Visualizing the scientific network of thermodynamics subject area based on outputs of Iranians scholars of the field indexed in Thomson Reuters Web of Science

Abstract

Object: The aim of the study is to identify the prevalence of social media in academic libraries in order to understand the reasons for creating social media pages and obstacles for not participating in social media among librarians. Method: Data were gathered via three focus study groups with 22 librarians from three research-intensive universities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Findings: The results indicated that at least four types of social media are deployed in libraries to reach out to the users: blogs, multimedia sharing sites, social bookmarking and social networking sites (SNS). Facebook, Blog, Delicious, YouTube and Twitter are the tools mainly adopted by these libraries. The motives for librarians to use social media were to promote library services, manage organizational knowledge and receiving instant feedback from users. Workflow obstacles, technology obstacles, organizational obstacles and personal obstacles deter librarians from participating in social media. This study provides experiential evidence that Malaysian academic librarians are not very serious in engaging themselves with social media. Library managements need to provide support to mobilize librarians into a more active and participatory role in creating social media presence.

Keywords

• academic librarians
• malaysia
• social media presence
• social networking tools
• web 2.0