Social media presence and authority of Nigerian University Libraries / Joshua Sani Magoi
From the onset of Web 2.0 in 2004 by O’Reilly, usage of social media has become prevalence in academic libraries. Social media tools are used to fulfil a variety of purposes and services aiming towards achieving libraries’ objectives, while people at large use social media tools to stay connected...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
2019
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14423/2/Joshua.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14423/1/Joshua_Sani.pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/14423/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | From the onset of Web 2.0 in 2004 by O’Reilly, usage of social media has become
prevalence in academic libraries. Social media tools are used to fulfil a variety of purposes
and services aiming towards achieving libraries’ objectives, while people at large use
social media tools to stay connected with relations, peer groups and friends. In this digital
age, the ubiquity of social media in our lives has captured the imagination and attention
of the entire world. Web 2.0 and social media are invariably becoming a more familiar
technology that academic libraries in developed countries employ to market their services
and resources to their prospective customers, although as observed in this study, this has
not been the case in most developing countries in Africa such as Nigeria. Librarians as
authors of knowledge are expected to manage their libraries’ online social media presence
and to have an effective strategy in place to create their social media authority. In this
study, the researcher seeks to examine social media presence in academic libraries in
Nigeria and explore how librarians engage with users to create social media authority.
The study also seeks to understand academic libraries’ impression on the acceptance and
or rejection of social media presence and authority based on a purposive sampling of three
federal universities’ libraries in Nigeria. The study adopts a qualitative approach
methodology in which interviews, focus groups and web analysis were the instruments
used in data collection. Presentation of findings is based on Rogers’ 2003 Diffusion of
Innovation (DOI) framework. The results show that libraries and librarians are aware of
social media and are already adopting social media platforms for both their official and
private purposes. The study also found that although librarians do struggle with issues of
acceptance, rejection and non-commitment on their adoption of social media, awareness
on the role of social media created positive impacts on the acceptance of this innovation in the libraries and among librarians. On the other hand, negative attitudes of librarians
resulted in rejection and non-commitment of social media adoption in the libraries.
Findings from web analysis meanwhile show usage of social media are still inadequate
as librarians still prefer to engage on their personal platforms. Generally, while some
librarians viewed social media presence as an innovation for services and entertainment,
quite a few felt it is a medium used for cybercrime and deception. Notwithstanding the
findings that established social media presence and authority in academic libraries and
among librarians in Nigeria, the findings cannot be generalized as only three libraries
were investigated in the study.
|
|---|