Social media engagement in developing countries - umexpert

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Social media engagement in developing countries: Boon or bane for academic libraries?

Information Development 1–14 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0266666917748985 journals.sagepub.com/home/idv

Joshua Sani Magoi University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Kaduna State University

M.K. Yanti Idaya Aspura University of Malaya

A Abrizah University of Malaya

Abstract The progressiveness of social media in academic libraries is the gear to achieve the libraries’ objectives, particularly in term of facilities and services. In addition, academic librarians have been using social media as a key medium for marketing, communication, and collaboration. However, social media use in academic libraries, especially in developing countries, is not without controversy. Studies indicate that social networking by academic librarians is ineffective use of librarians’ time and effort. The usefulness of and the hindrances in social media engagement for academic libraries in developing countries have yet to be established. For this reason, this review aims to identify the boons and the banes of social media engagement for academic libraries in developing countries in two continents, Asia and Africa. A structured literature review was conducted using methods promulgated by the Center for Reviews and Disseminations but adapted to the particular needs of this review. Various online databases were used for the review. The keywords/phrases used for the search were: social media, web 2.0, social media engagement, academic libraries, and developing countries; and after a profound scrutiny, 50 articles were found useful for the review. The result shows that there is a continued increase of published literature on social media in academic libraries in the developing countries. A substantial amount of literature emphasises the benefits of social media usefulness in academic libraries under five major themes – marketing and promotion of library services; professional/self-development;, social interaction; media sharing; and communication. A few articles express the distress in implementing social media in academic library services. The usefulness of and the hindrances in social media engagement reported in the literature should inform practicing librarians contemplating implementation of social media and guide formal social media application in library services. More so, this study will shape Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers to scope out areas of needs for future research. Keywords social media; Web 2.0; social media engagement; academic libraries; developing countries; structured literature review. Submitted: 24 July, 2017; Accepted: 27 November, 2017.

Introduction Social media has become a key medium in library services, affecting mainly the developed countries where it has led to an increase in connectivity, knowledge surfacing, better communication and

Corresponding author: A. Abrizah, Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computer and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email: [email protected]

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collaboration (Batikas and Van, 2013; Koo et al., 2015; Mahmood and Richardson, 2011). The widespread and varied usage of social networking tools in libraries have made a tremendous influence on social interactions between individuals, the community and society of all ages (Akeriwa et al., 2015), mostly among college and university students. Such tools include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Google Plus, and Flickr. Previous studies (Agosto and Hughes-Hassell, 2005; Taylor and Francis, 2014; Wordofa, 2014; Zohoorian-Fooladi and Abrizah, 2014) have identified that these platforms are considered to be the most frequent social media tools used towards achieving the library’s objectives in this digital age. The notion that this technology is a force of “disruptive innovation” in the library sector (Mon, 2015) has been discussed extensively in the academic literature. Tait, Martzoukou and Reid (2016) argue that many of these developments raise a number of questions that concern what the role of physical libraries is, or should be, in the twenty-first century. Chua and Goh (2010), who sampled 120 library websites from North America, Europe and Asia examined the widespread of Web 2.0 usage in higher education. They noticed that what was meant by Web 2.0 is generally understood, but the degree of adoption was still quite limited. They also found that academic libraries showed slightly higher adoption rates of all Web 2.0 applications compared to other library types, and libraries in North America led significantly in the adoption of Web 2.0 applications compared to their Asian counterparts. Chu and Du (2013) who examined librarians’ perceptions of social media usefulness and challenges, and factors influencing decisions to use or not to use such tools in these three continents, identified that most librarians had positive perceptions on the usage of the social media tools. However, hesitancy among library staff and limited participation of students were perceived to be hindrances in the implementation of these tools in library services. Findings of these studies implied that if Asian universities make up the destinations of more international students, the libraries might do well by considering various types of social networking tools. The rise of social media technologies has not only created new ways to seek and share information for millions of library users worldwide, but it also has presented new challenges for libraries in developing countries in meeting users where they are within social spaces. Accordingly, the use of social media

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by academic libraries, although a relatively new practice in developing countries, is the subject of much discussion. Besides offering promising outreach options for academic librarians, social media can also bring many advantages for an academic library including “the opportunity to raise its professional profile, the freedom to interact with users and the ability to connect with different departments within their institution” (Taylor and Francis, 2014: 5). Academic librarians have been using social media for communication, user engagement, collaboration and promotion of their library services and resources (Taylor and Francis, 2014). Knowledge sharing and building followers are the core attributes of social media, and librarians in the developing world have opted to make use of the social networks to fulfil among others, such objectives (Maness, 2006). It is based on such facts that Tess (2013) believes that it is because of such an innovative technology, that social media is receiving a rapid increase in research interest in the 21st century. However, social media use in academic libraries is not without controversy. While some maintain that social networking is a successful and innovative method of community outreach (Agyekum et al., 2016; Dickson and Holley, 2010; Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011), others argue that social networking by academic librarians is an ineffective use of librarians’ time and effort (Sekyere, 2009; Stuart, 2010). With the widespread use of social media applications in libraries, much of the research literature is predominated by exploratory descriptions of current tools used and is effective at describing how these tools are used. It often does not extend the discussion to address the more valuable question of why they are used. The usefulness and the concerns of social media engagement for academic libraries in developing countries or developing economies has yet to be established. For this reason, this paper seeks to examine the impact of social media engagement in academic libraries in developing countries in two continents, Asia and Africa, emphasising on the usefulness or benefits and the nuisance or distress. Therefore, the research intends to address this question: “Is social media a boon or a bane for academic libraries in developing countries?” Undertaking a review of the literature to provide the best evidence for informing policy and practice in any discipline, is a key research objective for the respective academic and practitioner communities.

Magoi et al: Social media engagement in developing countries

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Methodology

c) Immersed Search:

To examine the boons and banes of social media in academic libraries, a review of the literature was conducted between March and December 2016. Due to the multiplicity of sources of literature that encompasses social media, the researchers restricted the selection to published articles between 2010 to 2016, and adopted a Structured Literature Review (SLR) so that any central literature would be considered as the authors scoped out the study. This is in line with Tranfield et al. (2003) based on their qualitative research synthesis, which has been established and confirmed across the range of disciplines in the social sciences. The SLR was conducted using methods promulgated by the Center for Reviews and Disseminations (2009) but adapted to the particular needs of this review. Similar to Abrizah et al. (2016), the SLR was adopted with little alteration in order to systematically eschew other irrelevant literature from the study. Only articles that are available in full-text were taken, since authors of the review (referred to as researchers) need to assess the authors’ (of the published literature) assumptions, procedures, evidence and conclusions, rather than taking the authors’ conclusions on faith. The review passes through four different stages of the literature search.

Profound searches were conducted based on the following criteria: a) Full-text article; b) Research articles incorporating the research method employed; c) Articles addressing issues on academic libraries in developing countries in Asia and Africa; d) Articles treating social media engagement in developing countries in Asia and Africa; e) Articles that spotted the benefits or constraints of social media in developing countries in Asia and Africa; and f) Articles published between 2010 to 2016. The countries are considered developing economies according to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Report, April 2015 (International Monetary Fund, 2015). The search was restricted to the core literature, i.e. papers written in the English language.

a) General Database Search: Various electronic databases were subjected to searches. They are EBSCOHost, Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer, Taylor and Francis Online and Web of Science.

b) Search Words and Phrases: The authors used the following search terms in order to secure the most relevant articles for review: Social Media, Web 2.0, Social Media Engagement, Academic Libraries and Developing Countries. With these specific search terms, the researchers discovered highly relevant articles for inclusion and excluded those that do not satisfy the set criteria. Having gone through this exercise, the researchers found a significant number of published articles indexed in the databases used. In total, 269 records were obtained and 101 remained after duplicates were removed.

d) Final Selection and Analysis: A total of 50 papers published between 2010 and 2016 were found to be suitable for final review, with 21 articles from studies conducted in Asia and 29 articles from Africa. All 50 articles were analysed and categorised based on: a) the spatial context of the study; and b) the research question – is social media a boon or a bane for academic libraries in developing countries. It aimed to fashion out and identify literature on advantages of social media utilisation in contrast to its depression in the academic libraries. A total of 37 articles reported on the boon while 13 reported the bane. Each article is put in only one theme, based on the main finding related to the boons or banes it presented, although the findings may overlap.

Findings Benefits of Social Media for Academic Libraries The findings of this review identified a steady growth of published literature on social media in the academic libraries from 2010 to 2016, consistent with the reports of other researchers (Kim and Abbas, 2010; Maness, 2006; Nguyen, 2008; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010; Xu et al., 2009; Zohoorian-Fooladi and Abrizah, 2014). It shows that the literature on the use of social media tools in academic libraries in developing countries is increasing. Findings on the benefits are organised under five themes namely: (a) Marketing and promotion of library services; (b) Professional and/or Self-development; (c) Social interaction; (d) Media sharing; and (e) Communication.

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(a) Leveraging Social Media to Market and Promote Library Services. Unlike in a traditional library where marketing and promotion of library services have been a challenge, social media has unlocked diverse platforms for academic libraries to showcase their services, beyond the developed world. Social media has provided numerous prospects in marketing and promoting academic library services to reach out and interact with the society since its emergence over the past one and half decade. Academic librarians have identified the importance of social media in marketing and promoting library services, which has necessitated libraries of all types to come up with new strategies to market their services and products. Akeriwa et al. (2015) noted that university libraries in Ghana were utilising mobile technologies for their social media-based library services to assist and promote libraries to meet their objectives of providing customers with effective and efficient services. Kwanya et al. (2012) conceded that in Kenya, academic libraries utilised Web 2.0 to market library services through current awareness services, provision of wider access to information and knowledge; lowering the costs of disseminating information and facilitating quick and ready access to information. Academic libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa use YouTube videos to promote their services and resources, provide library instruction and training as well as offer tutorials on how to use specific databases and tools (Wordofa, 2014). A significant number of researches have identified the usefulness of social media marketing and promotion in academic libraries (Adeleke and Habila, 2012; Agyekum et al., 2016; Akporhonor, 2015; Baro et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2014; Mabweazara and Zinn, 2016; Noorhidawati et al., 2015; Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011; Siddike and Kiran, 2015). It was found that social media platforms, especially blogs and social networking sites (SNS), are being used for updating information services. They are veritable tools for enhancement and facilitating feedback and taking the library services to where the users’ community is stationed. Akporhonor (2015) revealed that in Nigeria, blogs and Facebook are the most commonly used social media to promote library and information resources and services in the academic libraries. Riza Ayu and Abrizah (2011) found that most Malaysian academic libraries used the Facebook page as a marketing tool. A’dillah et al. (2016) highlighted that Facebook provides the greatest impact as a promotional tool and is the most effective elements in providing feedback and answering users’ enquiries.


Hence, utilisation of social media marketing and promotion in the academic libraries is the most effective way to reach out to customers of the libraries. In India Sonawane and Patil (2015) opined that social media should not be avoided in academic libraries. This is due to the constant increase in the number of social media users and access to information and communication is facilitated with this social network. Sheikh et al. (2016) admitted that university libraries in Pakistan should include the use of social media for promotion of their services, in order to be at par with other reputed university libraries of the world. In China, Zhu (2016) found that academic libraries have created WeChat accounts and engaged many followers who are able to directly access library resources and services via their mobile device. The Chinese too found that social media tool was an effective approach to promote library services and enhance relationships between the library and its users. Likewise in Nigeria, Omobolanle (2015) found that academic librarians had high perception and acceptance of, and were receptive to use Facebook and Twitter to promote library services. He further identified that the younger librarians showed more positive perception and higher acceptance of the innovation compared to their senior counterparts. The literature indicates that the most notable achievement of libraries in the developing countries that have adopted social media has been to market and promote library services through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube platforms. Facebook has been observed to be an effective marketing tool for library events and news, while Twitter is used to promote and discuss resources and library events. A’dillah et al. (2016) found that in Malaysian research university libraries, Facebook provided the greatest impact as a promotional tool, dissemination of information, answering users inquiries and providing feedback on the promotional initiatives. Riza Ayu and Abrizah (2011) identified that most academic libraries in Malaysia used Facebook for marketing and creating awareness of library services. Other studies elsewhere (Agyekum et al., 2016; Akeriwa et al., 2015; Aloini et al., 2014; Anunobi and Ogbonna, 2012; Xu et al., 2015) also highlighted that librarians’ opinions on the benefits of using social media tools in academic libraries were for marketing and promotion of library events and as well as dissemination of news. This is because social media tools have made it easier for the library users to discover information as they constantly browse the library web pages.


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(b) Improving Professional Knowledge and Selfdevelopment of Academic Librarians. Social media technologies are so popular that they now dominate the everyday personal and professional lives of millions of users and are affecting the way libraries and other information organisations operate (Baro et al., 2013; Ahenkorah-Marfo, and Akussah, 2016). A few literatures amplify that social media has the ability to improve academic librarians’ professional knowledge and self-development. Onuoha (2013) revealed that online discussion forums and online social networks such as Facebook, Wikis podcast and bookmarking were used for professional development through training and workshops among Nigerian academic librarians. He further identified that librarians were found to have learnt mostly by reading through the conversations of others (Onuoha, 2013). Invariably, librarians derived benefits through joining discussion groups for collaborations and interactions among their professional colleagues. According to Rehman and Shafique (2011), social media usage was on the increase in library services, and the information professionals in Pakistan had a positive perception of the innovation. They believed that extensive trainings on the use of social media will enhance better utilisation among librarians. The study was corroborated by Muhammad and Khalid (2012) who found that in Pakistan, instant messaging, blogs, social networking and wikis were the most popular Web 2.0 technologies and librarians adopted the use of such technologies in their professional and personal lives. In Malaysia, Mansor and Idris (2010) found that academic librarians were keen to attend workshops and training on social media and Library 2.0, which reflects positive indication of their willingness in more open, flexible and interaction with users via social media. Onuoha (2013) emphasized that there was a need for academic librarians to use social media to retain relationships among their professional members and their organizations in order to remain relevant in their profession. Similarly, Tandi Lwoga (2014) and Sonawane and Patil (2015) expressed that an academic library that used SNS could effectively use the platforms to promote pleasant professional relationship among librarians and the library users. Social media encourages professional collaboration and also attracts academic librarians to develop talents in their area of specialization through online personal conversations with their professional colleagues. This goes far to establishing a cordial relationship among

librarians and as well their patrons. Therefore, Omeluzor et al. (2016) suggested that academic libraries prioritise training and retraining of librarians in the emerging digital era. The literature revealed that academic librarians acquire the skills for the use of Web 2.0 tools through self-practice, friends/colleagues and attendance at workshops (Adeleke and Habila, 2012; Baro et al., 2013; Daluba and Maxwell, 2013; Fasola et al., 2015). These findings demonstrate the need for librarians to collaborate in support of training that melds professional practice and socialization in order to acquire digital skills to remain relevant in the global schemes of technological innovations. (c) Connecting with Current and Potential Library Users. Another boon of social media in the library is building engagement and exchanging of ideas among librarians and their customers. It is helpful for stirring up interactions among librarians and their users through knowledge sharing, knowledge gathering, information dissemination or communication (Chen et al., 2012). Academic librarians also make use of social media for social interaction with their peers and professional colleagues (Tella et al., 2013). Many other studies have identified that social media is an essential tool for social interaction in academic libraries (Bicen and Cavus, 2011; Essam and Mansour 2016; Kwanya et al. 2012) and among the librarians (Adetola and Okeoghene, 2016; Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011; Baro et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2012; Chu and Du, 2013; Daluba and Maxwell, 2013; Xu et al., 2015). Such interactions take different formats. Some libraries facilitate online book clubs where groups of clients can reach and select common reading materials and engage in the same topic of discussions (Tella and Akinboro, 2015). Other avenues of social interactions are librarians-to-librarians or librarians-tocustomers’ interaction which could lead to a lively exchange of ideas and broaden individuals’ personal knowledge. Facebook and Twitter are often used as the platform for social interaction and a basis of getting feedback from users on academic library services. Baro et al. (2013) revealed that librarians in the academic libraries are more familiar with instant messaging, media sharing sites, blogs and Wikis, but the popularity of SNS such as Facebook and Twitter make them frequently-used tools for social interaction among academic librarians. Chu and Du (2013) reported that librarians used Facebook and Twitter for handling real-time enquiries and for enhancing internal

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information and knowledge exchange among their professional colleagues. This confirmed that academic librarians rely more on Facebook and Twitter, especially the latter as the content is very brief and concise. The platform helps to alleviate the burden of extra characters or wordings which ease instant messaging and chatting, engagement and interaction thereby making the platform an effective means of social interaction. Zohoorian-Fooladi and Abrizah (2014), who explored the use of Facebook as a tool for library services, found that librarians in Malaysia are joining social media for social reasons. Riza Ayu and Abrizah (2011) reported that 13 out of 14 academic libraries in Malaysia shared basic information such as opening hours, addresses, telephone number and library web pages and other information about the library on their Facebook pages. In the academic environment, students devoted their time to Facebook because they felt that it is a platform that provides individuals with a way of maintaining and strengthening social ties, which can be beneficial in both social and academic settings (Bicen and Cavus 2011). It was further identified that individuals in the library environment used messages, chat, links, news and photos as means of interactions on the Facebook platform (Bicen and Cavus 2011). (d) Media Sharing and Collaborating. Media sharing and collaborating in the virtual world has become an important strategy in creating awareness in the academic community. Wordofa (2014) and Tait et al. (2016) described media sharing/collaboration as web-based services that allow people to store and share contents of various media types such as audios, videos, presentations and documents. Wordofa (2014) emphasised that some media sharing sites such as Youtube, Flickr and Slideshare have standard social networking features that provide people with the ability to share presentations, documents, PDFs and professional videos. Kwanya et al. (2012) revealed that Web 2.0 has created an information sharing culture and also enriched the information services with multimedia experiences. Chinwe and Uzoamaka (2012) found that in the Nigerian academic environment, the active nature of SNS such as Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Blogs, Wikis, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr enable users to have open access to knowledge and contribute/share contents in the social network space. Quadri and Adebayo (2016) highlighted that in Federal university libraries of south-west Nigeria, academic librarians make use of Facebook, Googleþ


and Twitter for disseminating information, while in India, Ansari (2016) noted that social media (WhatsApp) is used in the libraries for information generation, information gathering and information dissemination in a cost-effective manner. Media sharing is also a key factor for social media engagement in academic libraries. Kubugi (2013) stated that in Kenya, the university libraries have recognised social media as special tools for enticing and retaining patrons who are already familiar with the new ways of networking. Hence to remain relevant with the contemporary audiences in the academic environment, the libraries use social media to fulfil their primary responsibility of assisting users in the process of transforming information to knowledge. A substantial number of sources (Agyekum et al., 2016 ; Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011; Wordofa, 2014) revealed that Facebook and Twitter are employed by the libraries to build academic networks and promote the exchange of information/knowledge sharing among in the academic environments. Agyekum et al. (2016) found that in Ghana, academic librarians used SNS for dissemination of library news, library events, group discussion, general library information, sharing of e-resources, and offering library resources. According to Riza Ayu and Abrizah (2011), Facebook offers users a forum for self-expression, conversation and information sharing. Most importantly, Facebook and Twitter are used in libraries to build up academic networks and encourage the exchange of knowledge (Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011). The benefit from information sharing of media sites includes the provision of library instructions and tutorials, as well as sharing a wide variety of libraryrelated media objects and contents with the wider academic community. Individuals get more comfortable as they share information with each other, which also increases awareness, coordination, transparency and efficiency in the academic library services. Chu and Du (2013) found that social networking tools such as Facebook, Instant Messaging, LinkedIn, Social Networking and Twitter are very helpful for information sharing, knowledge sharing, enhancing reference services and promoting library services. Chu and Du (2013) acknowledged that these platforms facilitate media sharing, service enhancement, promotion, and interaction with library clients and professional librarians at a minimal cost. (e) Communication and Relationship Building with Library Users. Social media plays a vital role in linking people


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and evolving contacts as well as communication. Libraries have been dominant in their acceptance of social media and applying it as a vital medium for winning the attention of their customers. Akporhonor (2015) found that librarians’ use of social media promotes two-way communication, and in this sense, libraries are taking an advantage of social media as a communication tool for relationship building. This also created a forum for feedbacks and increases library services (Akporhonor, 2015), especially among the undergraduate students as they mainly used it for communication and information sharing (Anyanwu et al, 2013). Kwanya et al. (2012) found that Web 2.0, apart from its function in social interaction among others, facilitates seamless communication and feedback, taking the libraries in Kenya to services where the users’ community dwells. Likewise, Anunobi and Ogbonna (2012) confirmed that most academic librarians in Nigeria use social media for communication and profile publicity. This is similar to Riza Ayu and Abrizah’s (2011) work, who found that library users see the library Facebook page as a platform to communicate with the librarians at any time and from anywhere. They confirmed that Facebook pages provide opportunities for academic libraries in Malaysia to communicate better with their users. Zohoorian-Fooladi and Abrizah (2014) also found Malaysian academic librarians were satisfied with social media applications that help them communicate with library users and get them connected in terms of solving their needs and getting immediate feedback. Instant Messaging was reported to have been used for handling enquiry-related services and internal staff communication (Chu and Du, 2013). Evidence shows that this tool enhances social presence and facilitates a sense of connections which were lacking on emails and the earlier part of Web 1.0 In the academic environment, librarians and the customers are not only able to communicate better on the social media platforms, but they also found it easy to share information, which invariably improves the academic productivity (Daluba and Maxwell, 2013). Social media communication offers both the libraries and librarians the opportunity to connect with people across the globe and serve as a means of interactivity with the library customers (Tella et al., 2013). Sonawane and Patil (2015) found that social media communication strengthens social relationships in the academic libraries. Kenchakkanavar and Hadagali (2015) found that scholars made use of Facebook, Googleþ, and YouTube to stay in touch

with their friends and used WhatsApp for research and general communication purposes in the academic libraries. Chen et al. (2012), who explored how academic libraries use SNSs, found that communication and knowledge gathering were among the attractive part of social media usage in the academic libraries. Social media communication enhances the status of the libraries and makes the SNS a model marketing platform for the academic libraries and the librarians. Social media influences communication among people every day and it has both benefits and drawbacks. However, the way academic libraries communicate on social media determines how the customers or the users may perceive the libraries. Having this in mind, academic librarians should present a graceful public image in all its platforms and other SNSs used to communicate with their clients.

Occurrences of Distress Associated with Social Media in Academic Libraries The boons of social media in academic libraries have been described in many research papers; nevertheless, there are a significant number of studies that have highlighted the setbacks. Such setbacks found in the literature are related to librarians’ attitude and the funding bodies in general and they are also organized under five themes namely: a) Lack of awareness; b) Institutional control; c) Lack of Relevance manpower; d) Inadequate infrastructure; and e) Lack of privacy. a) Lack of Awareness of Social Media Application in Academic Libraries. There is a general problem of awareness in academic libraries and librarians on the implementation and utilisation of social media in academic libraries in the developing countries. A significant literature emphasises this lack of awareness (Adebayo and Adekunle, 2015; Bwalya 2014; Gbaje and Justina, 2014; Hazidah and Ismail, 2013; Onwusu-Assah et al., 2015; Sobaih et al., 2016). Sobaih et al., (2016) reported that although social media had a great value for academic-related purpose, particularly as a learning tool, the actual use by the academic community in Egypt was at the minimal level, and lack of awareness was identified as the “perils, barriers and concerns for the minimal use” (Sobaih et al., 2016: 296). In Zambia (Bwalya, 2014) and Nigeria (Gbaje and Justina, 2014), the concept of web library services provided in the academic libraries is still a far–fetched dream simply because the majority of the academic libraries are not using the

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web to deliver library services. Hazidah and Ismail (2013) who sampled 73 academic library websites in Southeast Asia, revealed that although Facebook is commonly used for communication with library users and marketing of library services, other Web 2.0 applications such as wikis are still not widely used or not even provided due to lack of awareness, even by academic libraries in universities that offer Library and Information Science programmes. Chu and Du (2013) who examined library staff’s perception, acceptance and challenges on the use of social media, found that although the majority of the librarians had positive perceptions of SNS, many were hesitant which resulted in the limited professional use among them. Sheikh et al. (2016) who compared the use of social media tools by reputed university libraries of the world, believed that social media is unavoidable for libraries in the developing countries in terms of communication strategy, which also serves as a resource for stimulation, the provision of services and marketing. b) Lack of Institutional Control in the Academic Libraries. Institutional control is traced from the traditional librarians who are still fixed to their library routines, such as cataloguing, collection development, and the organization of their human resources in which, to them, social media platforms are regarded as not important in the library services (Wordofa, 2014). Al-Kharousi et al. (2016) pointed out that low motivation of directors and library staff, lack of training and constant changes in the management structure are factors affecting the implementation of Web 2.0 applications in Omani academic libraries. This is corroborated by Onwusu-Assah et al., (2015) who examined the use of social media for research support in selected African academic institutions and discovered that there is no social media strategy available in the university libraries. The study also discovered that existing social media initiatives of academic libraries are not necessarily targeted to the research needs of research groups, but mainly to maintain their social media presence and engage with general users. The study also shows that a considerable number of academic librarians do not view social media as a relevant academic tool partly due to the fact that they have not kept themselves abreast with this technology. However elsewhere it was reported that the most significant institutional control in the use of social media in academic libraries was in the form of controlling which platform to adopt and the messages to post (Jones and Harvey, 2016).


c) Technophobia, Lack of ICT Skills and Time. Sonawane and Patil (2015) maintained that technophobia constitutes an issue in the implementation of social media in the academic libraries as many librarians make the traditional library services their comfort zone and are not eager to embrace change. Such development raises lack of trust and decline on the potentiality of social media in the academic libraries in developing countries. Meanwhile, Chisenga and Chande-Mallya (2012) observed that in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, although academic librarians had taught themselves how to use social media, the major problem confronting them is the lack of time in effective use of the technology. There are issues concerning low level of librarians’ ICT skills and lack of time to use the platforms (Anyanwu et al., 2013) as social media can require considerable time commitment from library staff. Chisenga and Chande-Mallya (2012) proffered suggestions that social media be integrated into librarians’ networking activities so that they would embrace social media with ease. Librarians’ negative attitudes and their difficulty in accepting changes or innovation in the library deter new understanding of the innovation introduced for better services in the libraries. d) Lack of Adequate Technical Infrastructures in the Academic Libraries. The literature identified that issues regarding the lack of support from the parent bodies are mainly in terms of provision of technical infrastructures for social media. Edewor and OkiteAmughoro (2016) found issues of poor infrastructure such as unavailability of internet access in campuses as a setback in social media usage in some academic libraries in Africa. They also identified infrastructural issues such as lack of maintenance culture, unreliable power supply, lack of staff training and government intervention, and the absence of marketing plan. Akeriwa et al. (2015) acknowledged that the high cost of implementation for such project is a serious barrier to execute it successfully in African academic libraries. The development of social media services has also been slow due to lack of resources and poor budgeting allocation for the libraries. In the same vein, studies that reported the benefits of social media use also highlighted the major constraints academic libraries are facing such as the lack of sufficient bandwidth in Kenya (Kwanya et al., 2012) and Nigeria (Adebayo and Adekunle, 2015; Anyanwu et al., 2013; Chinwe and Uzoamaka, 2012), irregular power supply in Nigeria (Adetola and


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Okeoghene, 2016), incessant breakdown of ICT facilities and the high cost of Internet access (Anyanwu et al., 2013). This corresponds with Akporhonor (2015) who also identified similar issues and recommended adequate technology and internet facilities as well as a viable ICT policy in the academic libraries.

libraries and how SNS are used by academic libraries in the developing regions (Agyekum et al., 2016; Gardois et al., 2012; Riza Ayu and Abrizah, 2011). There are five main themes that were commonly highlighted in this review related to the potential benefits of social media in the academic libraries. Most of the literature in this review emphasises on the benefits of social media in marketing and promotion of library services, which is the first theme on the boons. Various studies show that academic libraries have been actively engaged in the utilisation of social media purposely to promote library services and resources, provide information literacy instruction and tutorials, and interacting with patrons (Agyekum et al., 2016; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010; Wordofa, 2014). In China, one-third of the libraries make use of WeChat as a marketing tool to promote collections and services to their customers (Xu et al., 2015). Other academic libraries reported using various types of SNS such as Facebook, Googleþ, YouTube, Twitter, Wikis, Blogs, Pinterest, Delicious and Foursquare (Gonza´lez-Ferna´ndez-Villavicencio, 2014; Kenchakkanavar and Hadagali, 2015; Zohoorian-Fooladi and Abrizah, 2012). Such libraries derive satisfaction from the use of those platforms because they are general social networking services and have automatic answering and interactive features. A substantial literature in the review pointed out on the use of social media for professional development. Academic librarians were found to have learned most of the time through their professional colleagues and joining them for conversations (Onuoha, 2013). By doing so, they equipped themselves with skills needed to meet the needs and trend of the 21st-century technological age. Sonawane and Patil (2015) summarised the benefits of social media usage in the academic libraries to include: building and strengthening communities, increase media literacy, strengthening social relationships, broaden formal and informal education and learning and collective identity. Many potential benefits of social media were identified both to the librarians and their libraries (Daluba and Maxwell, 2013). They emphasised that social media in academic libraries creates an opportunity to connect with people worldwide. It also gives an opportunity for libraries to incorporate social media as means of interactive user centred library and information service centre. There is always a level of satisfaction among academic librarians as they make use of such platforms to communicate among themselves and users which also facilitates the library to know the

e) Privacy Risks. Raghavendra and Jagadish (2014, p.153) highlighted the two disadvantages of social media: (a) it opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam as well as virus attacks; (b) it increases the risk of individuals becoming victims to online scams, resulting in data or identity theft. For these reasons, academic libraries are cautious in using social media technologies since they could also pose serious privacy risks. Anyanwu et al. (2013) conceded the issues concerning lack of privacy and negative postings on library’s social media pages that are responsible for fueling distressful situations at times. In line with such findings, Sobaih et al. (2016) argued that it was not easy to control and monitor the activities of users’s postings and comments on social media. It was also observed that much information is irrelevant and often causing a breach of privacy in personal lives of individuals at the academic institutions (Sonawane and Patil, 2015). This corresponds with Tella et al. (2013): the information identified on social media in academic libraries includes sexual harassment, cybercrime, and fraud. Organizing a public awareness forum such as library orientation, symposia and workshops would help to stimulate new ideas, sensitize and create awareness to utilize the library social media ethically and to a maximum extent.

Discussion This review aims to comprehend the available literature on how academic libraries in the developing countries benefit from opening accounts on social media platforms, and the problems they experience. It is noted from the literature that social media shares information on a range of library-related issues, promoting library resources and services, and spread services beyond the physical boundaries of the library which invariably means taking the library services right to the door steps of the patrons. It is also evident from the review that social media provides academic libraries the capability to engage with the academic community in various ways. Significant research has analysed social media applications in academic

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needs of their customers. This is similar to Casey and Savastinuk (2006) and Huang et al. (2014) who affirmed that social media platforms enable libraries to reach out to a larger number of patrons, and attract new potential patrons to use the library resources and services. However, according to Xu et al. (2009) observations, there seemed to be more enthusiasm for social media engagement among academic librarians than between them and the customers of the libraries. The review also identified some drawbacks in social media applications in academic libraries in the developing countries. Such challenges and issues are predominantly linked to inadequate ICT infrastructures, unstable bandwidth, lack of skills amongst the academic librarians to make use the best of the social media tools. The review also revealed lack of appreciation and attention from the staff regarding the potentiality of Web 2.0 applications in the academic libraries in the developing countries. The issue of the lack of policies and strategies for effective utilisation was revealed in the literature. Some of the literature revealed that some academic libraries face challenges in the operation of their social media accounts, based on the response rate on the number of posts and the discouraging level of engagement in terms of likes, shares and comments. This review was aimed to explore the practicality of social media engagement in academic libraries in the developing countries, focusing on those in Asia and Africa. The five search key terms used were not exhaustive in a research that links to social media utilisation in the academic environment. In the selection, only articles published in the English language were considered, which does not meet the standard of the structured literature review, as social media is widely used globally irrespective of geographical location, language or status of the academic libraries. Only a selected number of databases were used for retrieving data for the study. However, the review confirmed that academic libraries in developing countries are acclimatizing themselves with social media, taking into cognizance the stages in growth rate of published literature in social media on academic libraries within the period under review. The result shows that such increase in rate of published articles on academic libraries of developing countries has actually prompted the awareness and usefulness of social media in libraries’ services. Owing to the widespread social media engagements in all areas of life, a comprehensive study should include more databases in order to exhaust the


searches. Additional research should embrace other arms of libraries in the developing countries in order to have a holistic view of the advantages and disadvantages of social media utilisation in libraries. Such studies should also expand the search key terms in order to obtain a full list of other articles for inclusion and also, discard the restriction of language in order to know the holistic views of researchers on social media in libraries globally. Most importantly, researchers should be motivated to conduct research on the qualitative method in order to have an in-depth view of the phenomenon understudied.

Conclusion Undertaking a review of the literature to provide the best evidence for informing policy and practice in social media in library and information services is a key research objective for the respective LIS academic and practitioner communities. This review confirms that social media is becoming a powerful additional organ in academic library services in developing countries. It is currently utilised for marketing and promotion of library services, professional/selfdevelopment of librarians, social interaction, media sharing, and communication with the library users. Social media has given the opportunities for academic libraries to engage the public in conversations and interactions about information dissemination and the general improvement of library activities. The context of the review literature depicts the significance of social media applications and utilisation in the academic libraries. Despite the limitations of social media identified in this paper, which range from lack of awareness of social media, institutional control, lack of relevant skills/ manpower, inadequate technical infrastructure and privacy risks, nevertheless, the advantages of social media in academic libraries outweigh its disadvantages. Going by the general trend and usage of social media in the academic communities, it is hoped that librarians could use social media effectively and without hesitance. It is also hoped that this study will shape researchers and scholars in the Library and Information Science profession to scope out areas of needs for future research. References Abrizah A, Inuwa S and Afiqah-Izzati N (2016) Systematic literature review informing LIS professionals on embedding librarianship roles. The Journal of Academic


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14 Kaduna, Nigeria. He graduated with bachelor degree in Library and Information Science, University of Maiduguri and a Masters degree in ]Public Administration from the same university. He obtained MLIS degree in 2011 at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. Contact: Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email: [email protected] Yanti Idaya Aspura Mohd Khalid is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya. She is actively involved in teaching, supervision and research in Library and Information Science. Her interests include information needs and information behavior in digital era, scholarly communication, bibliometric, digital libraries, ontology and semantic web and information retrieval. She had thirteen years’ experience as an academic librarian at International Islamic University Malaysia Library. Her PhD, from the National University of Malaysia concerns on the multimodality

Information Development XX(X) ontology based image retrieval system to fulfill the semantic gaps between content based image retrieval (CBIR) and text based image retrieval (TBIR). Contact: University of Malaya. Email: [email protected] Abrizah Abdullah is a Professor at the Department of Library & Information Science University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She graduated with a bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering from Temple University, Philadelphia in 1988, and obtained her Masters degree in 1998 and PhD in 2007, both in Library & information Science, from the University of Malaya. Her research interests focus on digital libraries, Open Access & Open Science, information behaviour, bibliometrics and scholarly communication. She is currently an advisor panel at the Malaysian Citation Centre Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, and also a Senior Academic Associate at CIBER Research Ltd. UK. Contact: Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computer and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email: [email protected]