(Hutchings, 2015)

Five trends identified from the above video that have an impact on how individuals behave as digital citizens:

  1. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.
  2. Generations Y and Z consider email to be outdated.
  3. Wikipedia has 15 million articles and has been shown in studies to be as accurate as Encyclopedia Brittanica.
  4. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertising.
  5. We will no longer search for products or services. They will find us via social media, in the same way that the news does. (Hutchings, 2015)

These have significant implications for the need for new information policy development in the public library where I am employed.

The first two trends illustrate the popularity of social media, in particular Facebook. As a library we must respond to community need, and if the preference is to interact with us through Facebook and other social media, we must have policies surrounding the content we place on social media, how responsive we are and who is responsible for maintaining social media. The public internet service also will predominantly be used for social media, so policies also need to be in place for our users that provide clear boundaries on what is acceptable and unacceptable when using social media. Educational guidelines referring to online safety could also be important.

With sites like Wikipedia gaining popularity and credibility, information searching behaviour changes. Instead of using books or reference librarians, people find their own information and use it. This gives us an opportunity to focus on to develop policy and practices surrounding educating users on evaluating sources and copyright issues, to ensure they can do their own research, and find their own information in a responsible way with the public library still being an essential part of the process.

The last two trends exemplify a major shift in how people learn about their world and interact and interpret it, expecting pertinent information to find them, and finding peer communication more relevant than traditional advertising. As a library we must embrace new ways to inform and connect with the community. We must have a solid presence on social media, we must respond and moderate our content, and we must ensure adequate internet access and digital literacy. Everybody should have equal opportunity to access social media in order to communicate and participate collaboratively, while also accessing news, products and services.

References

Hutchings, T. (2015, January). The social media revolution 2015 [Video file]. Retrieved from Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsdcFOiTYxw