USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES FOR READERS’ SERVICES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES LIBRARIES IN IMO STATE

Abstract

This study examines the use of social networking sites for reader’s services in public university
libraries in Imo State. Three objectives and three research questions were used for the study. The
study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for the study consists of two
hundred and sixteen (216) library staff which is made up of all the professional librarian and paraprofessional librarian in Imo State University IMSU, Federal University of Technology Owerri
FUTO and Alvan Ikokwu University of Education Owerri library in Imo State. Data was analyzed
using the descriptive statistics of frequency counts, mean scores and standard deviation. The
findings from the study shows that wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Blog, Myspace,
YouTube, Slideshare, Meebo and Ning were the types of social networking sites available in public
universities library in Imo State. Cyber or E-crimes, unprotected information, inadequate
awareness, epileptic power supply, low level of technology penetration, predators and Stalkers,
time consuming, network problems, can damage relationship, cost of social networking facilities,
low literacy of use of social networking sites and it causes distraction to me were major challenges
facing the utilization of social networking site. Therefore, the researcher recommends that the
university library should make efforts to reduce cyber or E-crimes in university libraries, the
university librarians should ensure that library staff are adequately aware of the use of social
networking sites for effective service delivery, the government and library management should
ensure that the library have steady power supply, that the university library should ensure that the
issues affecting network are resolved in order to boost the use of social networking sites among
library users and that the library management should ensure that the cost of using social
networking facilities in the library are subsided for it users.