This document exists because ALJ publishers Taylor & Francis commissioned UK scholarly communications marketing specialists tbi Communications (www.tbicommunications.com) to ‘provide an overview of current practices relating to the use by libraries of social media, from a world-wide perspective, against which individual institutions can benchmark their own activities and be inspired to try new approaches’.
The research programme included focus groups with librarians in the UK, India and the USA, 10 telephone interviews with ‘thought-leaders from the library community’, a Twitter party and an online survey with 497 responses.
The survey found that over 70% of libraries are using social media tools and 30% of librarians are posting at least daily. These are surprisingly high numbers. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular channels, with increasing interest in visual channels such as YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. Most popular uses were promoting and seeking feedback on library services, resources and activities.
There is an executive summary at the front and a summary and conclusions at the back, plus five sections covering current practice, policies, effectiveness, promotion and predictions for the future. The messages are encased in a vibrant graphic medium, aptly making the point that in the social media world how things look is often as important as what the things are.
The three-page section on the effectiveness of social media in engaging library users might have been where the nuggets could be found, but it is not; instead it is ambivalent. Apparently studies are inconclusive, based on anecdotal evidence, confined to specific library clientele and their technical familiarity with social media software; and for information discovery email is the preferred channel.
So we are in the early stages of library uses of social media, and even if the report does point out the absence of an assessment framework, it also points out the importance of developing standards, guidelines and benchmarks to ensure that, as user engagement gains momentum, librarians are using their skills to consistently benefit both parties. ALIA, NSLA, public library peak bodies – are you out there?
Should you take the 30 min or so to read this screen-based report? Of course you should. Digital engagement will accompany content organisation and preservation for our foreseeable future, and we need to be relevant for the generations to come – generations that will be active on today's platforms as well as those that have yet to be coded.
The white paper concludes:
It is clear that while the sophistication of social networking tools used and the frequency of updates are important factors in presenting a strong online presence, many agree that it is rather the quality and type of content posted, the defined goals and plans, and an alignment of the needs and expectations of the library users that leads to successful engagement.
Amen to that.