@Digital libraries: harnessing Twitter to build online communities

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the types of roles that Twitter played in digital libraries (DLs) and their relationships in building DL online communities. Design/methodology/approach A mixed method analysis of DLs’ tweets was conducted to identify the usage, roles of Twitter in DL communities and relationships among the roles. Twitter data from 15 different DLs for one year were extracted, and an open coding analysis was performed to identify types of Twitter roles. Pearson correlation coefficient was applied to examine the relationships among the roles based on word similarities. Findings The results present 15 types of Twitter roles representing five main categories identified from DL tweets, including information, promotion, related resources, social identity and social connection. Moreover, word similarities analysis identifies more strong relationships among the roles in four main categories (promotion, related resources, social identity and social connection) but less with roles in information. Research limitations/implications Characteristics of DL online communities are discussed and compared with physical library communities. Suggestions are proposed for how tweets can be improved to play more effective roles. To build a strong community, it is critical for digital librarians to engage with followers. Originality/value This study is a pioneering work that not only analyzes Twitter roles and their relationships in building DL online communities but also offers recommendations in terms of how to build a strong online community and improve Twitter use in DLs.

#LibraryLife: A quantitative analysis of social media usage, content, and engagement at the Vancouver Public Library

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“…Wellman and Gulia (1996) found that people receive several types of support from online communities, including informational support, emotional support, and companionship. While the research literature reflects the fact that Twitter can be a valuable source of information, it is also evident that it can play an important role in providing psychological and social support (Bell 2012;Cuddy, Graham, and Morton-Owens 2010;Xie and Stevenson 2019). Xie and Stevenson (2019) showed how Twitter plays a critical role in building libraries' communities by creating social identity and communicating social connections.…”

Classification of Twitter Data by Sentiment Analysis in the Malay Language

“…Twitter is a social media application that has been launched since 2006 [5]. With social networking use surpassing web-based email utilizes in February 2009, a few about the connection are just not being created by humans.…”