academic libraries

Why social media is critical for this area of campus


A new white paper breaks down current practices in social media use by campus libraries worldwide, and provides tips for improvement

social-media-librariesAccording to a white paper from the Taylor & Francis Group titled “Use of social media by the library: current practices and future opportunities,” connecting with users digitally is quickly becoming the major goal for campus libraries.

The impetus for the study stems from the general belief that “social media has the potential to facilitate much closer relationships between libraries and their patrons.”

However, current practices from libraries generally remain hit or miss, even though 88 percent of respondents agreed that social media would become more important to the library in the future. The white paper aims to provide an overview of the most common methods in use today and suggests new approaches for libraries to try as well.

Comprised focus groups in the U.K., U.S. and India; ten telephone interviews with thought-leaders from the library community; a Twitter party; an online survey (with 497 responses) and desk research to reference other relevant studies, Taylor & Francis — a scholarly research group — found that 70 percent of libraries around the world use social media tools, with 30 percent of those libraries posting at least once per day and 60 percent having had an account for three years or longer, says the report. Facebook and Twitter are currently the most popular, but visual channels such as YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat have received growing interest within the community.

Mainly, libraries use their social media for promotion of events and services, but an increasing emphasis on taking advantage of the ability to receive feedback from patrons has led to communication being a major objective for things such as collection development and customer service. Additionally, using social media to present resources in new and flexible ways is a growing priority.

The report notes that using social media for the above purposes comes at a low cost and serves to build a sense of community between a library and its users, to support co-development of collections and help keep librarians updated on industry news and initiatives.

However, despite all of these advantages, there are numerous challenges with social media use by libraries.

(Next page: Challenges, as well as tips, for libraries on social media use moving forward)

Understanding the challenges to using social media effectively

Surveyed libraries noted that maintaining an active social media presence takes time, which can make it difficult to respond immediately to service queries. Additionally, it can be difficult to strike the proper tone between professional and personal, avoid duplication, and effectively exposing library resources without violating any copyright issues. Finally, while about a third of surveyed libraries currently have a formalized social media policy and plan in place, another 40 percent had no plans to introduce one.

Rather than stay too constrained to a particular policy or plan, the white paper instead recommends that libraries remain experimental and flexible and concentrate on best practices and guidelines.

Tips from librarians around the world

For example, many librarians said that an important aspect of using social media in the future may be to integrate library services and collections with external sites.

Many librarians also see social media playing a crucial role in helping users find paths through complex content and directing them towards making useful connections as efficiently as possible, perhaps even through a combination of smart applications and human crowdsourcing in order to retrieve personalized suggestions or information.

Something that is particularly important for libraries to keep in mind moving forward is the nature of the specific social media site they are using, highlighted the report. Though there can be some overlap at times, the different features of each service are not to be underestimated. For example, Twitter can largely be used to build connections, Facebook allows the opportunity to set up events and share less formal media or information, Pinterest can be used promote library collections and introduce users to new books, and YouTube provides an outlet to stream film collections and post ‘how-to’ videos on literacy skills and how to use certain library resources.

Also, libraries need to effectively promote their online profiles. The most popular method of promotion comes from links on library websites, followed by e-mail signatures, said the respondents. These are both effective because users can immediately follow the library on their own profiles. Other methods include, but are not limited to, profile names on display in the library and printed on due date slips given to borrowers.

Will these strategies work?

While a return on effort can be difficult to prove due to limited information available on the overall effectiveness of social media in helping libraries achieve specific measurable goals, some case studies have been able to demonstrate increased borrowings from the library and higher user engagement thanks to frequent posts and quick response times, concluded the report. For this reason, a greater framework of evaluation is being developed and will likely come to play a useful role in helping libraries discover what does or does not work moving forward.

As social media grows in importance, the role of the librarian will be forced to shift in the future, highlighted the report. “No matter how advanced technology becomes, the human element of an actual librarian will always be appreciated, and helping users best navigate complex content will only grown in importance moving forward.”

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