Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
The 21st century has witnessed that Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are one of the most dynamic online exercises to impact the advanced world. SNSs and their applications act as a powerful tool to link the gap between the library and its patrons. The COVID-19 Pandemic has proved that SNSs help in providing library services with the click of a mouse, thus expanding the services the library renders to their clients. The study highlights the use of various SNSs in promoting library services, reasons for using SNSs, to know the most preferred SNS, and frequency of SNSs used by the libraries, and the obstacles faced by the libraries. The data was collected from one hundred and thirty-eight Arts and Science college librarians all over India through an online questionnaire. The majority of the respondents used various SNSs applications in promoting the library services; WhatsApp and library websites are the most preferred SNSs and MySpace was the least preferred SNSs, the respondents agreed that they used SNSs to communicate with their users, to provide quick access, to uplift the library usage and market the library resources, most of the libraries once a week updated the SNSs, a few problems faced such as lack of security, media access, and internet connectivity and none of the respondents responded that they have low skill in using the SNSs for marketing the library resources. The study suggested that library professionals should update the SNSs regularly because of the advanced technologies these sites are the mirror to the library users and they can do further study with innovative technologies adopted by the libraries for the marketing library and information products and services.