1. Role of Social Media in
National Library Services
Upali Amarasiri
22.10.2011

2. What is Social Media (SM)
• ‘Use of web based and mobile technologies to
turn communication in to an interactive
dialogue’ (Wikipedia)
• ‘A group of Internet–based applications that
build on ideological and technological
foundation of web 2.0 that allowed the
creation and exchange of generated content’
(Kaplan & Haelein)

3. Background of SM
• Improvement of the ICT sector
• Versatile new devices
• Increase of digital information
• New digital/mobile generation
• Change of human behavior

4. Recent changes in information sector
1. Volume of information grows
2. Variety of information sources increases
3. Velocity of information speeds up
4. Venues changes, new venues
5. Vigilance – attention increases
6. Vibrant – quality of information

5. Categories of Social media
(Kaplan & Haelein)
1. Collaborative projects (Wikipedia)
2. Blogs and micro blogs (twitter)
3. Content communities (you tube)
4. Social networks (Face book)
5. Virtual games
6. Virtual social world (second life)

6. Internet & ICT penetration (USA)
(Pew Internet)
• Adult use Internet; 2000-46%, 2010-74%
• Broadband at home; 2000-5%, 2010-65%
• Own a cell phone; 2000-53%, 2010-85%
• Social network users; 2000-0%, 2010-46%

7. Where to begin? (Stephen Abram)
• Start a blog
• Start a twitter feed
• Share your best practices on a Wiki
• Start a organizational discussion board
• Start a Facebook organizational page
• Start a You Tube channel
• Scrap the old print newsletter
• Incorporate social software into your organization

8. Basic Planning
• Setting realistic objectives
•Choose appropriate tools
•Identify the available human resources
•Decide who will responsible for what
•Create contents
•Evaluation

9. Why Social media is important for
libraries (Burkhardt)
• Communication: contact the users specially young
clients and other library users
• Respond to positive/negative Feedback: SM is the
quickest way to respond to the users concerns or praise
• Marketing/Advertising: SM is one of the new media for
advertising as millions of people use social media
• Understanding user better: SM make librarian close to
the users which will improve understanding

10. Benefits of using social media in a library
(Romero)
1. Publicize the library and its services
2. Can evaluate various aspects of a library
3. SM is a economical information dissemination tool as it
requires little resources and effort
4. Less expensive compare to traditional tools (pamphlets, brochures,
films etc.)
5. SM is a dynamic marketing tool
6. Opening new channel of communication
7. Increasing the visibility & image of the organization

11. Other benefits
• Project work – wikis, blogs, SMS, twitters, online chat
• Public Relation work
• Information discovery and access
• Reference services
• News and current awareness services
• Teaching and related activities
• Transform end users to collaborators
• Improve the services interacting with the community
• Develop new services according to the community needs
• Collaboration among Librarians

12. Thank You