Social Networking Sites, the Lifeline among the Students and Librarians: Information Needs, Marketing and Promotion

This study aimed to identify the use of social networking sites (SNSs) by the libraries of the central universities in India for marketing and promoting of the library and information services and products among their user community and also to examine the students’ perception of the effectiveness of SNSs in their academic perspectives. The study used a descriptive survey method with questionnaires and interviews as tools for collecting relevant data. Findings from the study indicated that Facebook and YouTube were the most popular SNSs among the librarians as well as students. Through SNSs, librarians were providing several information services to their users e.g. new arrivals information, newspaper clipping services, schedule of orientation programmes, national and international conferences information, job notifications, interview tips, etc. Further, they used Google Talk and LIS Forum for online suggestions and web file sharing to their users. The study also revealed that students had a positive attitude towards the significance of SNSs for their academic perspectives. Results also demonstrated that the majority of students strongly agreed that SNSs were effective media which helped to offer a platform where they could study collaboratively with their friends and educators. Beside all these, a large number of students strongly believed that SNSs helped to increase e-learning habits among the university students and played a vital role for the development of future education system.