Making the invisible visible through social network analysis

This paper attempts to establish the case for the use of SNA to uncover the invisible patterns and structures of academic community. An overview of the possible application areas and methods and metrics of SNA are also provided. A case of the structure and characteristics of the digital library community is provided to illustrate. The digital library community exhibits the small world phenomenon and the key authors and players in terms of editors of major journals form a cohesive group and they form the invisible college that influences the direction and spread of the field.