SOCIAL MEDIA AS A CATALYST FOR IMPROVING QUALITY LIBRARY OPERATIONS: THE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES WITHIN KANO STATE

Abstract

Social media is the medium to socialize and exchange ideas and share information easily. These new media win the trust of students by connecting with them at a deeper level. The explosion of the social media phenomenon is as mind-boggling as that and the pace at which it is growing is maddening. Modern technology in communication no doubt has turned the entire world into a global village. It helps people to be better informed, enlightened and keep abreast with world development. Technology expresses mankind to a better way of doing things, this paper aims to determine social media as a catalyst for improving the quality of library operation. A descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The populations of this research work comprise academic Librarians within Kano state both male and female in the University Library, therefore, fifty-nine (59) academic Librarians were used as the primary population for the study and 40 returned Questionnaires were used for Data analysis. A self-administered questionnaire was designed and used for data collection. The data was analyzed and presented using Frequency Table and percentages. The paper examined social media as a catalyst for improving the quality of library operation: the study of University Libraries within Kano State. The paper identified social media sites used by the said Universities' libraries in services delivered to their staff and students. In a more detailed manner, the paper has also looked at the current state of social media in University Libraries by looking at the challenges preventing effective utilization of social media in the library and possible recommendations of the study are the Provision of adequate power supply as social media cannot function without technology, power and personnel as suggested them as the viable elements to social media. Adequate annual budgets should be allocated to libraries to enable the upgrade of relevant social media facilities. Librarians under study should have corporate social sites for communication and collaboration and for the effective provision of service.