How will social media affect libraries in the future? http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/whitePapers/socialMedia/ Social media is forming an increasingly central part of how we all communicate. Its online communities carry a strong and influential voice, and there is much to be gained from engaging directly with customers through these channels. It's against this backdrop that Taylor & Francis decided to research and compile a white paper focused on how libraries are currently using social media, looking at how libraries are applying social media channels, to what extent it is embedded in library communications, and how it may affect library roles in the future. The research we undertook was on a truly global scale - over 600 librarians worldwide contributed their thoughts, suggestions and experiences through focus groups in India, the UK and USA, telephone interviews, an online survey and a Twitter party. We heard some fascinating case studies through the focus groups, such as how librarians are managing to balance time and resource against providing an active social media channel (librarians in the India focus group described how they shared the workload in order to provide a timely response to queries). We also made some very interesting discoveries through the online survey, including: [cid:image001.jpg@01D00F17.BBA2D6A0]http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/whitePapers/socialMedia/ * 61% of libraries have been using social media for 3 years or more * 30% post to social media daily * Facebook is the most popular channel, with 58% of librarians using it regularly * 75% of libraries schedule posts ad hoc, with no social media policy or plan in place The white paper can be accessed online for free, along with accompanying top level data, infographic visualizations of key findings, video presentations and more. See http://bit.ly/socialmediatf for more details. We see the research as being just the start to the discussion. We plan to add to a web-based resource over coming months focusing further on specific themes to be raised by the white paper, such as measuring impact, using it as a customer service tool, and how it is used at a regional level, e.g. in Asia, South America and Africa. If you would like to help contribute to this further research, have a comment to make about the white paper, or would like to share your experience of using social media in your library, get in touch with us at shafina.segon@tandfindia.commailto:shafina.segon@tandfindia.com Best wishes Shafina Segon Head of Marketing, South Asia Journals and Online Resources Taylor & Francis India [TFO-Mobile-email]http://explore.tandfonline.com/lmt/mobile/ [white paper email signature]http://www.tandf.co.uk/libsite/whitePapers/socialMedia/ -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.