White Paper: Social Media in the library- best practice

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/access/white-paper-social-media.pdf

Taylor & Francis Group conducted focus groups in India, UK and US to understand how social media tools are selected and used in the library and change regularly in an evolving digital and social climate. The White Paper analyses the challenges and opportunities presented by social media as a communication tool in the library. The White Paper also considers its use in the library and how this differs by librarian job role. The samples are taken from academic librarians around the world, which may also allow us to examine differences by geographic location. In depth tele interviews have been conducted with with those who have researched the impact of social media tools in their library to include some detailed case studies.

The goal: to establish how librarians are currently using social media in their roles, the most useful social media tools and best applications for these tools in a library setting. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare, blogs , Pinterest are just some of the mainstream social media networking sites available. The opportunities social media presents to the library community includes but is not restricted to user engagement, professional networking, informational exchange and increasing the discoverability of existing online resources at the library. With so many tools available, multiple uses and so many librarians making use of these tools in their library, Taylor & Francis wants to determine common practices associated with each tool and how this varies by job role.

http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/whitePapers/socialMedia/

Objective

- To research and present a White Paper on challenges and opportunities presented by social

media comparing its uses in the library to establish the most useful types of social media and

best methods for disseminating and using these tools in a library setting

- To identify whether a librarian’s use of social media differs by role – are subject librarians

doing different things to electronic resources librarians?

- To identify if and how use of social media varies on an international level and what can be

learnt from this knowledge

- To identify whether there are social networking tools that librarians are using inside their

university that are different to mainstream social media – for example their own blogs,

intranets, listservs

best wishes

Shafina Segon

Head of Marketing, South Asia

Taylor & Francis India