The profession of sharing. Presence on Facebook,2013/2014

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to examine the current presence of Hungarian libraries on the social networking site Facebook. The survey seeks to understand how libraries and university libra-ries shape their strategy, and further, to explore whether a more integrated strategy is possible with the parallel presence of official homepages and blogs. Design/methodology/approach − During the spring and autumn of 2013 more than 4500 posts were examined in total, from 126 libraries, publishing houses, museums and other memory institutions from Hungary and worldwide. Among other attributes, the act of sharing as a gesture, the cohesion between the post and the institution, and the source of shared content was analysed. The impact of posts was measured based on likes, shares, comments and time elapsed from posting. Findings: The findings of this study indi-cate that the character of most successful posts and the strat-egy of most successful pages differ significantly from the attrib-utes of less successful ones. The most important areas to develop are: the sharing of original pages/items from digitized collections, the creative sharing of layered posts with added information and links, and the personal presence of library professionals. Also, the usage of Facebook as a bulletin board for practical information is disadvantageous. Originality/value: This study is focusing on specific library functionality with de-tailed evaluation under different purposes of contexts. Practical suggestions are accordingly made for practitioners to choose what and how to post to enhance the interaction and informa-tion exchange between users and the library.