Perception and Use of Social Media by Library Users of the Aliah University, Kolkata: a study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Alam, N.

Affiliations: Assistant Librarian, Aliah University, Kolkata – 700156, West Bengal. (E): [email protected]

Abstract: Social media and its tools have great potential in building relationship between a library and its users, mainly by allowing users to participate in creating contents, access information, and disseminating the information more rapidly. The main objective of the study discussed in the present article was to investigate the perception towards social media and its effective utilization by Aliah University Library users in meeting their information needs. The study has confirmed that majority of respondents were well aware of the different social media platforms and were using them in their studies, entertainment, social awareness, research, and to catch up the latest updates. However, the problems faced by the respondents on using the social media mainly came in the form of irrelevant content, advertisement, and lack of authentic information on these platforms. The findings of the studies will not only help in understanding the ‘awareness and need’ of social media amongst users of Aliah University Library but will also provide guidance to other libraries on how to extend their services on the different social media platforms.

Keywords: Social media, Social media tools, Use of social media, Aliah University Library users

DOI: 10.18329/09757597/2020/13103

Journal: World Digital Libraries - An international journal, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 29-42, 2020