1.
ENGAGING STUDENTS
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
Computers in Libraries 2014
Engaging Students through Social Media
Beth McGough, ProQuest
elizabeth.mcgough@proquest.com @BethMcGough79

2.
Agenda
• Introduction
• Use of social media
• Social media for study and research
• Training in the use of social media
• Recommendations
2
#CILDC

3.
Introduction
3

4.
Overall findings
Students use social media to seek
out, collaborate and obtain information from
classmates and academic peers
Even if they are not interacting with the library
they are open to doing so
Enabling and fostering the use of social media
for organizing and sharing research is an ideal
role for libraries
However, the study revealed students do not
consider social media an appropriate
information source for research
4

5.
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Among graduate and undergraduate students

6.
Use of social media
6

7.
Use of social media for specific tasks
7

8.
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR STUDY
AND RESEARCH

9.
Social media for study and research
9

10.
Students are using social media for study and research
10

11.
Training in the use of social media
11

12.
Interest in library services through social media
12

13.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
LIBRARIES

14.
Recommendations: Use of social media
1
• Consider establishing a presence on Facebook and
Twitter if you have not already
• Consider other site such as Instagram, Pinterest, or
Tumblr
2
• Post regular library-related updates
3
• “Follow” or “Like” prominent individuals and
academic/student organizations, encourage them to
share library posts with their networks
14

15.
Recommendations: Current and likely use of social media
1
• Set up LinkedIn groups or point students toward Groups specific to
academic disciplines for graduate students in particular
• Secondarily, establish a page on Google+ and create groups specific to
academic disciplines
• Consider creative uses of other sites such as Pinterest
2
• Create community pages or sites for specific academic
disciplines, hosted by the library
• Provide widgets for faculty or students to embed in blogs or class web
pages
3
• Provide online tools for organizing research, managing citations, sharing
and collaboration, such as RefWorks, ProQuest Flow or Mendeley
15

16.
Recommendations: Training in the use of social media
1
• Expand information-literacy instruction to include social media
for research
• Teach students about the social media features of online
databases and research tools
2
• Show students how to connect with librarians through
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn
• Teach students to connect with researchers in their discipline through
social media, such as how to participate in a Twitter chat or how to
find researchers with similar interests on Twitter or Reddit
3
• Introduce and inform graduate students about other sites with
discipline-specific communities, such as
ResearchGate, Quora and the editing side of Wikipedia
4
• Consider including Cloud-based tools such as
Dropbox, Google Drive, and school services such as an
intranet or Blackboard/Moodle in information-literacy efforts
16

17.
QUESTIONS
Whitepaper, Student Use of Social Media, http://prq.st/1ca9AcB
Infographic, Student Use of Social Media, http://prq.st/1b8pgYw
http://www.slideshare.com/ProQuest
elizabeth.mcgough@proquest.com
@BethMcGough79

18.
Further Reading
• Dudenhoffer, C. (2012). Pin it!: Pinterest as a library marketing and
information literacy tool. College & Research Libraries
News, 73(6), 328-332.
• Witek, D., & Grettano, T. (2012). Information literacy on facebook: An
analysis. Reference Services Review, 40(2), 242-257.
• Hicks, A., & Graber, A. (2010). Shifting paradigms:
Teaching, learning and web 2.0. Reference Services
Review, 38(4), 621-633.
• Kelly, B. (2013). Using Social Media to Enhance Your Research
Activities. In: Social Media in Social Research 2013
conference, 2013-06-24 – 2013-06-24, London.