Study on the use of Facebook, RSS, Blogs and twitter (web2.0) among selected academic libraries from 6 Gulf countries namely, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.

1. A Study on the use of Facebook, RSS, Blogs and Twitter
(Web2.0) among selected academic libraries from 6 Gulf
countries namely: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait
KAUST
Repository
Item type Conference Paper; Presentation
Authors Ramli, Rindra M.
DOI 10.5339/qproc.2014.gsla.3
Journal QScience Proceedings
Rights Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Downloaded 31-Aug-2015 06:52:33
Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Link to item http://hdl.handle.net/10754/315115

2. A Study on the use of Facebook, RSS, Blogs and
Twitter (Web2.0) among selected academic libraries
from 6 Gulf countries namely: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and
Kuwait
Presented by Rindra M Ramli
Access and Digital Services Spec, KAUST Library
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

3. Agenda
• Introduction & Purpose of Research
• Overview
• Research Methodology
• Findings
• Conclusion
• Recommendations

4. Introduction &
Purpose of Research
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5. Overview
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6. Overview
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7. Overview
Mahmood & Richardson 2011 –
Surveyed 100 ARL in USA
RSS and Instant Messaging are
popular tools
Publishing new / announcements
Sharing items published on library blogs

8. Overview
Chua and Goh (2010):
Researched 120 library websites from
Asia, Europe and North America
Blogs, RSS and social networking sites
were more prevalent in library websites in
North America as compared to Europe
and Asia

9. Overview
Chua and Goh (2010):
Blogs: Focused on subject specific topics
as well as a tool for communication
RSS: Used for communicating news and
events, updates of resources or
collections on websites

10. Overview
Kim and Abbas (2010):
Investigated 230 academic library
websites
73% uses RSS
65% uses blogs
15% uses twitter

11. Overview
Tripathi and Kumar (2010):
Out of 151 websites (USA):
56%: Instant Messaging
34%: Blog
22%: RSS

12. Research Objectives

13. Research
Methodology
Exploratory study: Involved content
analysis on selected library websites
Visited and Browsed for the presence of
the selected social media tools
Total: 101 library websites
Conducted between
Sept – Oct 2013

14. Breakdown
Kingdom
of
Saudi
Arabia
Qatar
United
Arab
Emirates
Bahrain
Kuwait
Oman
Number
of
Public
UniversiGes
28
1
11
4
1
2
Number
of
Private
UniversiGes
5
9
16
10
2
12
Grand
Total
33
10
27
14
3
14

15. Social Media usage
among Gulf countries
libraries
Sampled
101
Websites
Non-­‐
Existent
Existent
Pointed
back
to
Uni
Total
Facebook
48%
11%
42%
100%
Twi"er
53%
10%
37%
100%
RSS
80%
16%
4%
100%
Blogs
99%
0%
1%
100%

16. 46%
80%
KSA:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

17. Facebook and Twitter are the most
commonly used tools
18%: Facebook
15%: Twitter
12%: RSS
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Facebook
Twi"er
RSS
18
15
12
KSA

18. 100%
78%
Qatar:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

19. RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the
commonly deployed tools
30%: RSS
20%: Twitter
10%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Facebook
Twi"er
RSS
10
20
30
Qatar

20. 82%
75%
UAE:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

21. RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the
commonly deployed tools
30%: RSS
4%: Twitter
4%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Facebook
Twi"er
RSS
4
4
30
UAE

22. 50%
50%
Bahrain:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

23. RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the
commonly deployed tools
7%: RSS
7%: Facebook
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Facebook
RSS
7
7
Bahrain

24. 0%
50%
Kuwait:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

25. RSS, Twitter and Facebook are the
commonly deployed tools
33%: Twitter
33%: Facebook
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Facebook
Twi"er
33
33
Kuwait

26. 50%
33%
Oman:
Breakdown
of
universiHes
using
social
media
Public
Private

27. Twitter and Facebook are the
commonly deployed tools
7%: Twitter
7%: Facebook
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Facebook
Twi"er
7
7
Oman

28. Library promotion: Opening hours
announcements, access to e-
resources, general news, library
collections
Library services: Orientation and
training programs
Feedback
Common uses

29. Comparing with library websites
from USA, Asia and Europe with
Gulf countries:
Commonly used: RSS &
Facebook (Social Networking
sites)
Co-Relation

30. Challenges
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31. Interesting Finding
Salem & Mourtada:
Facebook users in Arab world is
around 45 million
UAE, Kuwait and Qatar are the
front runners – Facebook users

32. Interesting Finding
Salem & Mourtada:
Twitter users:
Saudi Arabia: 830,291
Kuwait: 370,987
UAE: 263, 070
Bahrain: 72, 468
Qatar:: 59, 835
Oman: 9,832

33. Recommendations:
Tool to connect to the users
- Proper planning
- Monitoring – new trends and tech
advancements
- Moderation
- Rules

34. Future studies:
- Preferred social media tools
- Determine how social media tools
can better serve the library users
- Eliciting information from library
users on the information that they
(the users) like to receive from
libraries

35. Thank you