An Experimental use of social media platforms in information retrieval from the Perspective of the Library Managers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate private Jordanian universities’ use of social networking sites, and its impact on the provided information services from the perspective of the directors themselves. It also identifies some of the difficulties and obstacles that limit the use on those sites in the libraries of the study populations. A questionnaire was used as a measurement tool, and the study’s population consisted of the directors of Jordanian private university libraries for the academic year 2019-2020. Of the contacted 17 directors in the sample, 13 responded, which constitutes 76.47% participation. Surveys and both historical approaches and case study were used as they constitute an appropriate method for studies of this kind. The study finds that library study samples’ use of social networking sites was very weak, with an average score of 2.17, which indicates lack of its impact specifically on the improvement of the services they provide, where the total impact score was 0.468. The study also finds many difficulties and obstacles limiting the use of library directors in private Jordanian universities of social networking. The most prominent result was the weakness of their systems and of the instructions used to guide the establishment of websites for the study population. In that light, the study recommends urgent use of social networking sites among private university library directors in their libraries and using them to improve the services that they provide for the benefit of the community. This is important because it has now become a pressing need for all organizations and their customer bases. The study also recommends that the senior management of universities’ study population reformulate their systems and instructions to best facilitate the establishment of library pages for them on social networking sites, in order to improve the provided information services.

Key Words: University Libraries, Social Networking Sites, Information Services.