A Study on the use of Facebook, RSS, Blogs and Twitter(Web2.0) among selected academic libraries from 6 Gulf
countries namely: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United ArabEmirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait
KAUSTRepository
Item type Conference Paper; Presentation
Authors Ramli, Rindra M.
DOI 10.5339/qproc.2014.gsla.3
Journal QScience Proceedings
Rights Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Downloaded 31-Aug-2015 06:52:33
Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Link to item http://hdl.handle.net/10754/315115
A Study on the use of Facebook, RSS, Blogs and Twitter (Web2.0) among selected academic libraries from 6 Gulf countries namely: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait Presented by Rindra M Ramli Access and Digital Services Spec, KAUST Library Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Agenda
• Introduction & Purpose of Research • Overview • Research Methodology • Findings • Conclusion • Recommendations
Introduction & Purpose of Research
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Overview
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Overview
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Overview
Mahmood & Richardson 2011 – Surveyed 100 ARL in USA RSS and Instant Messaging are popular tools Publishing new / announcements Sharing items published on library blogs
Overview
Chua and Goh (2010): Researched 120 library websites from Asia, Europe and North America Blogs, RSS and social networking sites were more prevalent in library websites in North America as compared to Europe and Asia
Overview
Chua and Goh (2010): Blogs: Focused on subject specific topics as well as a tool for communication RSS: Used for communicating news and events, updates of resources or collections on websites
Overview
Kim and Abbas (2010): Investigated 230 academic library websites 73% uses RSS 65% uses blogs 15% uses twitter
Overview
Tripathi and Kumar (2010): Out of 151 websites (USA): 56%: Instant Messaging 34%: Blog 22%: RSS
Research Objectives
Research Methodology
Exploratory study: Involved content analysis on selected library websites Visited and Browsed for the presence of the selected social media tools Total: 101 library websites Conducted between Sept – Oct 2013
Breakdown
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Qatar United Arab Emirates
Bahrain Kuwait Oman
Number of Public UniversiGes
28 1 11 4 1 2
Number of Private UniversiGes
5 9 16 10 2 12
Grand Total 33 10 27 14 3 14
Social Media usage among Gulf countries libraries
Sampled 101 Websites
Non-‐Existent
Existent Pointed back to Uni
Total
Facebook 48% 11% 42% 100%
Twi"er 53% 10% 37% 100%
RSS 80% 16% 4% 100%
Blogs 99% 0% 1% 100%
46%
80%
KSA: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
Facebook and Twitter are the most commonly used tools 18%: Facebook 15%: Twitter 12%: RSS
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Facebook Twi"er RSS
18
15
12
KSA
100%
78%
Qatar: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the commonly deployed tools 30%: RSS 20%: Twitter 10%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Facebook Twi"er RSS
10
20
30
Qatar
82% 75%
UAE: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the commonly deployed tools 30%: RSS 4%: Twitter 4%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Facebook Twi"er RSS
4 4
30
UAE
50% 50%
Bahrain: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the commonly deployed tools 7%: RSS 7%: Facebook
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Facebook RSS
7 7
Bahrain
0%
50%
Kuwait: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the commonly deployed tools 33%: Twitter 33%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Facebook Twi"er
33 33
Kuwait
50%
33%
Oman: Breakdown of universiHes using social media
Public Private
Twitter and Facebook are the commonly deployed tools 7%: Twitter 7%: Facebook
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Facebook Twi"er
7 7
Oman
Library promotion: Opening hours announcements, access to e-resources, general news, library collections Library services: Orientation and training programs Feedback
Common uses
Comparing with library websites from USA, Asia and Europe with Gulf countries: Commonly used: RSS & Facebook (Social Networking sites)
Co-Relation
Challenges
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Interesting Finding
Salem & Mourtada: Facebook users in Arab world is around 45 million UAE, Kuwait and Qatar are the front runners – Facebook users
Interesting Finding Salem & Mourtada: Twitter users: Saudi Arabia: 830,291 Kuwait: 370,987 UAE: 263, 070 Bahrain: 72, 468 Qatar:: 59, 835 Oman: 9,832
Recommendations:
Tool to connect to the users - Proper planning - Monitoring – new trends and tech
advancements - Moderation - Rules
Future studies:
- Preferred social media tools - Determine how social media tools
can better serve the library users - Eliciting information from library
users on the information that they (the users) like to receive from libraries
Thank you