Academic library blogs: Comments on posts

How many comments appeared on each academic library blog in Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples during the 92-day study period (March 1-May 31, 2007)?

Once again, I’ll refer you to the equivalent public library blog post for commentary–noting that, once again, lots of the blogs don’t allow comments, quite often for entirely sensible reasons (e.g., some blogs are just posts of library schedules or new acquisition, using the blog form as an easy way to publish information with no attempt at community involvement).

That said… Where there are a handful of public library blogs that had lots of comments (three with more than 100), there are only two academic blogs with more than 40 comments during the period, and those two were in the sixties (61 and 66 respectively). Overall, there were a total of 575 comments (just less than a third as many as for public library blogs). That’s an average (mean) of 2.5 comments per blog. On the other hand, the median number of comments per blog is precisely the same as for public library blogs: Zero. While 118 of the 252 public library blogs had no comments, 145 of the 231 academic library blogs–nearly 63%–lacked comments entirely.

Here are the quintiles:

  • Q1: Most comments: From three to 66 comments per blog.
    Average (mean): 11.2 comments per blog
    Median: Seven comments per blog.
  • Q2: More comments: From zero to three comments per blog.
    Average: 1.3 comments per blog.
    Median: One comment.
  • Q3 through Q5: No comments.

What happens if we restrict the quintiles to the 86 blogs that had at least one comment?

  • Q1: Most comments: From nine to 66 comments per blog.
    Average: 21.2 comments.
    Median: 13 comments.
  • Q2: More comments: From four to 9 comments per blog.
    Average: 6.4 comments.
    Median: 7 comments.
  • Q3: Average number of comments: From two to four comments.
    Average: 3.2 comments.
    Median: three comments.
  • Q4: Fewer comments: From one to two comments.
    Average:1.8 comments
    Median: Two comments.
  • Q5: Fewest comments: One comment per blog.

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