlOn..hip .., in the digilal \\,orld IBaraba..i. 10(1 ). Gl\cn the ..oc iah / ing and connec- ti\e- na ture of S:'\W,. Ihl" ..IUd)' ..ee l, to exa mi ne their roll." in ..tren gth eni ug netw o rki ng a mo ng peer.. in an o nli ne ma ..ter' .. program in I.IS . St udent ..ex peel th eir ca ree r..to benefi t fro m the ..oc ia l tie.. the)" make during the ir time.. a.. member.. of learn ing com- munuie.. (Kalllle r. 10061. Peer soc iali zu- lio n and e..tahli ..hmcnt of a peer net work arc a c ruci al com po nent of ed ucuuo nal e xperi en ce.. for graduate stude nts. In di..- tuncc ed ucation program s. thi.. com po- ncm may be significa ntly weakened becau se students tak e c la s..e~ mo..rly in an i..elat ed online enviro nme nt and lack the o ppo rtunit ic.. to engage in real-time mter ucno n.. with thei r pe-er.. t Baab. 1999 Nich olso n. 1005 Simp-on & Du . 100..11. th more LIS sc hools deliver edu- cal ion \'ia o nllnc pro gra m... il become.. e \-er mo re impoT1anlto lal e not ice of Ihi.. \\, eal ne.... of on linc cm'iron me nt' and de , ign ..tra ll'!!il:.. 10 compe nsale for the ralher i..olaled nalUre of di , tance ed uea �� 86 J 01 Ect.ocal/Ofl tal i..Jbraty and hfmnal/Ofl Soence. \tll 51. No 2-5pmg 2010 ISSN 0748-5786 C0)10 A.ssoClaIlC71 tor!...tJra'yand 1ntorma!lOO Saeoce Edl.ca bal

87 li on and 1I 1 LTC a ~ C the ...en...c of pre...cnce and conununu y. One po ..... ihlc ...elut ion is to invo lve SN W ... 10 help grad uate stu- dent s stre ng then thei r peer com mu nic a- non .., build pcer ne two rks. a nd maintai n peer conne ction... in on line LIS programv. a...... tudi c... ha ve fo und thut the princi pa l mot ivat ion I'm pe op le 10 U'..C S :-': Ws is ( 0 ...ray conne cted with thei r otfhne contac ts ( lloyd &. EII I",ol1 , 200 X: Joi n...on . 200 X). To bett er unde rstand the faci litat ing role of SNW.., te.g .. ~ l yS pa c c . Face boo k. l.mk cdln. dc l.icio.u .... etc. ) III conununny building in on line LIS pro gra m.... it i ... nee - c ......ary to c licu ..tudcm -, ' feedback o n lh ls subjec t a... they ar c the u sers and ult imate ben efi ciari c... o f SN\\' ... III o nline ed uca- non . Thi ... a rt icle present ... a ...rudy that ...ce ks In add rcvs the fo llowi ng researc h q uesnons : ��� 1I0w do stude nts usc soc ialnetworking Wehsih:s to enable peer ...oc ializing ill an onli ne U S program "! Wha t arc studen ts" pe rceptions of so cial network ing w ebvitcs as faciluutors for pee r -oci alivmg in an online LI S prog ram"! literature Rev iew Th e lea rnin g proce vs for stude nts in on- line progra ms can he iso lated (Bern ard. de Rubalc ava . & St-Pierre. 2000 Ha ra & Kling, 11J1J9 Muct.iregor. 2( 0 1). Litera- ture o f ed uc atio n abounds wi th stud ies 011 ho w to better integrat e online stude nts int o th e ed uc ation a l envi ro nmen t and be lief co nnec t th em with instructors and a mo ng themsel ve sr li ej eran o . 2008 ). The focu s o f th ese studies is to c reate virt ua l learr ung co mmunities where learn ing IS enabled through co llabo ratio n within a comm unuy context (Wen ge r. 19(8). Learni ng commumues allow students to form soc ia l bonds . to learn throu gh the view po ints of othe rs . 10 deve lop aware - ness of mult iple per sp ec tive s. and eve n- tuall y he lp ge ne rate higher ret entio n rate s (Vygotsky. 198 1: w ehlage. Rutter. Smith , Le sko. & Fcm an dcv . J1J89 \VeigeL 2( 02 ). Re searche rs bel ieve that the virt ua l learni ng com munity is a powe rfu l too l to pro mo te onli ne learnin g pa rti c ipat ion and achie vement ( Hil t z, 199X Prester a & Mo lkr. 2001 Ru ssell . 1999 Ru ssell & Gin sburg. 1999 : Shri vastava. 1999 : Wan g . Re...tu . & Mille r. 20 ( 1). In the LIS field , the building o f virt ual lea rning communit ies ha s a bo ga med awarene ss a mong research ers and ed ucators . Wh ile nu mero us studies evidence the im po r- tan ce of comm uniry-basc d learn ing III onli ne classroom s. few have exami ned the soc ial val ue of co mmun ities in onl ine educ atio nal progra ms. Expanding o n Resnick's (2002) concept of soc iotcchnicul capital that describes the va lue o f social relatio ns deve lo ped amo ng students in o nl ine classrooms. Ka zmer ( 2006 ) cond uc ted a stud y to ex - ami ne wheth er stude nt s who cam the MU S degree on line arc sufficiemly co n- nected w ith o ne anothe r to enc o urag e the growth o r lasti ng and produc tive profc s- viona l network s. Her find ings ind ica ted that ...tudcnt v form " sit uuno nul frien d - ships" in on line cla ssrooms. a nd the y exit the...c situa tio na l friend ...hips eas ily as they disen gage from the classes. A hy - produ ct of the di ssolut ion of situatio na l fri en dshi ps is th e lo ss of soc iotechnicul capita l. whic h wa s identi fied in five cat egorie s by Kazmer : reputation". e.g .. IlTML guru. capable group proj ect leader. soci al secreta ry: trust: ide ntity, e.g.. type o f workplace knowledge one can contribute. soc iab le or shy ...hared ex pc rien ce: and tec hn ica l expe rt!...c ( Kazmer, 2006. p I 79 ). The importance of reta ini ng sociotcc hnia t ca pita l III o nline LIS pro- g rams was ec hoed by Nicholson (2005). wh o pointed out that :

88 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE " O ne o f the role~ of librar y ...ch oo! i... to introduce studc m-, into a net work con- ... i s ll n ~ of o the r ...tudcnt.... alumn i. and fac ulty. I f a distance prog ram foc use... o nly on the male rial and not o n the inter- act ion be tw ...en cu rre nt tude nts a nd these om...r group .... the co n...... of 'p rofc...�� ..ional communuy ' i... not bui ll duri ng the...c education "lage:- of librarian...hip" (p. :!l SI. O ne cha lle nge not ed by Nich ol son is that online c lassroom ime ruc uon s are mo stly base d 0 11 the con te nt o f the clu ... and socia l co mmunication i ... stifle d . Th i... c ha lle nge is also evide nti n anothe r study by Kazme r (2 007) . Wh e n com pnn ng learn ing ex pe rie nce" between ... tude ms from a co mp le te on line program and :-ow- dent s from an onlin e pro grum with a resi- dency req ui re men t. Kazmer found that students in th e pro g ram with out a resi- de ncy had le s:-. sense of community. fo und gro up wo rk les-, suc cess fu l. und bui lt few er friend sh ips amo ng student coll eagues. To e xpand soc ia l imcruc nons in o nline pro gra ms. Nichol ...on (2005 , propo sed a "co mmunity sca ffo ld" framewo rk 10 em- p loy commun icat ion technologie s to en- able stude nts involvement In the different communities thai come into p lay during eac h student's lime in an on- line progra m. T hi ... framework empha- sized the importan ce of pro vidi ng bridges fro m the inte rna l e xpe rie nces with in a course to the ex te rnal comm unuie .... In add Ilion 10 adv ocating the value o f community buildin g beyo nd o nl ine clu...s- rooms in LIS ed uc atio n. both Kazmer (2006) and Nichol son CW(5 ) proposed a va riety of tec hn ologie s that cou ld Iacili - late the e ...ta bli shm e nt of profe ssional comm uni ties a mo ng o nli ne LIS students. T hese tec hno logie s Include el ectro nic di ...c ussio n forum s. 1II ...ra nt me ssenger. c hat roo ms. and mul timedia com mun ication ve nue .... One item that cou ld be added to the list of co mmuni ry-buil ding technolog ies IS S NW s. Partici pun on in S NWs co nsist... o f "jo ining as a membe r an d inte racti ng wi th o the r network membe rs by sharing audi o -v is ua l. co n tri buti ng 10 forum d is- c uss io ns. ex changi ng views and ideas wi thi n co mmunities of co mmo n inte rest. s haring so urces of info rmatio n. collubo - ra ti ng re wa rd s a co mmo n go al. a nd last bUI nOI lea st. searc h ing fo r and soci aliz - ing with sim ilar in lerests" (Cac hia. et ul.. 2007 . p. 11 8J ). Examples o f SN Ws in- cl ude Face book. Myxpace. Elickr, You'Tube . a nd Lin kedln . Join son (2(X)8 ) pro vided a li st of facto rs that mo livate people 10 j oi n S NWs that incl uded soc ial co nnec tion. sha red identities. content. social invesu geun g. social network surf- ing. an d status upd ati ng . A rece nt study by Br and tzucg and Heim C!O(9) con- fi rme d Joi nson' s ccnclu ... io ns and fo und tha t peop le usc SN Ws for th ree princ ipa l re asons: 10 get in contact wi th new people . to keep in to uch with friend.... and fo r genera l socia lizing. S NWs han : a ttrac ted p lent y o f re- search att e ntion. 111 0:-.tly fro m the field s o f com m unic at io n. soc io logy, a nd hu- man co mpute r in teractio n. Only a hand - fu l o f studies have bee n c o nd ucted to exa mi ne S NW s fro m an ed ucatio na l pe r- specri vc. In one suc h study. Santo s. Ham mond . Durli an d C ho u ( 2009) stud- ied student ... in Si ng apore and B razil. anti d is cove red that many of the Brazi lian students used S NWs 10 socialize and dis- c uss thei r studies while the Singaporean stude nts u sed such Weh ... ires for soc ia l inte ract io ns on ly. No study to d ate ha s sc rutinized SN Ws in te rms of the ir su p- po rt for acade mic/ profession al net wo rk- ing in onlin e ed ucatio n. T h is study inte nd s to fill that gap by investigun ng how stud ent s are using SN W s 10 fad li- ta te peer soc ia liz ing in o n line learn ing e nvi ro nme nts. Stud y Context and Procedures In spring 2008. the Schoo l o f Lib rary