Dr. Samuel Kai Wah Chu from the University of Hong Kong has been invited to present a seminar at the Business Library. The topic will be: "How Do Libraries Use Social Networking Sites to Interact with Users?" We welcome colleagues from all campus libraries to join us. Please email Daphne Chang if you are interested in attending.

Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Time: 2-3 pm
Venue: B400, Seawell Family Boardroom, GSB Library

Abstract: Social networking sites (SNSs) are helpful for stirring up interactions among users. The number of libraries which adopt SNSs is increasing. However, user engagement is low on many libraries’ SNSs. Existing research mainly focuses on the ways SNSs used in libraries and the librarians or users’ attitudes towards libraries using SNSs. Little research has been done on how to use SNSs to interact with library users effectively. This study focuses on the interactions between libraries and users on libraries’ Facebook, Twitter and Weibo. Four types of interactions are examined, including knowledge sharing, information dissemination, communication and knowledge gathering. A mixed method is applied in this study: quantitative results, generated from the analysis on around 1700 posts sampled from 40 libraries’ SNSs, are incorporated with qualitative results concluded from the interviews with 10 librarians. The study finds that among the four types of interactions, knowledge sharing attracts the largest volume of user responses on libraries’ SNSs. The study’s investigation on the differences of Facebook-like and Twitter-like SNSs and those between academic and public libraries on using SNSs suggests that in order to improve the efficiency of interacting with users on SNSs, there are necessities for libraries to coordinate different types of SNSs and take the properties of their communities under consideration.

Biography: Dr. Samuel Kai Wah Chu is an Associate Professor (Division of Information & Technology Studies) and the Deputy Director (Centre for Information Technology in Education) in the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. He is also the Program Director for MSc (Library & Information Management).

He has published over 100 articles and books include key journals in the area of IT in education (e.g., Computers & Education, Journal of Educational Technology & Society), information and library science (e.g., Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Library & Information Science Research), school librarianship (e.g., School Library Media Research, School Libraries Worldwide), academic librarianship (e.g., Journal of Academic Librarianship) and knowledge management (e.g., Journal of Intellectual Capital). He is also the author of a series of children story books published by Pearson Longman Hong Kong, including My Pet Hamsters and The Chocolate Boy.

Dr Chu is the Associate Editor (Asia) for Online Information Review. He is also the Asia Regional Editor for Journal of Information & Knowledge Management and an Editorial Board Member for School Libraries Worldwide. He holds many research grants including a 3 million Hong Kong dollar (USD$381,270) Quality Education Fund and is a recipient of his Faculty's Early Career Research Output Award.