Examining strategies for integration of social media in library services at Jinja public library
Abstract
The study aimed at coming up with strategies for integration of social media in
provision of library services at Jinja public library. The objectives of the project were
to; To examine possible strategies of incorporating social media in library service
provision, to examine the relationship between social media tools and their
application in library services, to examine the support for the adoption of social
media from the user community, to find out the various forms of services offered
using social media at Jinja Public Library.
The study adopted a case study design while adopting both qualitative and
quantitative approaches to data collection. Interview, questionnaire observation and
document review were the methods used for data collection. The study used sampling
method to select 60 respondents who participated in the study
The library services offered by Jinja Public Library were circulation services, library
orientation, current awareness services, reference services, reading space. The
librarians also use face to face interaction with the library users to update them about
the library operations occurring, there is also use of notice boards and one social
media platform which is the Facebook page for Jinja Public Library. The challenges
faced in delivery of the library services were; inadequate information materials, small
reading room, inadequate funds, inadequate storage space and low turn up of library
users.
The strategies to integrate social media in the provision of library services were,
ensuring that there is quality assurance, use of social media tools like Facebook,
twitter, tumblr, Flickr, provision of internet and computers in the library. The
recommendations for the study were; increase the use of internet in the library
because it’s the only way users can have access to the social media tools.