social media adoption, policy and development: exploring the way forward for academic libraries
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"Exploring the way forward for academic libraries." My recent foray into the world of academic libraries, social media and a world of scholarly literature, completed as a semester-long project at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. In this paper, I outline activities undertaken during my project with Dean Giustini, a SLAIS adjunct faculty and a reference librarian at the UBC Biomedical Branch Library. The purpose of this investigation into social media was to examine the role of institutional strategies, policies and guidelines that support and lead its use in academic libraries.TRANSCRIPT
Social media adoption, policy and development: Exploring the way forward for academic libraries
Daniel Hooker, MLIS Student Supervised by Dean Giustini, UBC Biomedical Branch Librarian
Submitted to Dr. Mary Sue Stephenson In completion of the requirements for LIBR 594: Directed Study School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS) University of British Columbia 1 December 2009
Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................7
Background...................................................................................................................7 Social media in higher learning .............................................................................9 Academic library 2.0 ...............................................................................................14 Strategic planning....................................................................................................19
Social media library policy............................................................ 22
Policy recommendations......................................................................................24
Conclusion and recommendations.............................................. 26
References..................................................................................... 28
Appendices.................................................................................... 33
Appendix A: Directed Study Schedule, Fall 2009 ......................................33 Appendix B: Selected Search Concepts and Sources ................................35 Appendix C: Works Consulted .........................................................................37 Appendix D: Selected CARL Strategic Plans ...............................................42 Appendix E: Example Social Media Policy....................................................44
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Introduction
In this paper, I outline activities undertaken during my 2009 directed study project
with Dean Giustini, a SLAIS adjunct faculty and a reference librarian at the UBC Biomedical
Branch Library. The purpose of this investigation into social media was to examine the role
of institutional strategies, policies and guidelines that support social media and lead its use
in academic libraries. To orient myself to this research topic, I began by locating freely
available primary materials on academic library websites and by retrieving presentation
slides and relevant grey literature from search engines, social media of various types and
online abstracting and indexing services and databases. In an effort to examine as many
papers and ideas as possible, I searched for topics using a combination of keywords and
thesaurus descriptors such as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, Twitter, social software, web 2.0,
library 2.0, university 2.0, post-‐secondary education, strategic planning, policy development,
and social media in higher education. Some of my primary search concepts are detailed in
Appendix B.
During the fall 2009 term1, I completed the following activities: 1) literature reviews in
multiple academic databases such as Academic Search Complete, ERIC, Google Scholar, LISA,
LISTA; OAIster, Web of Science, to name a few; 2) environmental scans of web documents
on academic library websites and blogs in Canada (and select examples in the United States)
and 3) reviews of social media guidelines, ‘appropriate use’ policies and strategic planning
documents that mention web 2.0 or social media specifically (see Appendix B). In addition, I
1 For a complete fall 2009 schedule of activities for my directed study, see appendix A.
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enrolled as an auditor in a new online course about social media offered through SLAIS
entitled LIBR559M “Social media for information professionals”. As a student librarian
immersed in evaluating social media, I worked closely this term with the instructor and my
peers in exploring and interrogating a range of topics and modules in the course. Dean
demanded high quality work and sustained effort from all of us in the course, and my role as
an auditing student was no exception. Additionally, in October, I was also able to co-‐author a
paper on social cataloguing with Allan Cho and Giustini which was subsequently accepted for
publication by the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association2. The most important
activity this term was accumulating and reading the literature of social media in the
academic environment, and taking time to reflect on its history and recent developments.
Overall, the scholarly literature of social media in library and information science (LIS)
reveals an impressive range of applications that are regularly used in the teaching and
learning activities of academic librarians. Beyond the isolated use of blogs, wikis,
synchronous chat tools and social bookmarking, a number of successful social media projects
and initiatives in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom can be examined
where they are adequately publicized (and, to a lesser extent, projects originating in
Canadian academic libraries). Individualized reports of success and scattered reports
originating in Canadian academic libraries prompted further investigation about the
circumstances that led to those programs best practices. Some evidence was found to
support the assertion that ‘library 2.0’ projects in Canadian academic libraries are
undertaken in ‘hot spots’ of innovation and in environments where there are varying levels 2 The accepted paper is entitled “Social cataloguing: an introduction for health librarians” and will be published in early 2010.
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of interest and support. Often, it seems that in addition to an academic librarian’s regular
duties, social media experimentation was undertaken due to personal initiative or skills set,
and often they enjoy little in the way of institutional support. The perceived lack of
administrative resources provided to academic librarians seems to be exacerbated by
common barriers such as the inordinate amount of time needed to learn social media or the
inherent cultural resistance to social media (some tools are blocked at OPACs and on library
staff computer builds, for example)3. In addition, due to my experience this semester with
Giustini (personal communication, October 2009) it has become clearer to me that direct
conflicts between an academic librarian’s desire to use new services and the inevitable clash
that occurs with a library’s information technology (IT) department are quite common and
that this invariably results in initiatives being abandoned – or shelved for a period of time.
In the past few years, social media’s rise in academic communities has been steady,
but this year has proven to be unique so far for a number of reasons (Armstrong, 2008;
Weller, 2009). For example, bloggers are beginning to consider what kinds of policies are
needed to support the use of social media in library organizations (Kroski, 2009). Not
surprisingly, academic libraries are still very much in an experimental phase in their use of
social tools particularly folksonomies, social cataloguing sites and microblogging tools like
Twitter. Universities, too, are in an exploratory period in applying social media to their
recruitment, teaching and development efforts. Throughout the academic world, though,
3 The social media drivers and barriers that exist in Canadian academic libraries will be part of Giustini’s CARL/ABRC survey
research that he plans to conduct in 2010.
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social media is beginning to make a considerable impact on higher education and, as a
result, on the delivery of information services in academic libraries.
As social media is used to reach out to academic constituencies, and to build cross-‐
disciplinary collaborative relationships, the lack of social media policies and usage guidelines
is set to emerge as a critical problem (Armstrong, 2008). Given Dean’s experience within a
large institutional academic library, it became clear from our discussions about these issues
(personal communication, October 2009) that there are driving forces in the external
environment that compete with the seemingly insurmountable barriers within organizations
when social media is used creatively. Occasionally, it must be said, the rigid administrative
hierarchies and conservative library cultures do little but compound the problem of using
social media innovatively. While individual ‘social’ librarians are forging new paths in their
deliver of library services, many do so at the expense of their own personal time and talent.
Whereas some academic librarians are successfully creating programs for their users, others
have to wait for institutional cultures to change before social media’s affordances can be
fully identified. As new social media emerge as potential catalysts for innovation, academic
librarians face a number of pressures about how to respond to new tools in new ways.
In this directed study, I had the increasing sense that the acceptance of social media in
academic libraries has now reached a critical point where it is difficult to ignore. Social media
has built enough popular awareness and worked its way into academic activities such that it
cannot be ignored as a passing fad. The effective evaluation and management of social
media should be a key consideration in all academic libraries given the prominence and
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potential of the tools in managing our users’ information behaviours, and our own. What
seems clear is that most academic librarians are increasingly required to interpret the values
of web 2.0 or ‘academic library 2.0’ within their own libraries’ cultural context. How can we
engage users in a dialogue? How can we meet them in digital spaces such as Facebook,
Twitter and Google? Many academic librarians feel that they should be responding to these
needs but find it hard to do so when institutions remain unconvinced of social media’s place
in the academy (Thomson, 2007) and in key documents such as strategic planning and library
policy.
Literature review
Background
In 2009, the LIS literature is replete with discussions of web 2.0 and library 2.0 (Weller,
2009). Between the advocates and critics of social media, the bibliography is characterized
by the emphasis on the attributes of specific social tools or programs; more often than not,
their accompanying affordances for teaching and learning are typically outlined. However, a
less obvious theme is how academic librarians can assess these tools properly within their
own libraries and how they might meet the specific needs of their local users. Given the
demands of assessment on any innovative library program, and the extent to which faculty
and students drive change within the academic library, a number of formidable challenges
lie ahead for academic librarians. Both Giustini and I believe that, because of the rapid
expansion of the social media sector, academic librarians may have no alternative in the
near future but to concede the value of some specific tools. In the past decade, numerous
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articles have shown that librarians, while inclined to try out new technologies to deliver
library services, are uncertain or even anxious about what they might need to know or how
to use new technologies within the existing framework of legacy library systems (if they can
at all). Therefore, academic librarians are often expected to seek evidence or proof that
technologies are “useful” before implementing social media in their programming. However,
what many academic librarians discover is that the empirical research on social media is still
in nascent and that more investigation is needed before direction can be found from the LIS
literature. We fear that academic library users will move on to other ways of interacting
while at the university or begin to see the Library as ‘out of touch’.
An additional challenge faced by academic librarians is measuring the impact of digital
tools on the development of information behaviours (e.g. Gordhamer, 2009). Can social
tools actually promote desirable behaviours or do they in fact set back librarians’ media and
information literacy efforts? Academic research is not simply a matter of searching on the
Internet or networking with scholars on Twitter and Facebook. Some researchers, in fact,
suggest that social media has considerable potential to impact how users communicate and
find information (e.g. Zhao & Rosson, 2009) not to mention how they collaborate and solve
problems. Likewise, the web also may have a tendency to fragment readers’ attention and
willingness to engage in thorough or extended reading (Carr, 2008) – surely this point alone
is why social software is seen to be disruptive by most university faculty. Building on these
observations, the notion of using social media in higher education has nonetheless been
breached and a variety of inroads have been made (Weller, 2009). But the question about
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whether social media can be deployed to promote desirable research skills is a salient (and
likely to be a recurring) one.
The adoption of popular search engines such as Google, Google scholar and Yahoo is,
to some extent, illustrative; these tools followed similar trajectories in terms of their use by
and eventual acceptance in academic libraries (Ford & O’Hara, 2008; Walters, 2009).
However, finding a rightful place for social media and its acceptance in academia is one of
main reasons for this directed study. Given a continued lack of usage guidelines or
strategies, social media has the potential to disrupt academic libraries and their services. As
social media is used for learning more generally, academic librarians need to be aware of the
challenges that they introduce and work to meet the emerging needs of post-‐secondary
students (many of whom are accustomed to social tools). At the very least, academic
librarians should be devoting some of their time each week to explore the emerging digital
landscape to see what students themselves are doing.
Social media in higher learning
The debate about Web 2.0 and its role in higher education (Grosseck, 2009) has been
around since Tim O’Reilly initially defined it (O'Reilly, 2005). Since then, of course, much has
happened on the web; the rise of “digital natives” (McHale, 2005), “millennials” (Raines,
2002) and even the “net generation” (Bullen, 2009; Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005) has been
extensively discussed. These students were born in the post-‐Web era and are increasingly
familiar with online environments that involve two-‐way interaction. The literature that
discusses these learners and their unique expectations has also emerged as a topic of
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research for educators and librarians alike; and, how to target them directly in the delivery
of programs and services is a perennial subject in the literature. Although generalizing too
broadly about these learners is problematic (Bennett et al., 2008; Wesch, 2008), it can be
said that the expectations of web-‐based learning and online access to educational resources
have deeply changed what students want from their university experiences. This is a result
of the growing relevance of the Web in learners’ digital lives and because of the fact that
many learners arrive for their undergraduate education with considerable awareness of the
Internet and its potential for social collaboration and networking (Tapscott, 2008).
Because of the growing awareness of digital learners, a theoretical discussion has
developed slowly among educational technologists. One topic that is debated fiercely by
educators is how to use the Web as a supplementary learning space and, more specifically,
how to use it to promote collaborative, social learning. For example, Eijkman (2008)
envisions a “non-‐foundational network-‐centric learning space” realized through social media
tools. Williams and Chinn (2009) discuss an active learning theory model for increasing
engagement of “net generation” students through the use of social media, and Huang &
Behara (2007) note the potential for experiential learning for students using social media in
MBA courses. Additionally, Beard & Dale (2008) describe the development of information
literacy skills through the academic library that incorporate social media and web-‐based
collaborative appliances. Practically speaking, Maloney (2007) writes that “what we can see
in the Web's evolution is a renewed focus on innovation, creation, and collaboration, and an
emphasis on collective knowledge over static information delivery, knowledge management
over content management, and social interaction over isolated surfing.” Outlining the
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collaborative and social benefits of these technologies for academic librarians is a first step
to promote the untapped potential of social media in library programs and services, and it
seems as though there is a leadership opportunity for academic librarians to make the
connection between changes in pedagogies and the use of social media to promote more
active forms of learning.
Recently, at the highest levels of higher education, there has been discussion about
social media and its impact on research practices and academic collaboration (Weller, 2009)
which is a further way to embed social media into to the mission of academic libraries. For
example, Greenhow et al. (2009) state “Web 2.0 has… expanded the academic’s ability to
cultivate social and professional connections and to potentially build and maintain larger
networks for catalyzing interdisciplinary collaborations, multisite research, and inter-‐
institutional partnerships.” Academic inquiry is grounded in a culture of experimentation and
collaboration and social media provides unparalleled opportunities to engage with other
scholars and researchers worldwide. Further, the authors suggest that “academics can
choose to ignore the current culture or attempt to build an online network of resources,
colleagues, and authorship. Only by doing the latter is it possible to distinguish
authoritatively between the hype and the potential of Web 2.0 technologies.” Separating
out the facts from fiction will be crucial to the successful application of social media to
scholarly information practices. As web 2.0 is introduced more generally into academic life,
social media will become increasingly ubiquitous, especially with the recent rise of web-‐
enabled mobile devices. At the very least, academics who seek engagement with others in
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these digital spaces will appreciate the affordances of the tools and be able to discern
potential applications for their work.
The introduction of information technologies introduces many challenges, not only for
academic librarians but for faculty and students university-‐wide. Freire (2008), for example,
takes a practical look at the challenges of adoption of Web 2.0 in university settings. He
advocates for the adoption of new technologies at the university and notes that “applying
methods for collaborative and active learning are essential approaches to attain these
objectives, and the web 2.0 could be an instrumental and strategic tool in their
development” (Anderson, 2007 cited in Freire, 2008). Freire states that adopting these social
technologies presents some political problems in addition to the purely technological,
notably that as the university confronts “important technological, managerial and human
barriers …an adaptive strategy is needed that could be designed from previous experiences
of educational, research and business organizations.” Though the affordances of social
media can be shown easily in theory, bureaucratic obstacles and poor institutional
awareness will continue to be constraints for academic librarians.
To date, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has produced some of the
most important foundational documents about social media in academic contexts. An
important and perhaps seminal review of eleven UK universities (Franklin & van Harmelen,
2007) illustrates some trends that should be of interest to academic communities in North
America. For example, the authors found that only one academic institution in the UK had a
set of guidelines in place to guide the use of social media and blogging tools. They argue that
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institutions should respond to web 2.0 at a broader strategic level as well as through the use
of specific policies. Another JISC study published in 2009 (Committee of Inquiry into the
Changing Learner Experience) showed a close integration between social media and today's
learners in institutions of higher learning. Increasingly, the tools that form part of web 2.0
are used in conjunction with teaching students and faculty. They argue that more research is
needed to support changes in technology and to promote correct behaviours that are
needed to use social media responsibly. The authors say that “higher education has a key
role in helping students refine, extend and articulate the diverse range of skills they have
developed through their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should,
fulfill this role, and it should do so through a partnership with students to develop
approaches to learning and teaching.” This statement is a clear call to seek a practical way
forward and as universities worldwide undertake initiatives to meet the information literacy
needs of learners, it will be increasingly important for academic libraries to devise strategies
to promote social media and to ensure its effective use by the academy.
As academic libraries continue to cultivate scholarly information practices and the
values inherent in web 2.0, they should be ready to apply social tools to their service delivery
models. This means that librarians must learn how to educate users in a media-‐saturated
age and how to assess media in the 21st century. (This is one of the reasons, I understand,
SLAIS approached Giustini (2009) about creating a course on social media because of its
importance for information professionals.) In the following section, I highlight a number of
other trends that are germane to the academic library and those in higher education as a
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way to examine newer ways to access information in the digital age – which, of course, is a
central role of academic libraries around the world.
Academic library 2.0
Given the enthusiasm for Library 2.0 (Chad & Miller, 2005), it is surprising that
academic libraries fall behind their public library counterparts in dealing with the
governance of social media. Governments and businesses have begun their planning in an
effort to establish rules of social media usage because they so often seem to blur personal
and professional boundaries. Conversely, academic libraries are somewhat reluctant, it
would seem, in their overall approach to navigating these boundaries. Despite pockets of
innovation they do not exhibit any where near the same level of interest or curiosity in
dealing with issues relating to digital identity or online reputation management. In fact,
despite some very well-‐documented surveys of academic libraries’ use of social media, some
initiatives are undertaken with little or no awareness of how social tools are implicated in
public relations and risk management. Social media usage brings risk for businesses and
organizations in both the private and public sectors. Compounding this problem is the lack of
quantifiable evaluation and assessment methods for social media programs. However, the
issues surrounding information behaviour and practice in the university have now reached a
point where academic libraries must take a more proactive role to ensure the ongoing
integrity of their university’s web presence.
Though the concept of “Library 2.0” has been well-‐debated in the blogosphere, there
has been significantly less debate around its academic counterpart -‐ “Academic Library 2.0”.
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Academic libraries are united in their desire to use technology wisely but seem less inclined
to mention the need to master social media as part of an emerging set of technical
competencies. This reflects a number of difficulties such as the integration of new tools into
library information technology infrastructure; a general lack of IT support for tools ‘in the
cloud’; and, despite the ubiquity of social media usage in society as a whole, the lack of an
articulated model that would account for the resources academic librarians need to
implement to be effective or innovative. Somehow, the academic discourse has remained
muted and out of touch by comparison with what is happening in public libraries, business
and government – but it must be said that this is slowly changing
Back in 2006, for example, Michael Habib devised a conceptual model for Web 2.0 in
the academic library for his Master’s thesis in library and information science. In fact, he
used the Library 2.0 framework to define a specific niche for academic libraries that would
see the blending of traditional functions with a renewed emphasis on social tools (based on
the rise of digitally literate learners and faculty in the 21st century). Habib stakes out a
position for the academic library that would blend together physical and digital spaces as
well as merge library data with collective intelligence, cloud computing and Web 2.0 tools.
Habib's work provides the basis for a new model that outlines the requirements of academic
libraries but is now several years out of date. Indeed many of Habib’s arguments cannot
account for technologies that have emerged since their writing. For example, Twitter
(http://twitter.com/) was just being released at the time of Habib’s research (Malik, 2006).
LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) is another example of a social networking tool
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that has gained considerable momentum and academic library attention since 2006
(LibraryThing, n.d.).
Building on concepts of Academic Library 2.0, Liu (2008) more recently examined many
Association of Research Libraries (ARL) homepages to explore integration of social media.
She found that most information on “academic library homepages still focuses on library
functions, requires numerous pathways for access… [and] few current academic library Web
sites offer opportunities for users to create and share user-‐generated content.” User
interaction and participation should be a core value of social media for academic librarians.
Liu, in fact, recommends a series of conceptual designs for increasing user-‐inclusion and
engagement but cautions that her recommendations are merely “what users might want”.
Liu successfully incorporates Library 2.0 concepts into an academic library context but her
paper is limited to library home pages. Xu et al. (2009) conducted a similar review of New
York state universities’ use of social media but do not use their findings to create a new
conceptual model for academic libraries beyond a rearranging of familiar concepts.
Social networking sites (SNS) were among the first social media to be recontextualized
for academic libraries. For example, Charnigo & Barnett-‐Ellis (2007) conducted a survey to
gauge academic librarians' awareness of Facebook because at that time it was only available
for university students. Since that time, Facebook has been opened to the public, and a rapid
growth of older users has become noticeable (Kirkpatrick, 2009). A repetition of this study
would be useful today in order to account for Facebook’s increased publicity in the past year
and their shifting demographics.
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Chu & Meulemans (2008) also examine SNS and describe the challenges and potential
benefits of establishing a library presence on two services, MySpace and Facebook. The
authors examine the two different networks but repeatedly conflate the two services as a
kind of hybrid entity “MySpace/Facebook.” This method does not account for research that
reveals two very distinct networks in Myspace and Facebook (e.g. boyd, 2007), and makes it
difficult to draw usable conclusions from their results.
In terms of raising awareness of social media in an academic library, Gross & Leslie
(2008) describe the process of familiarizing academic library staff with social media following
their implementation of a “Learning 2.0” program based on Blowers (2006). Gross & Leslie
describe their program and report that staff liked the concept; however, their article does
not attempt to conceptualize a broader model or argue for implementing guidelines for the
use of social media in libraries more generally. It must be said that raising awareness of
social media is only the first step in encouraging its implementation and assessment in the
academic library.
The difficulties of articulating a generic Library 2.0 model are most convincingly
demonstrated by a study conducted at Kent State University undergraduates and their
familiarity with web 2.0 tools (Burhanna, Seeholzer & Salem Jr., 2009). In the study, students
shared their perceptions about how the university library could use social media to meet
their informational needs. Interestingly, the authors started with the erroneous assumption
that digital natives possess heightened awareness of social media. However, they found
surprising differences between their users and those paragons of technology discussed in
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the literature. Bullen et al. (2009) found similar results about college students at the British
Columbia Institute for Technology. It may in fact be possible that these two studies are
merely exceptions to the rule but it serves as a useful reminder that technological initiatives
should always be undertaken first by doing a proper analysis of local users.
In a general sense, measuring technological skills in users is a big challenge in
developing effective library programs. Adapting to changes in the delivery of content is
another challenge with respect to social media within institutional culture. Joint (2009)
describes a range of difficulties of successfully implementing web 2.0 initiatives in academic
libraries in terms of copyright concerns and inadequate computing skills. However, moving
from more traditional methods of user engagement to participatory web 2.0 models has
measurable benefits for information professionals. Kalfatovic et al. (2009) describes the
Smithsonian Institution’s decision to provide photographs from their digital collections via a
collaborative Flickr space they call ‘The Commons’. Initially, they thought that providing
photographs on Flickr would create an increase of use of the Smithsonian’s website but little
traffic was ultimately seen in that direction. The collaborative space on Flickr, however,
provided the Smithsonian with a space outside its homepage in which to connect with users
and to discover that “each additional consumer of the products of the Commons adds to the
commensurable experience of each and all users.” The communal interaction and
collaboration among Flickr users and the institutions in the Commons project increased
value and engagement for all but required a major shift in the Smithsonian’s self-‐concept
and comfort in using alternative social spaces.
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The continual shifts in the digital landscape in the past few years have created
disruptions of various kinds for academic libraries. One disruption is the changing sense of
place that inevitably occurs when academic libraries use social spaces to deliver services to
their users. Many library programs using social media are reported in the literature but, for
example, it is not always clear to users what the benefits of searching a catalogue by ‘tag
cloud’ or other social cataloguing feature could be. Due to the deviations in how information
is presented in these new spaces, which also typically occur outside traditional library sites,
users and librarians alike may feel a sense of dislocation from their usual library experience.
Clearly, this is where institutional branding is important; services need to be provided to
entice users in social media spaces but balanced against the need to make users aware of
the digital assets of the library. Innovative services delivery using social media in academic
libraries should still mean that users feel connected to their libraries when they find
themselves in external digital locations. To bring program planning and institutional
guidance closer together, I examined a growing body of strategic planning documents to
understand how the needs of users, libraries and institutions can be aligned with the
objectives of the university as a whole.
Strategic planning
The use of social media in higher education is now well-‐established in the professional
literature. What is still up for debate is whether academic librarians and their institutions will
accept the shifts in attitudes brought on by social media or whether the associated tools will
be viewed as inconsistent with institutional goals. Institutional and professional cultures are
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difficult to change, and my intention with this directed study is not to require a shift in
institutional approaches towards social media. McNichol (2005), however, says that the lack
of a culture of “outcomes assessment” in UK academic libraries is creating a number of
difficulties. For example, academic librarians make the assumption that university libraries
are central to higher education but do not work to justify their relevance in the event of
shifting institutional needs. Without a more concerted effort to move the academic library
model toward emerging web technologies and practices, academic librarians risk losing their
central place within the modern university.
Some planning literature has identified additional concerns with organizational
resistance to change. O'Connor and Au (2009) argue “for the future library to survive and
prosper, the continuous alignment of its strategic direction with the demands of the
environment is vital, especially when the speed of changes is rapid, and the scope,
extensive.” The popularity and pervasiveness of social media qualifies as rapid and extensive
change. Korte and Chermack (2007) state that “recognizing the power of underlying
assumptions and systematically challenging these assumptions is critical to foster an
adaptive, vital organization” and, moreover, developing detailed plans to prove or disprove
the effectiveness traditional institutional views is one effective way of doing so.
In some of the most recent literature, the emergence of social media on the web is
indeed driving a change in strategic planning efforts. Allard (2009) drafts a model of “World
2.0” that advocates for library managers to understand the implications of social media for
strategic planning. Close to home, a librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, Cahill (2009)
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discusses the development of a digital branch at VPL and explains in detail how strategic
plans is driving their support for web 2.0 activities. Foundations for social media policies
have been written into the job descriptions for two web librarian positions, for example,
which were created as a result of their strategic initiatives.
In the United States, other specific strategic planning initiatives in libraries include the
creation of a working group called SPLAT (Special Projects Library Action Team) to support
collaborative online initiatives in Idaho libraries (Cordova et al., 2009). This model, similar to
the approach discussed by Gross and Leslie (2008) above, encourages staff experimentation
which is then followed by written reflection. Reed and Signorelli (2008) recognize the
importance of staff training in their study where “library staff and library users find
themselves immersed in a Web 2.0 world and need assistance in learning, using, and coping
with new technology”. Unfortunately, they do not mention the importance of establishing
manuals and documentation that will help libraries cope with how to use these technologies.
In Canada, one of the more successful strategic planning efforts regarding social media
and technological literacy originated at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario4. The
University Librarian at McMaster, Jeffrey Trzeciak (2008), describes the “transformation” of
McMaster University Library from “a very traditional academic library to innovative, user-‐
centred partner in teaching, learning and research.” He notes that “we moved from a model
based on transaction-‐based services to one based on pedagogy and learning services.” The
re-‐positioning of the academic library within the learning community as a place that values
4 For a list of other Canadian Association of Research Library planning documents, see Appendix D.
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the educational experience embodies the collaborative spirit of Web 2.0. Its focus on
innovative practice and technological developments has made McMaster Library a leader in
technologies and raised its profile within the academic library community in Canada.
Unfortunately, institutions must always prioritize and evaluate new and existing
programs. In the face of shrinking budgets, librarians do not always have the support
necessary to balance their existing job duties with the rapidly proliferating technologies on
the web. However, as digital information spaces and behaviours shift as a result of online
interaction, academic library strategies must also shift and adapt.
Social media library policy
The urgent need for establishing social media guidelines and policy stems from stories
of misuse and perceived problems associated with so-‐called illegal and even nefarious online
activities. For example, in late 2009, a Prince Edward Island teen threatened on Facebook to
shoot his classmates (Canadian Press, 2009). Also, in 2008, a chemistry student at Ryerson
University was expelled for establishing a Facebook study group (Morrow, 2008). This caused
a public relations problem for Ryerson and seemed to be characterized in the media as an
older generation being in direct conflict with a savvy digital and younger one. In a broader
societal sense, there have been a series of public relations nightmares for organizations both
public and private; for example, what happens when an American Domino's Pizza employee
posts a video to YouTube of himself tainting a pizza ready for delivery (Kiley, 2009)? Twitter
has seen its own backlash, notably from a FedEx email confronting a consultant about an
unflattering tweet (Shankman, 2009). The list goes on.
Hooker -‐ 23
Despite the risks, businesses and libraries alike are beginning to see the benefits of
promoting their brands through interactive and user-‐focused media. However, a lack of
awareness and even confusion persists around what information is private and public in
social media and even what it means to be “social” in digital spaces. The academic library is
one of the few institutions that can teach media skills at reference desks and in information
workshops. As the risks to our users and their online identities grow in the social media age,
detailed guidelines and practices will be needed to steer students toward trouble-‐free web
and digital interactions during their education and into their professional careers.
Moving beyond the strategic plan and into a discussion of local policy development is a
difficult transition for most organizations to make. Policy development is dependent on
institutional priorities and whether a culture exists that promotes certain desirable attitudes
and behaviours. Without the support of the institution at large, it is difficult to imagine
responsible use of social media among students, let alone faculty or staff. It is also difficult to
establish the appropriate level of experimentation online versus strict rules-‐based guidance.
Given the potential for confusion, misunderstanding or lack of awareness, it is critical that
academic libraries review their computer policies and guidelines accordingly to
accommodate social media.
Although not specifically geared to academic libraries, Kroski (2009) is one of the few
librarians to mention the necessity of writing coherent policies to support social media usage
in libraries. The article she published in School Library Journal focuses on the school library
community, which seems to have its own peculiar challenges that relate to an academic
Hooker -‐ 24
model. School libraries have their own online presence to create but young learners -‐-‐ their
primary patrons – also have to be instructed about how to present themselves in digital
spaces if they wish to do so. Concern for learners is an emerging issue for academic libraries
as well because university students of all ages engage in online activities which may have an
impact at some point later in their professional lives if they are not careful (e.g.
Careerbuilder.com, 2009).
Despite the impact that social media participation has on users and institutions, Kroski
(2009) was unable to find many existing policies for school, college or public libraries. Many
existing social media policies focus on blogging alone, likely because it is the most common
tool used by libraries, and surely one of the most accepted. Some libraries Kroski identifies
establish rules for patrons, without mentioning any guidelines for the publication of content
by staff. Social media policies in the corporate realm, however, are more specific and
detailed. Corporate policy seems to stem from confusion about appropriate use (e.g. van
Grove, 2009) or due to greater adoption rates of social media in businesses such IBM, Intel
or HP. Regardless, their institutional guidelines outline social media practice and encourage
positive and constructive social media use as much as possible.
Policy recommendations
One seminal example for social media policy is IBM's Social Computing Guidelines,
which was originally drafted on a wiki in 2005 (IBM, n.d. cited in Kroski, 2009). IBM's
guidelines include a general outline of conduct and a detailed discussion of why these
Hooker -‐ 25
policies are in place. The most salient point comes early: IBM encourages its users to
participate online to learn.
“As an innovation-‐based company, we believe in the importance of open exchange and learning―between IBM and its clients, and among the many constituents of our emerging business and societal ecosystem. The rapidly growing phenomenon of user-‐generated web content―blogging, social web-‐applications and networking―are emerging important arenas for that kind of engagement and learning” (IBM, n.d.).
Kroski (2009) takes this IBM document to heart in her proposal for library policies. She
says that “a social media policy doesn’t have to be long or read like a tyrannical list of rules.
But a few guidelines can go a long way toward helping people use social media wisely.” As
more and more libraries venture into social media, or continue with their existing
programming, it is critical that they consider their in-‐house practices at a time where library
budgets and programs are under increased scrutiny.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a detailed social media policy that
helps to highlight the concerns about presenting unbiased and newsworthy content by
employees while encouraging exploration. While academics may not be accountable to
taxpayers in the same way, many of the concerns at the Crown’s broadcaster, such as bias
and organizational identity, are similar in nature to a public university. The BBC lists
guidelines and scenarios of responsible usage of social media without being overly restrictive
and without discouraging innovation and experimentation. They also provide separate
guidelines for personal use (BBC, 2008b) as well as professional (BBC, 2008a). A helpful,
detailed approach one that is not needlessly restrictive should be the overall approach for
academic libraries writing their own social media guidelines. For more specific examples in
Hooker -‐ 26
the corporate realm, there is a large database of social media policies publically available on
the web (Boudreaux, n.d.).
Conclusion and recommendations
This directed study has given me an opportunity to examine social media usage in
academic libraries and within the larger context of trends in information technologies,
higher education and lifelong learning. The timely aspect of this study is what mechanisms
can be developed to encourage academic librarians to develop a shared understanding of a
way forward while adapting to the inevitable cultural changes that have been brought about
by social media. In evaluating the literature on social media in Canadian and American
academic libraries and the programs developed within those organizations, it seems obvious
that academic librarians are at a critical juncture. Guidelines for using and integrating social
media need to written before the tools can find acceptance in academic libraries. By taking a
proactive approach to justify and codify social media practices through better planning and
policy development, the academic library can begin the process of bridging a gap between
experimental projects taken on by personally-‐motivated librarians and clearly outlined web
media strategies. Current literature does not fully capture the strategic potential for social
media in academic libraries, and it may now be necessary to establish best practice
frameworks and model planning documents in order to provide more innovative and
effective supports for this critical, emerging area.
As a result of undertaking this investigation, I have been able to identify a number of
projects or logical next steps (recommendations) that can be taken in conjunction with other
Hooker -‐ 27
ideas as part of a graduated approach to responding to social media. Academic libraries
should consider the following in responding to the advent of social media within their
organizations, namely:
1) Consider an in-‐house training program for library staff, perhaps in partnership with academic information technology (IT) units, about social media and how to recognize the impact of web 2.0 in scholarly communication;
2) Consider hiring an emerging technology librarian, or seconding an available academic librarian to a project, whose main responsibility would be to monitor social media, disseminate its benefits and keep academic librarians apprised of key developments;
3) Consider a committee of ‘early adopter’ academic librarians who serve as leaders in their institutions and share best practices with faculty and students accordingly.
The challenge of adopting social media in the academic library is not new, but only
now are librarians and scholars beginning to tackle the advanced management of social
medial programming head on. Further research on new learners and information literacy will
bolster the evidence needed for librarians to begin shifting institutional culture. Additionally,
the sharing of professional practice is always recommended, no matter the channel.
However, the onus is now on the librarians, managers and institutions to prepare the way
forward for social media in the academic library. Our users are changing along with their
information practices, and the time has come to bridge the information gap between library
experimentation and established service. We can either meet our users out there to
collaborate, or wait endlessly for their return.
Hooker -‐ 28
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Appendices
Appendix A: Directed Study Schedule, Fall 2009
Sep 08 – Sep 12 (1 week) • Project outlining and discussions • LIBR 559M: Module 1
Sep 13 – Sep 26 (2 week) • Literature review: social media in higher education • LIBR 559M: Modules 1/2
Sep 27 – Oct 03 (1 week) • Literature review: Social media as learning tools • Planning meeting held with Dean • LIBR 559M: Module 2
Oct 04 – Oct 10 (1 week) • Literature review: Social media in academic libraries • LIBR 559M: Module 3
Oct 11 – Oct 24 (2 weeks) • Threading research, reviewing articles for narrative description
• Planning meeting held with Dean • Writing of Directed Study draft begins • LIBR 559M: Modules 3/4
Oct 25 – Oct 31 (1 week) • Environmental scan: Social media policy • 1st Directed Study draft submitted for review • LIBR 559M: Module 4 • “Social Cataloguing” wiki entry (LIBR 559M) and
article (JCHLA) completed
Nov 01 – Nov 07 (1 week) • Environmental scan: CARL Strategic Plans • Addition of Strategic planning literature to draft • Weekly planning meetings begin • LIBR 559M: Module 5
Nov 08 – Nov 14 (1 week) • 2nd draft of directed study completed • Weekly planning meeting • LIBR 559M: Module 5
Nov 15 – Nov 21 (1 week) • 3rd draft of whole essay completed • Weekly planning meeting • LIBR 559M: Module 6
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Nov 22 – Nov 28 (1 week) • Final draft of paper for review by Dean • Weekly planning meeting • LIBR 559M: Module 6
Nov 30 – Dec 2 • Final paper sent to Dr. Mary Sue Stephenson • LIBR 559M: Final presentations: Directed study, and
TOTS session slides • Project Completed
Hooker -‐ 35
Appendix B: Selected Search Concepts and Sources
Social media concept mapping (Academic Search Complete)
• DE “SOCIAL computing” • DE “SOCIAL media” • DE “SOCIAL bookmarks” • DE “SOCIAL networks” • DE “SOCIAL network theory (Communication)” • DE “WEB 2.0” • DE “BLOGS” • DE “WEB publishing” • DE “WIKIS (Computer science)” • DE “WEB analytics” • DE “WEB sites” • DE “BOOKMARKS (Web sites)” • DE “ONLINE chat groups” • DE “SCHOLARLY Web sites” • DE “WEB portals” • DE “LIBRARY 2.0” • DE “INTERNET users”
Social media concept mapping (ERIC)
• DE “Electronic Publishing” • DE “Web Sites” • DE “Web Based Learning” • DE “Web Based Instruction” • DE “Computer Mediated Communication” • DE “Online Courses” • TX “social media” • TX “web 2.0”
Social media concept mapping (LISTA)
• DE “WORLD Wide Web” • DE “WEB 2.0” • DE “BLOGS” • DE “Web Publishing” • DE “WEB-‐Based Instruction”
Hooker -‐ 36
• DE “WIKIS (Computer Science) • DE “LIBRARY Web Sites” • DE “SOCIAL Bookmarks” • DE “SOCIAL Computing” • DE “SOCIAL Informatics” • DE “Library 2.0” • DE “ACADEMIC libraries -‐-‐ Effect of technological innovations on”
Academic Library concept mapping (Academic Search Complete/LISTA)
• DE “ACADEMIC libraries” • DE “ACADEMIC libraries – Departmental libraries” • DE “AFRICAN American academic libraries” • DE “BIBLE college libraries” • DE “COMMUNITY college libraries” • DE “FRATERNITY libraries” • DE “JUNIOR college libraries” • DE “NURSING school libraries” • DE “PHARMACY school libraries” • DE “PRIVATE school libraries” • DE “TEACHERS college libraries” • DE “TECHNICAL college libraries” • DE “THEOLOGICAL seminary libraries” • DE “UNDERGRADUATE libraries”
Professional Development concept mapping (ERIC)
• DE “Professional Development” • DE “Professional Training” • DE “Staff Development” • DE “Faculty Development” • DE “Teacher Improvement” • DE “Professional Continuing Education” • DE “Professional Education”
Hooker -‐ 37
Appendix C: Works Consulted
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Kroski, E. E. A. (2007). The social tools of web 2.0: Opportunities for academic libraries. Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, 44(12), 2011-‐2021.
Law, D. (2009). Academic digital libraries of the future: An environment scan. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 15(1), 53-‐67.
Lee, M. J. W., Miller, C., & Newnham, L. (2008). RSS and content syndication in higher education: Subscribing to a new model of teaching and learning. Educational Media International, 45(4), 311-‐322.
Lehavot, K. (2009). “MySpace” or yours? the ethical dilemma of graduate students' personal lives on the internet. Ethics & Behavior, 19(2), 129-‐141.
Linh, N. C. E. A. (2008). A survey of the application of web 2.0 in Australasian university libraries. Library Hi Tech, 26(4), 630-‐653.
Magolda, P. M., & Platt, G. J. (2009). Untangling web 2.0's influences on student learning. About Campus, 14(3), 10-‐16.
Maloney, E. J. (2007). What web 2.0 can teach us about learning. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(18), B26.
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Appendix D: Selected Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
Strategic Plans
Dalhousie University Libraries
• http://www.library.dal.ca/About/Documents
McGill University Library and Collections
• http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-‐about/general/
McMaster University Library
• http://library.mcmaster.ca/mission
University of Alberta Libraries
• http://www.library.ualberta.ca/aboutus/strategicplan/
University of British Columbia Library
• http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/planning/
University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources
• http://lcr.ucalgary.ca/publications
University of Manitoba Libraries
• http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/publications/
University of Ottawa Library
• http://www.biblio.uottawa.ca/content-‐page.php?g=en&s=biblio&c=abt-‐strategiq
University of Regina Library
• http://www.uregina.ca/library/about/mission.shtml
University of Saskatchewan Library
• http://library.usask.ca/aboutLibrary
University of Toronto Libraries
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• http://discover.library.utoronto.ca/general-‐information/about-‐the-‐library/mission-‐statement
University of Victoria Libraries
• http://library.uvic.ca/site/about/ulo.html
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Appendix E: Example Social Media Policy
Blogging
Blogging is a very public way of sharing your ideas. Remember that you are
representing the institution, especially if you are using the institutional blogging platform. If
it is a personal blog, make a clear statement that the views expressed on your blog are your
own and are not associated with your employer. Blog posts are generally best if kept
somewhere between 400-‐600 words, and contain links to appropriate content to heighten
interactivity with readers. Make sure when configuring your blog to make the RSS feed easily
available, and to provide clear links back to the library home page.
Twitter is one of the most popular, rising social media tools in 2009. However, it has its
own challenges. For example, if your tweets are public remember that they are “broadcast”
when composing tweets. Remember that much of Twitter's value lies in your ability to share
information and to be publicly findable. Twitter's value comes from a good balance of
professional resource sharing and a reasonable dose of personality. Avoid mechanical linking
with only titles, and always strive to add value to your network. Express opinions politely,
and participate in constructive conversation.
If you have a personal Twitter account, it is OK to advocate and share library resources
with your network, but ensure that you have stated that this account represents your views,
and not the library's. If you manage a library Twitter account, use your best judgment to
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ensure that you are sharing library specific resources on the feed, and to keep things
relevant or connected to your department when possible.
With the ability to use Facebook as a library's homepage, it is easy to establish a non-‐
invasive presence on this service. Pages can be created to represent different library
departments but ensure that a page you create does not overlap with another pages. Seek a
fan base, and provide regular new links and wall posts, but avoid sending too many updates
that will be broadcast to everyone's News Feed. Again, use your best judgment, and think
about how much you would like to see coming from your library on Facebook.
Other services
Experiment with other services that you deem necessary or are interested in gauging
value for your department. If the service turns out to be useful, seek to establish a best use
case for your team, draft use guidelines for other staff, and involve other team members and
supervisors as appropriate. If the service is deemed to be not useful for you or your library's
purpose, seek to delete your account. Remember that an unused or outdated profile sends a
negative message to our users.
General social media etiquette: When establishing a library service within a service's
community, seek out other librarians that use the service to connect with, and glean best
practices from. Critically evaluate the service, and seek to formulate a list of the service's
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benefits. This need not be a formal list, but be prepared to share reasons that you think a
particular social media tool is worth your time.
Monitoring
If you are participating in social media, be sure to periodically search popular search
engines and social media sites (e.g. Google, Twitter Search, Delicious) for mentions of your
library's name or services. Respond to posts as necessary. Remember social media are about
being social! Don't be afraid to comment or participate in discussions, but do keep in mind
who you are speaking for or about when online. Use your conversational instincts. Don't say
anything online you wouldn't say out loud to a group of your peers and supervisors.