Librarians' Use of Social Media for Promoting Library and Information Resources and Services in University Libraries in South-South Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine librarians’ use of social media for promoting library and information resources and services in university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design method was employed for this study. The sample for this study comprised of 304 librarians in 9 selected university libraries from 3 states of South-South, Nigeria. The questionnaire was the only instrument used for data collection. Frequency counts and means were used to analyze the data collected. The study revealed that blogs and facebook are the most commonly used social media to promote library and information resources and services in the libraries. Findings also showed librarians’ use of social media promotes two-way communication, makes communication with library users easier, and provides forum for feedback and increases library users / usage. Some challenges librarians encounter were also discovered, hence recommendations were made. These include provision of adequate technology and internet facilities in all offices in university libraries and a viable ICT policy amongst other recommendations.

Keywords: academic libraries, library promotion, library services and resources, marketing, modern technologies, social media