Congratulations to Eric Forcier on the successful defense of his thesis titled "The Shoemaker's Son: A Substantive Theory of Social Media Use for Knowledge Sharing in Academic Libraries". Eric did an outstanding thesis work and his research work examined the use of social media in management of knowledge in academic libraries.
Eric's Thesis Abstract:
"In the last decade social media have become integrated in organizational knowledge sharing practices. Academic librarians, perhaps more than any other professionals, stand to benefit from a critical engagement with these tools. While an entire genre of literature is devoted to the concept of 'Library 2.0' and the use of social media for promotion and outreach, little research has been done on the use of social media for organizational communication and knowledge sharing. Using knowledge management as a framing discourse, this study seeks to address the gap in the literature by examining social media use at two academic libraries: Grant MacEwan University Library and University of Alberta Libraries. Analysis of qualitative interviews with 14 librarians using a Grounded Theory approach produces a substantive theory of social media use for knowledge sharing in academic libraries. This study establishes a theoretical framework for the examination of how social media are used and can be in organizational practices that can inform future research, while also revealing the current state of social media use in academic libraries and providing practical implications for the implementation of these tools for librarians."
Dr. Harvey Quaman and Dr. Dinesh Rathi were his co-supervisors.