The document presents survey results on students' use of social media for academic purposes. It finds that undergraduate students visit social media sites more daily on average than graduate students. Both groups are most likely to use social media to connect with other students and share research information with peers. Graduate students are more likely than undergraduates to use social media for research, accessing content via apps, and collaborating in workspaces. However, the top reasons students do not use social media for academic purposes are preferring to find information elsewhere and questioning the quality or reliability of information on social media. The document provides recommendations for libraries to better utilize social media, such as establishing presences on sites, organizing discipline-specific groups, and expanding information literacy instruction
Undergraduate and Graduate Student Use of Social Media Infographic
1. ENGAGING STUDENTS
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
98%
98%
42%
51%
40%
18%
31%
22%
7%
15%
1%
0%
AVERAGE DAILY VISITS
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
TO
Graduate
8%
<1
1-3 27%
21%
7-9 14% 10-12 10%
4-6 29%
6%
underGraduate
29%
10%
13 + 13%
13%
21%
LIKELIHOOD TO USE
45
34
33
SOCIAL MEDIA
FOR
39
26
10
8
POSE A
QUESTION
TO PEERS
UNDERGRADUATE GRADUATE
RESEARCH
OR ACCESS
CONTENT VIA
AN APP
14
1
-7
CREATE AND
ORGANIZE
RESEARCH
POSE A
POSE A
QUESTION TO RESEARCH
QUESTION
YOUR FACULTY
TO YOUR
/INSTRUCTORS LIBRARIANS
USE
SHARE
CONNECT W/
RESEARCH COLLABORATE
OTHER STUDENTS RESEARCH
IN A
W/ ACADEMIC INFORMATION RECOMMENDED
BY PEERS
W/ PEERS
WORKSPACE
INTERESTS
-33
VICES
RY SER
BRA
I
IAL MEDIA
IN L UGH SOC
ST
RO TE
ABILITY TO ASK
RE D TH GRADUA
QUESTIONS OF
TE RE TE
LIBRARIANS IN
IN VE DUA
REAL TIME
I GRA
EL DER
44.8
37.9
D N
27.1
U
23.4
-47
TUTORIALS
& RESEARCH
INSTRUCTION
-65
21.2
11.0%
NEED TRAINING IN
USE OF SOCIAL
MEDIA FOR
RESEARCH
PREFER OTHER
PLATFORMS FOR
ONLINE
RESEARCH
ASSOCIATE
SOCIAL MEDIA
W/ LEISURE
-71
NET
LIKLIHOOD
SCORE
30.7%
54.8%
-62
40.4
21.2
37.3
LITERATURE
RECCOMENDATIONS
FOR DIFFERENT
TOPICS
ABILITY TO
SHARE FILES OR
CITATIONS
-48
COMMUNITIES
FOR SPECIFIC
AREAS OF
RESEARCH/STUDY
24.2
40.4
-51 -53
4.7%
OTHER
REASONS WHY STUDENTS DO NOT USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR RESEARCH AND STUDY
61.6%
PREFER FINDING
INFORMATION
ELSEWHERE
52.6%
6.8%
26.8%
QUESTION
INFORMATION/
DATA QUALITY
PREFER NOT TO
COLLABORATE
W/ OTHER
STUDENTS
PREFER OTHER
PLATFORMS FOR
COMMUNICATING
ONLY 1 OUT OF EVERY 20
STUDENTS HAS RECIEVED
SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LIBRARIES
Consider establishing a
presence on Facebook
and Twitter, if you have
not already.
Post regular library-related
updates (changes to library
hours, new resources,
events and other “news”).
Set up LinkedIn groups, specific to
academic disciplines, for access by
graduate students in particular; secondarily,
establish a page on Google+ and create
groups specific to academic disciplines.
“Friend” or “Like” prominent
individuals and academic/student
organizations, encourage them to
share library posts with their networks.
Create community
pages or sites for
specific academic
disciplines, hosted
by the library.
Provide online tools for
organizing research,
managing citations,
sharing and collaboration,
such as RefWorks.
Academic libraries considering social media should evaluate potential services in
three distinct areas:
Contacting and communicating
with classmates, other students
with similar academic interests,
and with faculty and librarians.
Collaborating with others
by using sites to organize
and share research.
Expand information-literacy instruction
to include using social media for
research. For example, teach students
about the social media features of
online databases and research tools
such as RefWorks; show students how
to contact librarians through Facebook,
Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
Collecting data for research;
that is, using content in social
media sites as an authoritative
information source.
Teach students how to connect with researchers in
their discipline through social media, such as,
how to participate in a Twitter chat.
Introduce and inform graduate students about other
sites with discipline-specific communities such as,
Quora and the editing side of Wikipedia.
Consider including tools such as Dropbox, Google
Drive, and school services such as an intranet or
Blackboard/Moodle in information-literacy efforts.
54%
UNDERGRADUATE
46%
GRADUATE
CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES
AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES
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