The Adaptation Of Social Media For Marketing Of University Libraries In Sri Lanka

Current technological improvements have influenced on behaviors and intentions of the user communities as suggested by Technical Acceptance Model(TAM)(Davis,1989)①.These developments have extended out as an important component,specially,in the academic,professional and day to day life activities of the professionals who are working in the university libraries all over the world.Role of the library professionals has changed as a result of this and it has been created a vast number of new duties to understand,implement and operate in the libraries to serve users(Aschcroft,2004②;Fourie,2004③).This present scenario has impacted,similarly and greatly,on university library professionals as well in Sri Lanka.Library systems and websites integrated with social media components are very common in modern libraries as a tool to market their services and disseminating of information.This technological changing scenario has greatly influenced,specially,in the academic libraries in the world.Most of current studies in the field show that there is an affirmation interrelationship between library professionals and social media concepts.In maintaining a good relationship with the library community,library professionals use social media as a method to attract users’ attention(Hall,2011)④.Therefore,it is very important to take this concept as a dialog among the library community.The main purpose of the research was to examine the nature of adaptation of social media tools of library professionals for marketing university libraries in Sri Lanka.Therefore,the study discuss this scenario based on four themes:the motivation of the library academics to adapt social media for library marketing,the usefulness of social media on marketing of university libraries,social media for the library marketing and the challenges encountered by academic professionals in the system copping with social media in the use of library service.To achieve the targets of the study,it was used a sample of library academics representing all the universities in Sri Lanka and the data regarding their attitudes on social media were correlations and cross tabulations and they have been presented in the form of tables,graphs and diagrams.Frequency tables were drawn and presented in tables and bar graphs.Through these calculations,study could be able to find out different influences of different factors on the adaptation on social media marketing in university libraries in Sri Lanka.From fourth chapter to chapter seven of the thesis is the data analysis of the current research.Accordingly,chapter four would analyze the motivation factors of library academics to adapt social media for marketing.It provides the use of social media in the university libraries and the application of social media in providing daily operations.The most important observation in this was library academics have the knowledge on how to operate social media platforms in their service stations,even though it has not been introduced them into the operating system yet.One of the main observations which was identified in this study is the positive attitude of professionals in the library system of Sri Lankan universities towards technological advancements in introducing social media into their operating system.Further it was noticed that their existing knowledge on social media platforms and how social media concepts implement practically to the process to provide reliable resources and better services to the users are high,even though usage of social media is in a lower stage,comparatively.Chapter five provides results on usefulness of social media in marketing of libraries.The analysis was centered on the data gathered for the main research question of "what are the socio demographic variables that are most associated to frequency or adapt of social media for marketing university libraries".In this case,it was used four components namely,the effective level of social media usage,the functions of social media usage,importance of social media usage,usefulness of social media usage.The library academics use the social media platforms as a medium of communication with the user community of the library by ignoring the ability of social media platforms as a marketing concept in adapting to them in the most of the library communities in Sri Lanka.One of the main reasons is use of social media to give a modern impression to libraries and the users’ requirements.Chapter six discusses the social media for library marketing.Identification of the services which can be provided to the library to the user community by using social media is a very special component in the process of adapting to social media.Therefore,as a main objective of the study,it was collected the data on which type of services can be provided through social media.The data analysis part would be presented in chapter seven.In this,in marketing libraries using social media,it was given the attention on library services,resources and type of model which can be used to market libraries through social media tools.Chapter seven provides the challenges which would be faced in using social media by library professionals.The problems such as the slow speed of internet,lack of social media policies,privacy issues and confidentiality of information were identified as main obstacles in Sri Lankan university libraries.Further,lack of training opportunities,the willingness of the library staff to use conventional methods and lack of resources are the challenges which would be faced in introducing social media into the library system.Chapter eight provides a major work done by this research using findings of this research.In this chapter,it proposed user-librarian collaboration model in using social media for marketing university libraries in Sri Lanka.This model is based on the findings of the study,review of literature and current management practices as a Sri Lankan university library profession.The model represents a User-Librarian Collaborative Model(ULCM)which can be applied to market university libraries in Sri Lanka.In users’ perspective,interactivity,attractiveness,satisfaction,availability,effectiveness and efficiency,friendliness,satisfaction,fulfillment and methodology to solve problems in day today uses of libraries are the main requirements.Further,librarians want a methodology to maintain the libraries with the requirements of effectiveness,efficiency,feedback,e-reputation,modern impression and motivation towards library development.The proposed collaborative model,mainly,performs four basic functions.They are User Engagement(UE),Discovery and Feedback(DF),Development and Management(DM),Teaching and Learning(TL).The proposed model would be implemented in two university libraries in Sri Lanka:University of Colombo and Kelaniya University as a pilot project.Since the study recommends and identifies that Facebook as the most influential social media platform among the students of universities in Sri Lanka,at the initial stage,it would,only,use Facebook as a marketing tool to market services of libraries.It would suggest to improve the system with more social media tools in the future after frequent verifications by both parties.University system of Sri Lanka consisted with a number of faculties and degree programs.The basic requirements of the students changes with their faculties and degree programs.Colombo University consisted with eight faculties and six institutes.In Kelaniya University,there are seven faculties and 3 institutes.Further,in Sri Lanka university system,students should engage in their academic career for four years for specialized degree programs and three years for general degree programs.All these external factors to be considered in the implementation phase.The chapter nine included discussion,conclusion,implications and recommendations and future research prospects of the research.The present study offers a methodological development on library marketing through social media concept.The findings of this study can be used to market the university libraries in Sri Lanka and other South Asian university libraries,to build related strategies,to evaluate the social media adaptation behavior of the library academics.Since a research which is centered on Sri Lanka university libraries has not been done earlier,this research provides a better foundation to administrative staff in relevant fields.It would be helpful in implementation stage which leads to a fully automated library system in the future.Further,the research claims to the future researchers to conduct some more studies in this field and applications to the library,the traditional library service has transformed its mode to web environment and this shift has brought changes in students’attitudes and behavior regarding information searching and its use.Therefore it is very important to conduct future research to understand this changing environment.