Why study social media in the library? Social media has the potential to facilitate much closer relationships between libraries and their patrons - wherever users are based, and however they choose to learn about and access library services and resources. Current usage of social media by the library community generally remains ad hoc and somewhat experimental, but the uptake of these tools is accelerating, and they will likely play an increasingly important role in library service provision and outreach in the future. This white paper has been researched and compiled by Taylor & Francis to provide an overview of current practices relating to the use by libraries of social media, from a world-wide perspective, against which individual institutions can benchmark their own activities and be inspired to try new approaches. This white paper is just a start - we plan to build from this a central web-based resource on social media for the library community that will provide ongoing updates, in-depth case studies and best practice guides. We hope this will become a valuable, developing resource that librarians will access and contribute to, so the entire community benefits from sharing ideas and experiences.

Article title : Social networking tools for academic libraries, the writer is the University of Hong Kong education faculty staff. Samuel Kai-Wah Chu, Division of Information and Technology Studies, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong