Social Networking in Academic Libraries

The chapter provides a snapshot on the use of social networking in academic libraries through a systematic review of the available literature and an examination of the libraries’ presence on the most popular social networking sites. The chapter initially reviews 819 articles of empirical research, viewpoints, and case studies, based on keyword(s) search “Web 2.0 + Academic Libraries” since 2006 found in the Library Literature and Information Full Text Database. Out of full text research papers, articles with empirical studies, 328 (40% of 819), are shortlisted; all articles are from journals having impact factors (as per ISI Thomson Reuters rating 2011-12), 0.8 and above. The articles are collected from four major management and library science publishers: Ebscohost, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Emerald Insight (including EarlyCite articles, Backfiles content). The potential limitation of the study is that it does not attempt to trace out trends using any regression techniques. The extension of this study could be statistically testing the figures observed in this chapter and laying down a grounded theory approach for future research in Web 2.0 applications in libraries. The important finding is that the popularity of the various social networking sites can change quickly on the basis of e-World of Month (e-WoM).