STUDENTS’ INTERACTION WITH LIBRARIANS THROUGH TWITTER

LEONIE LAI-CHING TANG

SELINA WEN-ZHE LI

SAMUEL KAI-WAH CHU

WILSON MAXWELL

DORA YU-TING CHEN

INTRODUCTION

This research used mixed methods to study the applications of Twitter / Twitter-like tools in academic & public libraries and how they communicated with students.

• Under the prosperity of social networking tools, there are needs for libraries to adopt social networking tools to thrive in the information age.

INTRODUCTION – RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

To find out the application of Twitter or Twitter-like tools (e.g. Weibo) in academic and public libraries in the English and Chinese speaking countries / regions;

To identify the effectiveness of using the tools for information/ knowledge sharing and in enhancing various library services for students; and

To elicit the reasons for libraries to use (or not use) Twitter or Twitter-like tools; and

To understand students’ attitude toward Twitter or Twitter-like tools used by the libraries.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

• is different from other Web 2.0 webplications like blog, Flickr and YouTube which focus on contents-sharing.

Twitter

• Social Networking Tools collect data about members and store in user profiles to be shared.

Barsky & Purdon (2006)

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE (CONT’)

• Twitter has been the most popular micro-blogging application.

Grosseck & Holotescu (2008)

• Librarians are now able to keep up with current technology news by incorporating the social messaging service like Twitter into their daily routines.

Wilson (2008 )

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Region / Country Academic library Public library

Canada 1 2

United Kingdom 1 0

United States 4 1

Subtotal for English-speaking countries 6 3

PRC 6 4

Subtotal for Greater China 6 4

DATA COLLECTION – TWITTER USAGES

• 140-characters tweet with hyperlink / references

Characteristics:

• Announce an event• Promote library resources

Motives:

• a news-feed center

Library became…

DATA COLLECTION – WEIBO USAGES

• micro-blogging

Characteristics

• Stress on interactions• Stress on knowledge sharing

Motive

• a active knowledge sharing center with all the library patrons

Became…

DATA ANALYSIS – TWITTER SUBSCRIBERS

Academic libraries No. of subscribers

LCBU 964

LCU 1974

LUH 2272

LTIM 2984

LATU 1835

LWU 990

Public libraries No. of subscribers

LPC 1044

LPT 6352

LPYN 128463

DATA ANALYSIS – WEIBO SUBSCRIBERS

Academic libraries No. of subscribers

LUNB 560

LUJN 465

LUQC  2074

LUHT 3833

LUMX 3093

LUNJ 743

Public libraries No. of subscribers

LHS 2079

LZH 5433

NCLC 2438

LZS 367

DATA ANALYSIS - CONTENTS

Hash tag a phrase in tweets to make it easier to find.• Promotion is the key purpose!

DATA ANALYSIS – INTERACTION 1

REPLY TO COMMENTS

DATA ANALYSIS – INTERACTION 2

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

DATA ANALYSIS – INTERACTION 3

ENQUIRY (REFERENCES)

DATA ANALYSIS – CATEGORIES OF USAGES

Categories Explanation Example

1Announcement - Event update#event#previous event

Announcement - Event update Update event details, e.g.: venue

2

Announcement - Facilities & Referencing update#facilities#references

Announcement - Facilities & Referencing update Update libraries opening hours

3

Consultation & Reply#consultation#reply#technical support

Reply & Redirect the users @user, thank you for …

4Discussion & Interaction#topics#vote

Raise a topic What is favorite quote?

5

Promotion - Library & Collections#collections#library

Promote library services Database of the day: SearchWorks …

6 Sharing #resources

Sharing (including retweet RT & overheard OH)

RT @author, …OH I heard that …

FINDINGS – NO. OF USAGES

  Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 4 Type 5

Type 6   No. of

postsThe most used type

LCBU 7 4 10 5 23 1 50 5LCU 6 12 8 1 15 8 50 5LUH 11 4 3 2 9 10 39 1LTIM 26 8 4 3 6 3 50 1LATU 11 9 3 3 16 8 50 5LWU 9 13 5 2 9 13 51 2LPC 7 1 7 2 32 1 50 5LPT 17 7 9 1 3 13 50 1LPYN 13 4 6 6 19 2 50 5LUNB 6 7 8 4 6 19 50 6LUJN 1 5 1 1 1 6 15 6LUQC  13 8 1 1 4 9 36 1LUHT 10 5 7 6 4 18 50 6LUMX 8 16 4 1 1 13 43 2LUNJ 11 4 2 1 2 10 30 1LHS 3 7 11 13 7 9 50 4LZH 17 3 1 9 7 13 50 1NCLC 14 1 10 10 3 14 52 1LZS 11 3 3 1 2 4 24 1

FINDINGS – NO. OF USAGES (CONT’)

No. of libs used it as the most used type1 8 20.5%2 2 5.1%3 0 0.0%4 1 2.6%5 5 12.8%6 3 7.7%

CATEGORY 1 – ANNOUNCEMENT (EVENTS)

Libraries hosted events on some festival days.• e.g.:• Collections of the Month• Database of the Day• National Reading Day

CATEGORY 2 – ANNOUNCEMENT (FACILITIES & REFERENCES)

Facilities & References update• e.g.:• New gateway of database

CATEGORY 3 – REPLY (EXTERNAL)

They were used to communicating by tagging.• Also, they posted “tweets” that were in reply to users

CATEGORY 3 – REPLY (INTERNAL)

Internal communication

CATEGORY 4 – DISCUSSION & INTERACTION

Libraries invited users to chat and vote for their favorite librarians.

CATEGORY 5 – PROMOTION (LIBRARY & COLLECTIONS)

Promote AV collection

CATEGORY 6 – SHARING (KNOWLEDGE-SHARING)

Leisure post

DISCUSSION 1 – LIBRARY MARKETING

• Leisure style

Library Marketing

• play a more and more important role

Library patrons

• More than a physical repository

Library became…

DISCUSSION 2 – INTERACTION & SHARING

• Active communication

Interaction

• Frequent post

Sharing

CONCLUSION

• The application of Twitter and Twitter-like tools (e.g. Weibo) has already been used in lots of academic and public libraries in the English and Chinese Speaking countries/regions.

• The most origin objective for libraries using twitter is for library promotion and events announcement.

The application:

CONCLUSION (CONT’)

• With the help of twitter or Weibo, libraries could do the following much more effective than before:• Enhances referencing services• Facilitate information sharing• Facilitate knowledge sharing• Help promote library services• Increase understanding

The effectiveness:

CONCLUSION (CONT’)

• As for the reason that some libraries would like to use twitter or twitter-like social networking tools:• Enable instant announcement, consultation and

promotion• Involving more library patrons• Sharing information more widely

• As for those do not use twitter or twitter-like:• Few interactions between the library and library

patrons• Other social networking tools for replacement

The reasons: