Social media usage and assessment for Greek Academic Libraries

Abstract

The aim of the present study was primarily to examine the social media practices and the organization, management and leverage of the social media accounts for Greek academic libraries. Important aspects of the research were also the examination of the usage assessment of Greek Academic Libraries’ presence in social media in terms of awareness, engagement and interaction with the users and additionally the study of the importance of social media presence along with participants expectations from their usage and their future role. For the purpose of the study a questionnaire was constructed and customized to academic libraries’ needs and reality. According to the findings, all the participating libraries use social media to measure their user interaction and all (except one) their awareness, while on the contrary user engagement does not equally concern them. The main benefit of the social media assessment proved to be the increase of their openness, awareness and credibility, and for that the majority of the libraries use social media as a tool of outreach. Furthermore, most of the libraries highlighted the extraordinary usefulness of social media, particularly for the direct and two-way interaction between libraries and users, although they are not so mature in conducting strategic planning and management schemes. The main challenge libraries face is the new trends follow-up. Social media are also thought of having a future for the academic libraries and of playing an important role. The usefulness of the results lies in the fact that other foreign academic libraries could take advantage of the Greek experience and the study insights. In national level there has not been any similar study in the field of Library Science management. The lack of post content analysis and a feedback from the social media users’ point of view could be a perspective for future research.