Slides from short presentation at the Digital Curation Professional Institute, held Jan. 7-8, 2013, Chapel Hill, NC.

1. BLOG PRESERVATION
… some considerations
CAROLYN HANK
DIGITAL CURATION PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE
JANUARY 8, 2013
CHAPEL HILL, NC

2. 2006-2008
1
GENERAL BLOGGERS
MOTIVATION BEHIND STUDY …
133 million blogs
indexed by Technorati
between 2002 and 2008.
White & Winn, 2009

3. 2006-2008
1
GENERAL BLOGGERS
People rely heavily on service
providers, often taking no
additional actions toward the
persistence of their user-
generated content.
Marshall, Bly & Brun-Cottan, 2006

4. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
SAMPLING ISSUES…
NEEDLE IN A
HAYSTACK
population

5. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
SAMPLING ISSUES…
CHAMELEON IN
A HAYSTACK
population

6. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Multiple instances
Multiple authors
? Scholar blogger(?)
MORE
Scholarly blog(?)
SAMPLING
CONSIDERATIONS
Currency
Timing

7. PRESERVATION
%
preservation for public access
& use into the indefinite future
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

8. PRESERVATION
Personal access/use 16%
Short-term future
Public access/use 19%
Short-term future
Personal access/use 76%
Indefinite future
Public access/use
80%
Indefinite future
0% 100%
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

9. 100%
90%
PRESERVATION
80%
PREFERENCES
70% Blogger
Co-Author(s)
60%
Provider/Host/Network
50% Search Engine
Public Trust
40%
30%
20%
RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

10. first line of
defense
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

11. final line of
defense
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

12. 100% PRESERVATION
90% PREFERENCES
80% Blogger
Co-Author(s)
70%
Provider/Host/Network
60%
Search Engine
50% Public Trust
40% Nat'l Library
Nat'l Archive
30%
Inst'l Library
20%
Inst'l Archive
10% Inst'l IT Dept
0%
RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

13. SAVING
Subscription
services
Export tools
Personal
back-ups
Document/text files
Via syndication
services %
Purposefully save entire blog via an
archiving service or independently
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

14. SERVICES
Subscription to web or blog archiving or back-up service
examples:
BACKUPIFY
BLOGBACKUPR
BACKUPMYBLOG
INTERNET ARCHIVE
LOC’s LEGAL BLAWGS ARCHIVE
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

15. SAVING
Export tools
Personal
back-ups
Document/text files
Via syndication
services %
Purposefully save some
blog components
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

16. BUT … RIGHTS & USE
Copyright
Statement
(n=34)
Creative
Commons
(n=13)
%
no rights or use statements
at blog or post level
2
SCHOLARS’ BLOGS

17. DISCLAIMERS
THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG IS PART OF THEIR SCHOLARLY RECORD …
Own
opinion
Not
responsible
Advice %
have an explicit or implicit
disclaimer-style statement
2
SCHOLARS’ BLOGS

18. DELETING
THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG SHOULD BE PRESERVED …
Duplicate
Post
“Post Regret”
Too sensitive or
revealing %
delete posts after publication
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

19. BLOG DELETION
%
have deleted a blog
2
SCHOLAR BLOGGERS

20. What
if?

22. SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

23. Pretty
bad.
Devastated,
both emotionally and
professionally.
Very
sad.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

24. I’d do something
drastic [in response].
Mad as hell.
Pretty
peeved. Angry
& upset.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

25. I don’t have to
do it anymore. I get half an
hour of my
life back.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

26. Probably
have a drink &
forget about it.
Not welcomed
but not tragic …
I’d get over it.
Pour another cup
of coffee & get
Drop out … back to work.
until something else
comes along.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

27. It would take an
extreme catastrophe.
How would
that happen?
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

28. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
BLOG ELIGIBILITY (644)
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE = 570 (86%)
PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH = 544 (84%)
KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG = 498 (77%)
TIME-STAMPED POSTS = 496 (77%)
ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO = 271 (42%)
AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD = 231(36%)
IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP) = 208 (32%)

29. WHAT ABOUT THOSE BLOGS THAT ARE
INACTIVE BUT STILL PUBLICLY
AVAILABLE …
As reported by Viegas (2005),
bloggers assume persistency of their
blogs unless deliberate action is
taken (by the blogger) to remove it.

30. 2009-2011
2 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE)
Available but
not actively
published to %
in previous
3 months left no message behind
(n=156) on where they went or
if they will be back etc.
blog analysis

31. 2011-PRESENT
3 SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE)
BLOGX BLOG ANALYSIS
n=909
N=1779 no new posts
> 3 months
HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS
Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from scholars’ inactive blogs.
#Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia

32. 2012-PRESENT
4 BIBLIOBLOGGERS (IN/ACTIVE)
BLOG
X
BLOG
QUESTIONNAIRES
INTERVIEWS
BLOGGER BLOG ANALYSIS
CV ANALYSIS
OCLC/ALISE Library & Information Science Research Grant Program
2012-PRESENT
RESULTS COMING SOON …
4
SUMMER 2013

33. SOURCES
Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and perceptions
impacting digital preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations &
Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).
Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from
scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring
influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hank, C., Sheble, L., & Choemprayong, S. (2007). Informing blog appraisal through
bloggers’ perspectives on selection and preservation. Paper presented at the
Conference on Appraisal in the Digital World, Rome, Italy.
Marshall, C.C., Bly, S., & Brun-Cottan, F. (2006). The long term fate of our digital
belongings: Toward a service model for personal archives. Archiving 2006 Final
Program and Proceedings, 3 (pp. 25–30). Springfield, VA: Society for Imaging
Sciences and Technology.
Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey of
blogging behaviors. In Proceedings of the Third International Digital Curation
Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.
Viegas, F.B. (2007). Bloggers' expectations of privacy and accountability: An initial
survey. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3). Retrieved from
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/viegas.html
White, D., & Winn, P. (2009). State of the blogosphere: 2008. Technorati. Retrieved from
http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2008/

34. THANK YOU
CAROLYN HANK
Email: chank@utk.edu
SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/carolynhank/
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