An investigation of the capability of Library and Information Science Electronic
group in Iran to establish social capital1
Mehri Parirokh2
Shokrieh Ahmadi3
Abstract
In the world of scientific communications, social networks can be considered as an
effective tool for creating knowledge and sharing ideas. The objective of social
networks is to help the growth and promotion of science through providing the
possibility of connections between individuals and forming the social capital The
objective of this analytical study was to investigate the extent to which LIS is capable
to establish social capital. The content analysis was used to analyze 1400 messages to
identify the types of messages. The findings show that although most of the messages
sent to LIS (about 82%) are "Know-What" type of knowledge, the number of "KnowWhy", "Know-How” and "Know-Who" types have been increased during the two years
of study. This is in agreement with the results of similar research. The messages sent to
the list are not distributed suitably among professional subjects. Finally, the results
prove that most LIS members acknowledge this list as a suitable communication tool
which helps them to enhance their knowledge. Most participants in survey research
have positive opinion about LIS as social capital. However, it is worth to consider that
despite LIS group have most of the characteristics of social network which is capable
of establishing social capital, some of its features should be taken into more
consideration more seriously.
Key words: Typology of Knowledge, Social Network, Social Capital, Library and
Information Science Discussion Group (LIS). Discussion groups
1
. Adopted From: Master Of Library And Information Science Thesis
. Ferdowsi University of Mashad -Iran Faculty member of library and information science department
3
. Master of library and information science in Ferdowsi University Of Mashad
2
1
Introduction
Since communication results in sharing ideas and exchanging knowledge, social
networks can be considered as an effective tool for creating knowledge and enhancing
individual and social development. The ultimate goal of each social network is
facilitating communication between people in general or between specialists and
professionals in any discipline in particular and creating collective knowledge or social
capital. This knowledge can be used for social, professional and scientific problems.
Types of knowledge
Knowledge can be classified from different aspects. Polany (Polany, 1960 in
Nonaka, 1994) used the terms Tacit Knowledge and Explicit Knowledge for the first
time. Tacit Knowledge refers to knowledge which possesses by the individual. The
creation of such knowledge is based on the experiences and observations. It is also
located in the human’s mind and is not easily transferable. Explicit knowledge or obvious
knowledge is a knowledge which is clearly codified, identified and can be expressed
easily and without ambiguity. It can be saved in databases.
On the other hand, some of the scientists categorized knowledge according to its aim. For
example, Quinn, et al. (1996) categorized the professional knowledge into “Know-What”,
“Know-Who”, “Know-How” and “Care Why”. Lundvall and Johnson (1994 in Lundvall
1998) also classified knowledge into “Know-What”, “Know-How”, “Know-Why” and
“Know-Who”. But Zan emphasized on three types of knowledge or understanding,
namely, “Know-What”, “Know-How”, “Know-Why”. However, Manfred Rohr (in
Capurro 2004), added “Know-Where”,”Know-When” and”Know-Who” to the previous
mentioned categorization
In order to understand the aim of types of knowledge we refer to Zeleny’s
taxonomy of knowledge (2007) demonstrated in Table 1, below.
2
Effect
Data
Muddling through
Purpose
(Metaphor)
Know-Nothing
Information
Efficiency
Know-What
Knowledge
Effectiveness
Know-How
Wisdom
Explicability
Know-Why
Table1: Taxonomy of Knowledge (Zeleny 2007)
This table shows different types of knowledge, their aim and consequence. It
consists of four interdependent layers. Data forms a basis for formulating information.
Information is needed to be processed and create knowledge. The last layer deals with the
reasons of doing and why something should be done. It helps make knowledge
explicable. While knowledge (the third layer) allows us to do right things (effectiveness),
wisdom, helps us to do right things (Zeleny, 2007, 3). If knowledge is supported by
wisdom, it would be effective. According to this discussion, all types of knowledge are
necessary to do an effective action. Many people become aware of events and activities
and can fit in the first layer of the above table. Little number of experienced and
specialists know how to do activities and have the related skills. But, very little number
of them knows the reason and philosophy of what they are doing. Such knowledge or
wisdom is not easy to acquire. It needs a creative, dynamic and critical mind (Zeleny
2007). Because of interdependency of these types of knowledge and since professional
development will not happen if professionals have not the chance to pass through these
layers, that is to achieve appropriate awareness (Know-What), suitable skills (KnowHow) and knowledge about philosophy, Whys or Why not’s or wisdom, it is crucial that
suitable means and platforms which help them to pass through these layers to be designed
and be used actively.
Social Networks
3
Social networks, which are the focus of many discussions about the transferring
and exchanging knowledge, are effective tools for creating knowledge and helping the
development of social networks. Social networks consist of nodes or dots. They are
generally people or organizations.
These nods based on different types of interdependency, such as mutual values, views,
common believes financial affairs, friendships, or trade and are linked together. Social
networks are, therefore, a group of people who are connected to each other through social
communications (Garton, et al. 1997). The following Figure is a graphical image of such
communication and connections.
Figure1: Social Network nodes and connections between them
Electronic Discussion Group
As mentioned earlier, social networks consist of group of people who are
connected with each other through social communications. Communication can happen
through different means, such as: e-mail, discussion groups, face to face interaction, or
interaction within weblogs. Email and electronic discussion groups are the main focus of
this research. Through creating social network, electronic Discussion Groups help
members share ideas, distribute knowledge and create new knowledge. If the people in
4
discussion groups participate in transferring information and exchanging knowledge, the
efficiency of social connections will increase (Roselle, 2002). In other words, if common
goals follow in interactions, electronic discussion groups have the potential to establish
the social networks.
Social Capital
It seems there is not common agreement on a specific definition in the literature for social
capital. Fukuyama ( ?in Coleridge, 2007) has defined the social capital as the individual’s
capabilities for working together in groups or organizations and sharing the same goal.
Woolock (1998 in Coleridge, 2004) believes that social capital is information, trust and
the norms which are formed through social networks. The definition which this research
is focused on is a combination of the above mentioned definitions, that is the name social
capital can be assigned to a social network which has characteristics such as trust,
reciprocity, social support, suitable environment, commitment, cooperatin and efficacy
Review of literature
Social networks are investigated from different perspectives. In these investigations
several criteria which are assigned to social networks and social capital have been
examined. The researches which have been implemented about Electronic Discussion
Groups were mostly about the efficiency of these groups from educational perspective
and exchanging experiences. They are based on content analysis of the messages. For
example, some investigations have focused on discussion groups which have been
established by school teachers in order to run online teaching classes via the Internet.
(e.g., Karayan, 1997; Wu, 2004; Son, 2006). Some others (e.g., Sandars, et al. 2005) were
implemented in medical sciences. Email is a common channel for physicians in medical
sciences to exchange their knowledge and experiences in regard to the treatment of some
diseases quickly.
Only one investigation could be found in the literature which focused on LIS Electronic
Discussion Group, which is also the case for this study. It was implemented by Moradi
and Dokh-Esmati (2008). They classified the messages according to their aim. The
categories which were taken into consideration in this research were news, spam,
congratulation and condolence.
5
On the other hand, some of the researchers (such as, Lesser & Stork, 2001; Happer, 2002;
Gery, 2007 & Ferlander, 2007) investigated the networks and measured the probability of
turning a social network into a social capital. Each of them focused on a few factors
which were recognized as being effective for creating social capital. In general, the result
of these studies prove that more the specifications such as trust, coordination, suitable
environment, commitment and social support could be assigned to social networks, they
are more capable of establishing social capitals.
Based on the result of these studies professional communications via social networks,
such as Electronic Discussion Group, have the potential to create social capital. Although
Electronic Discussion Group in Library and Information Science in Iran has established
since 1997, a research which investigating such capability could not be found in the
related literature. This research, therefore is designed to fill this gap and to investigate the
extent to which the Library and Information Science Discussion Group (LISDG) in Iran
can be considered as a social capital.
Research Design
Based on the above mentioned problem, the first aim of this research is to acknowledge
the types of knowledge communicated in LISDG. Lundvell and Johnson’s classification
of knowledge about “Know-What”, “Know-How”, “Know-Why” and “Know-Who” is
the basis for this analysis. The second aim is to discover how far the characteristics of a
social capital can be assigned to LISDG. These are concepts such as: trust, reciprocity,
social support, commitment, cooperation, suitable environment, and efficacy??.
Research Questions
1- Which kinds of knowledge have been communicated between members
2- From members’ viewpoint, how far do the messages affect their individuals and
professional developments?
3- To what extent LISDG has turned to a social capital?
6
Research Hypothesis

There is significant association between trust and cooperation and efficacy and
trust.
Survey research and case study were selected for performing this research. In
order to collect data, two approaches, i.e., content analysis and seeking opinions were
used. Checklist and questionnaire were the related data gathering tools.
In order to fulfill the first aim, 1904 messages which were sent to LISDG
members were reviewed. Some of these messages which did not focused on professional
subjects were deleted. They were congratulations, condolence, subscription, spam ,etc.
Data analysis, therefore, focused on 1400 remaining messages.
The population of the study for fulfilling the second aim was all members of the list. The
number of members at the time when this study was implemented, that is February 2007,
was 1256. The sample of population for seeking the opinions was 297. In order to all
population has the equal chance to complete the questionnaire, this data collection tool
has been sent to all members. Study of similar in the literature and the experience of
researchers show that response rate would be low. This was proved by this research too,
after 3 follow ups, the completed and returned questionnaires constituted %60 of the
sample size.
In order to control the validity and reliability of data collection instruments, several
approaches have been undertaken. Based on a pre study, 126 messages from from
different month of the year have been reviewed and analyzed. In order to control the
accuracy of assigning different kinds of knowledge to the content of messages, the
checklists the same analysis have been implemented by three LIS Master students. This
study ensures the feasibility of the research. Similar approach was used for controlling
the accuracy of the content of checklists in the actual data gathering practice. In that
phase a random sampling of messages were examined by an LIS expert. In most cases
there was high consistency between checklists.
In term of questionnaire, the evaluation criteria acknowledged in the literature constitutes
the theoretical framework of the questionnaire. The pretest of the questionnaire was
7
responded by 7 librarians and 4 MLS students. The result of alpha Cronbach test was..??
and shows high consistency between the questions in different sections.
Findings
Based on two aims of the research, the analysis will be provided in two sections.
In the first section, answers for first research questions will be provided. The answered
based on the analysis of checklists.
In the second part, second and third research
questions will be answered and the result of research hypothesis test will be provided. In
the introductory part of this section the pattern of connection and communication in
LISDG is described.
The result of the analysis of the messages shows that most of the messages were
send by 200 members. This is in agreement with Lotka’s law, that is, many of the articles
are normally written by few numbers of writers (Lotka's law, Library And Information
Science Encyclopedia, 2nd vol.).??
In order to discover how the members are connected to each other UCINET and Net
Draw software were used. Based on betweenness scale in this software, the number of
connections to each member within LISDG was calculated. The result is demonstrated in
figure 2. In this figure the Nods (members) who had high interaction is larger than the
others. The largest Square in figure2 shows the most active member in the network .This
Node is related to the moderator of the list.
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LIS member: With
35 lines
LIS member: With 40 lines
LIS manager: With 196 lines
or 196 connections to other
members
Figure 2: The Communication pattern between LISDG members
However, the pattern of communication in figure 2 shows that communication has
scattered among members. In other words, the moderator or leader of the list is not the
mere active member, but there is high level of interaction between other members. Such
in communication proves that LISDG is an active social network.
Research question 1: Which kinds of knowledge have been communicated between
members
The result of typological analysis of the messages shows that messages which focus on
the existence of an entity and classified under “Know-What” category are the most
frequent messages and constitute 82% of them (i.e., 1143). Figure 3, shows the
distribution of different types of messages communicated among LISDG.
9
8.21% 2.35% 3.14%
3.92%
know-what
know-why
know-how
know-who
other
81.64%
Figure 3: Distribution of Types of Knowledge Communicated Among LISDG Members in 24
Months (n=1400)
Since “Know-What” type of messages is the most frequent type of knowledge
communicated, it is worth to analyze the content of these types of knowledge.
The news and information about publishing articles, books, running workshops,
designing/establishing Weblogs or Websites, different activities of libraries and
information centers are clustered within this type of knowledge. This variation is shown
in Figure 4:
10
Know
what
Employment
Conference
s
News and ads
in regard to
employment
& job
National or
international
congress,
Meetings
Education
&
Training
Formal or
informal
courses,
University
entrance
tests (in all
levels)
Informatio
n
Sources
Other
Book,
Weblog,
Websites
Professional
Events
Workshops,
on the job
training
Figure 4: Distribution of knowledge within "know-what" knowledge in LISDG messages
Figure 4, shows that knowledge within “know- what” covers a wide variety of
professional news. This distribution ensures that members receive news in regard to all
types of events in LIS profession. Awareness is an obvious characteristic of a social
capital which can be assigned to LISDG.
In terms of other types of knowledge, although, the number of them is few, it has been
increasing in two years. This is demonstrated in Figure 5.
400
364
350
300
295
what
250
why
200
175
150
who
116
100
50
0
how
21
1
2
0
1385
2
0
35
4
3
1
16
3
10
3
0
53
23
8
21
11
6
22
10
1386
Figure 5: Frequency of messages and their increase in 2006 and 2007
11
The growth in all types of knowledge ensures the active participation of members in
transferring all types of knowledge according to Zeleni’s logic. The difference between
the frequencies of different types of knowledge is in agreement with Zeleni’s idea who
believes that a large number of communications (people’s interaction) are about news,
few numbers are in regard to skills and very few are related to wisdom.
The increase in the number of messages might be in relation to the increase in the number
of the members. The number of the members in 8 month (From April to March) increased
from 1065 to 1256. This might also be related to the members’ increasing motivation for
communication and participation in discussions. Motivation is a dependent variable. It
depends on trust between members and to the list as a whole. On the other hand, this
might also be related to the critical role of leadership.
Social Capital
In this part a brief report is provided in regard to demographic information of respondents
and then the result of the analysis and answers to the research questions are provided. The
results show that %74 of those who completed the questionnaire were men. More than
half of them hold LIS Master Degree. About %40 of them are university students.
4- Research question 2: From members’ viewpoint, how far do the messages affect
their individuals and professional developments?
The analysis of reactions of member to the following statement and their answers to
question provided below were combined and summarized in Table2..

Although most messages sent to the list are news, they are useful for individual and
professional development.

How do you evaluate the discussion group in enhancing individual and professional
development?
Table2: Respondents’ idea about the effectiveness of
development
12
LISDG on individual and professional
How do you evaluate the discussion group in enhancing
individual and professional development?
Completely
Not Effective
Effective
Effective at
to some
all
degree
Effective
Completely
Total
Effective
0
1
3
1
1
6
Disagree
0
1
2
4
2
9
Agree to
1
7
12
14
5
39
Agree
3
4
12
34
12
65
Completely
0
1
4
8
23
36
4
14
33
61
43
155
disagree
development
they are useful for individual and professional
Although most messages sent to the list are news,
Not
some degree
agree
Total
The information in Table 2 shows that more than %50 of respondent acknowledges
LISDG as an effective list. Since efficacy was one of the evaluation criteria for a social
network and social capital, it can be claimed that LISDG has been nearly successful.
However, for responding better to the expectations of it members, more attention should
be devoted to encourage discussions which are more useful for the members.
Research question 3: To what extent LISDG has turned to a social capital?
As mentioned earlier, several evaluation criteria, i.e., commitment, trust, social support,
suitable atmosphere, reciprocity, efficacy and cooperation have been used to examine the
capability of LISDG to form social capital. According to information provided in Table
3, %80 of them either nearly or completely agrees that LISDG has the specifications of a
social capital. In other words, the members realized that the list is a trustable environment
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for communication, the messages help develop their personal and professional
capabilities, members are responsible and pay attention towards other people’s problems,
they can receive support whenever they are confronted with a problem, and the list is a
suitable environment for discussion and criticism. However, in terms of the willing, they
need more encouragement. Although the number of those whose ideas are situated in the
middle of our scale, that is “agree to some extend” for all evaluation criteria, are less than
those who “agree” and “completely agree” (except in terms of cooperation), it seems that
some attention and changes should be devoted, particularly to cooperation.
Table3: LIS Members' Viewpoints about Social Capital
Agree & Completely
Nearly agree
Agree
Disagree & Completely
Disagree
Commitment
68.3%
21.27%
10.43%
Trust
64.4%
26.5%
9.1%
Reciprocity
61.3%
28.93%
9.77%
Efficacy
59.1%
30.18%
10.72%
Healthy
51.9%
30.8%
17.3%
Social Support
50.9%
36.58%
12.52%
Cooperation
48.2%
34.87%
16.93%
Research Hypothsis: There is significant association between trust and cooperation
and efficacy and trust.
As mentioned earlier, existence of some of the above mentioned evaluation criteria
depends on other criteria. Therefore, the positive opinions about an independent criterion
are the main reason for the existence and usefulness of the other dependent one/s. For
14
example, if members more trust other members or the list in regard to helping each other
when they have a professional problem or when a question raises, they would have more
motivation for interaction. On the other hand when communication and interaction is
useful and effective in solving professional problems, members are more willing to
communicate. The result of Spearman Correlation tests show the P value is = 0.00 <0/05
for both tests. In other words, there is significant association between trust and
willingness to communicate and between efficacy and willingness to interaction.
Discussion and Recommendations
The analysis of 1400 messages shows that in terms of the increasing number of members,
LISDG is an active social network.
Most of the messages are “Know-What” type.
However, since the other types of messages are increasing in two years under
consideration in this research, the result is in agreement with Zeleni’s theory. According
to the ideas of the LISDG’s members, it seems that the specifications of a social capital
can be assigned to the list.
Ten years active life of LISDG is due to a knowledgeable, patient and active moderator
who establishes the list and in spite of being a busy academic has devoted a lot of time on
running and managing the list. This is also due to a few LIS scholars whose knowledge
and experience ensures a trustable list; and a large number of young generation of
librarians and LIS students in Masters and Ph.D level in Iran whose enthusiasm,
knowledge and commitment help LISDG to survive and form a valuable social capital.
Although the results show that LISDG has an active life, in order to continue its life, to
encourage more commitment and to increase the number of messages in regard to “Know
How” and “Know Why” and to help producing collective wisdom, following suggestions
are provided:
1. Through regular surveys,
the quality and the quantity of messages must be
evaluated. The result can show the possible shortcomings and advantages. These
will be taken into granted by moderator,
15
1. LISDG must build relationship with other useful similar groups in the country or
outside (e.g., IFLANET Mailing Lists4، CNI-COPYRIGHT5, LM_NET6) and
Library Associations in other countries). This communication helps members
become informed about other similar groups experiences and their professional
activities. It also makes them familiar with LISDG and Iranian librarians’
activities and expertise.
2. All messages should be signed by those who post them. This not only helps
member become familiar with each other, but also minimizes the problem that
this research confronted with for future researchers.
Suggestions for further research:
This research provides a well ground for other research as follows:
1. Investigating and analyzing other social capital evaluation criteria, such as: social
cohesion, social norms and the level of cohesiveness in communications,
2. Using other measurement scales such as centralization,
3. Investigating the extent to which list posses the specifications of a social capital,
4.
Investigating the role of moderator of manager LISDG in shaping a social capital,
5. Since from September 2008, at the time this research has been completed, the
software which is being used for managerial aspect of LISDG, has been changed
it seems necessary to repeat this study and use the facilities that the new version
of software provided and compare the results.
Present version, facilitates access to all 10 years archives of messages also their
categorizations.
4
. http://www.ifla.org/II/iflalist.htm
. http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/
6
. http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/
5
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