Inclusion of Social Media and Digital Infrastructures in Marketing Library Products and Services in Central Libraries of Multi-Disciplinary Universities in Kerala

Abstract

Social networking tools are the inevitable essence of life. The flexible structure of social networks paves the way for communication and collaboration between users and librarians. So here, the paper constitutes a study of the central libraries of Four multidisciplinary universities in Kerala in terms of the usage of social networks and digital infrastructures for promoting and marketing library information sources and services. Data collected from the official library websites, Web portals and social media applications of Kerala University Library (KUL) of the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University Library (MGUL) of Mahatma Gandhi University, Hermann Gundert Central Library (HGCL) of Kannur university and CH Mohammed Koya Library (CHKML) of University of Calicut in Kerala, other universities libraries in Kerala have no sufficient social media or official websites for the knowledge organization and communication. The study determines the social networking tools and digital infrastructure used for information communication, Knowledge organization, Knowledge distribution, and Information promotion in the central Libraries of four multidisciplinary universities in Kerala. The study also portrays the benefits of social networking tools in libraries, marketing techniques used to deliver information sources and services, and implementation of 4P’s in Multidisciplinary university libraries of Kerala. These four central libraries of four universities in Kerala have an enormous collection of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, etc. All the libraries of multidisciplinary universities in Kerala use websites to organize their information. Mahatma Gandhi University Library of Mahatma Gandhi University is in the first position for using social media as compared to other university libraries. Facebook is the most common tool used by three central libraries of multidisciplinary universities in Kerala. CH Mohammed Koya University Library of the University of Calicut not using social media instead they take advantage of Chatbot, Web Portal, and Digital Library.

Keywords

• social networking sites (sns)
• social media applications
• digital applications
• kerala university libraries
• digital marketing
• e-marketing
• web marketing