Vanessa’s Reflective Journal

It is a pleasant learning journey to study this module on social networking for information professionals. I have a chance to explore multifarious SM tools and the big SM environment. I feel myself like swimming in a marvelous sea flourishing with social networking corals which are generating digital mysteries. I am thrilled by thriving, vivid and energetic corals.

I have grown both as a social networker and informational professional in the course of this study. Prior to taking this course my instant association with social networking is Facebook. After exploring multifarious learning resources, retrospection through reflective tasks and online discussion forums, consolidating thoughts and regenerating new knowledge through regular engagement with the blog post, I have gained more in-depth knowledge in social networking. The Facebook group in our class for sharing thoughts on readings and reference sources with other classmates inspires me to look at things from more perspectives. As a librarian in a public library, I am thrilled to learn the level of achievement of public library service that can be made possible by SM networking. It allows us to build relationships with library users, ensuring their satisfaction and encouraging marketing, liaison and outreach activities (Gall, 2010).

I have learnt so many more possible ways to use social networking tools to meet the information needs of our public library. Currently, our library has a Facebook and Instagram presence for promoting local publications (HKPL, 2020). After gaining more knowledge on features and functionality of various social networking tools and media environments from the study, I have got wealth of thoughts to add more participatory services with social networking.

Other than Facebook and Instgram, it worth us to consider YouTube and Flickr which are employed by many public libraries to display collections with their video and photo sharing functions respectively. To assist in our work we may refer to the guidance in the Flickr Creative Commons for convergence in the Web 2.0 environment to provide collection access to new audiences (Kalfatovic et al., 2008, p.267).

We may also use social bookmarking tools such as Delicious, wikis and Diego to promote collections. The wiki is good for resource listings (Tripathi & Kumar, 2011). We just need to create a topic with wiki which will then list out all the e-resources and important websites that are relevant to the topic. Other than broadcasting live events for virtual coverage to remote audiences (Alajmi & Albudaiwi, 2020), which can considerably increase usage of library services, service delivery by video is essential when the society is under extreme or disastrous conditions. During Covid-19 our library was closed intermittently for public health concern, we adopted the software Zoom for online delivery of library events, which attracted incredibly higher attendance than normal delivery in physical settings. Other than events delivery, we may also deliver microlearning by producing short user education session videos with YouTube to teach user on how to effectively retrieve electronic collections (Lam et al., 2019).

Twitter is very popular in western countries. Locally in Hong Kong, I think Twitter would also be a good try to add on Facebook and Instagram with its simple and direct user interface to provide quick library information updates (Neilson, 2016). The assignment 1 task on social networking project proposal gave me a chance to explore the Twitter tool in more depth by immersing myself in a social networking environment. Having experienced creating an organisational Twitter account from scratch, I am confident that our colleagues will be ready to manage the Twitter account with its simple features. Most importantly, its simplicity makes it being a super convenient and quick tool to provide library updates. It will be very helpful if we have had a Twitter account to update the public on operational arrangements under Covid-19 (Al-Daihani & Abrahams, 2015).

Economically, Twitter will be very suitable to help keep a good public budget. Many libraries use the Twitter channel to generate brand awareness to the public at a low cost (Collins & Quan-Haase, 2014). We may use the Twitter conveniently to answer inquiries, to release information about new collections and lists, to convey general library information, and to provide online support (Chu & Du, 2013). In an exploratory study of the application of Twitter in an extensive public library system, it was found that a significant number of tweets were associated with announcements, information sharing, recommendations/suggestions, advisory services, and informational conversations (Shiri & Rathi, 2013).

Operationally, to complement my proposed initiative to enhance our SM presence, we need to equip colleagues with essential knowledge to cater with different challenges that they will likely encounter in an extended online environment. We should give colleagues sufficient trainings and allocate enough manpower to patrol the online environment for preventing crackers to break into users’ accounts, over exposure of personal information and abusing SM tools to disseminate inappropriate messages.

Strategically, with the user profiles collected by our SM tools we may analyse user needs readily for collection development. Our library will be able to implement market research to learn user needs and to identify characteristics, assess needs, and interpret information trends of the community (Dorner et al., 2015). We may make use of such analysis to implement customer relationship management in a coordinated and integrated way to attract new users, and to build confidence, trust, and loyalty among existing users.

Web 2.0 and the Library 2.0 movement has revolutionised libraries and the LIS profession dramatically (Casey, 2005). Library 2.0 prompts us to interact with users in a new culture of participation catalysed by social web technologies (Holmberg et al., 2009). As librarians 2.0, we combine the roles as an educator, explorer and advocator. Our work has become more and more challenging in an increasingly complex online environment. For example, the recent privacy issue of WhatsApp sharing data with Facebook arouses controversies in societies. It prompts me to think whether user acceptance for SM will change with added concern on privacy and how would this impact our users’ social networking habits? To counteract challenges like this we must think broadly about our social networking strategies from the social, cultural, educational, ethical, and technical perspectives. As long as we aspire to serve information users and our society with care, innovation and wisdom, I am confident that we will be able to make way for the library’s advancement and our professional growth.

References

Alajmi, B. M. & Albudaiwi, D. (2020). Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: Where Do Public Libraries Stand? Public Library Quarterly, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2020.1827618

Al-Daihani, S. M. & AlAwadhi, S. A. (2015). Exploring academic libraries’ use of Twitter: a content analysis. The Electronic Library, 33(6), 1002–1015. https://doi.org/10.1108/el-05-2014-0084

Casey, M. (2005, September 26). Librarians Without Borders. LibraryCrunch blog. http://www.librarycrunch.com/2005/09/librarians_without_borders.html

Collins, G. & Quan-Haase, A. (2014). Are social media ubiquitous in academic libraries? A longitudinal study of adoption and usage patterns. Journal of Web Librarianship, 8(1), 48–68. doi:10.1080/19322909.2014.873663

Chu, S. K.-W. & Du, H. S. (2013). Social Networking Tools for Academic Libraries. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 45 (1), 64-75.

Dorner, D. G., Gorman, G. E. & Calvert, P. J. (2015). Information Needs Analysis: Principles and Practice in Information Organizations. Facet.

Gall, D. (2010). Librarian Like a Rock Star: Using Your Personal Brand to Promote our Services and Reach Distant Users. Journal of Library Administration, 52(6/7), 549–58.

Holmberg, K., Huvila, I., Kronqvist-Berg, M. & Widen-Wulff, G. (2009). What is Library 2.0? Journal of Documentation, 65(4), 668–681.

Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL). (2020). Enjoy Reading Local Publications. https://www.hkpl.gov.hk/en/collections/enjoy-reading-local-publications.html

Kalfatovic, M. R., E., Kapsalis, K. P., Spiess, A., Van Camp & Edson, M. (2008). Smithsonian Team Flickr: A Library, Archives, and Museums Collaboration in Web 2.0 Space. Archival Science, 8(4), 267-277.

Lam, E. T. H., Au, C. H. & Chiu, D. K. W. (2019). Analyzing the use of Facebook among university libraries in Hong Kong. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(3), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.02.007

Neilson, C. J. (2016). What Do Health Libraries Tweet About? A Content Analysis. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v11i1.3661

Shiri, A. & Rathi, D. (2013). Twitter content categorisation: A public library perspective. Journal of Information & Knowledge Management, 12(4), 1350035. doi:10.1142/S0219649213500354.

Tripathi, M. & Kumar, S. (2011). Use of Web 2.0 Tools in Academic Libraries: A Reconnaissance of the International Landscape. International Information and Library Review, 42(3), 195-207.

With the emergence of digital technologies since the last few decades, the information context has been undergoing “technological revolution” (Kim, 2020). The advance of digital technology make way for social media (SM) to bloom, which drastically transform the service mode of information organisations in the aspects of service outreach, collection promotion, disaster management, user engagement and more. As information professionals, we need to embrace the challenges and grasp the opportunities that come with technological advancement in order to make our service to stay relevant.

The web 2.0 environment facilitated the implementation of library 2.0 which is a critical consideration point when information organisations take up social media presence. Web 2.0 technologies allow websites to be more dynamic and interconnected, producing “online communities” (O’Connell, 2018). The Web 2.0 features prompted the vibrant growth of free sites like Wikipedia and Facebook. We need to evaluate critically by taking into consideration the goals and objectives of the organisation, characteristics of different SM tools, staffing requirements, user experience and overall SM strategies in deciding SM implementation.

Strategically, we must match the SM functions with deliverables for a multi-pronged SM approach. For example, when we need to relate our services by social interactions to a massive number of audiences what pops up on our mind could be Facebook. Facebook is representative of the widespread uptake of online social networking. It is by far the biggest social networking site, boasting over 2 billion active users. If video function is desired, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube all offer this feature. We will be able to make a sensible choice when we evaluate more aspects like user habits, user base, staff capabilities and the SM’s supplementary functions.

Further, user acceptance is important to SM selection. We must orient towards our target service group for effective SM outreach. For academic libraries, professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn, XING, ResearchGate or Academia.edu would be suitable given their popularities among professional communities. LinkedIn caters to professional networking and its user demographics are quite different to those of other social networks. High earners are more likely to be LinkedIn users (O’Connell, 2018).

Operationally, a user-friendly SM approach with less technical requirement from library staff could be a good choice for many libraries. Blogging is a popular form of expression for many people to share thoughts and experiences about events, activities, or interests for its simplicity and flexible format. Twitter, a microblogging tool, combining video broadcasting functions and user friendly features has been gaining popularity among libraries (Collins & Quan-Haase, 2014). New York Public Library, Princeton Public Library and Queens Library tweeted heavily to update users about their library status and policies, advertising library events and services and for social interactions.

After careful selection of SM tools and well-thought design of SM strategies, we could level up the SM effect by coupling it with the latest technologies like virtual reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and mobile technologies to enhance users’ experience. Facebook is investing heavily in social VR technologies (O’Connell, 2018). With specially designed APP, special learning experience and efficient resources fetching functions can be brought to users. With VR or AR combining the use of mobile technologies, patrons may interact within an imaginary 3D virtual learning environment. Users will be immersed in interactive learning games to enhance learning experience or retrieve swiftly e-resources alongside physical collections (O’Connell, 2018). In Australia, librarians at Macquaire University creatively developed an engaging interactive game for undergraduate students to spark curiosity and instill evidence-based practice (EBP) knowledge and skills, while rewarding students for successfully completing learning tasks (Lessick & Kraft, 2017, p.408-409). VR could have a particularly profound impact on the medical professions. The startup VR service at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library at the University of Virginia illustrates a new role for libraries to catalyze user creativity by providing exposure to VR technology and technology-enabled spaces to support VR use by a broad range of users (Lessick & Kraft, 2017, p.408-409).

Most importantly, devoting information professionals should undertake a bigger mission by steering our initiatives from the widest perspective for well-being of the society. SM offers us enormous opportunity in research achievements and disaster management. Data collection capacity of SM tools is an important consideration in SM strategies. We should utilise our SM tools to assist the work of researchers (Library of Congress, 2013) and manage a large-scale SM data archives (Bell, 2013). SM has been evolving rapidly partly due to the increasing number of disasters facing humanity (Alexander, 2014; Han, 2019; Liu et al., 2017). We should integrate emergency plans into our SM strategies (Bishop & Veil, 2013). In the rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter provide a valuable source of information for research, while providing psychological and social support to users (Bell, 2012; Cuddy et al., 2010; Xie & Stevenson, 2019). Facebook supports personal social interactions and self-expression (McAndrew & Jeong, 2012, p.2359). It allows intensive analysis of personal preferences data and social interactions and thus allow librarians to make relevant recommendations on collections or services most useful to users (O’Connell, 2018). SM enables the seamless delivery of library service and events by live broadcasting or recording even during disastrous period like Covid-19.

While SM opens to us enormous opportunities to bring information services to unlimited heights, there comes with imminent challenges which must be dealt with vigilantly. Among challenges in association with SM like digital divide, digital literacy, copyright issues and others, privacy is a prime concern of our users. Informed consent, anonymity, and avoiding undue harm are three key concerns of users. SM platform should be designed to guide the decision to obtain consent to use individual’s social media data (Beninger, 2017, p.57–73). We should educate library SM users be aware of their privacy options. Users would feel angry and betrayed even if their public data was used as part of a research study (Pagoto & Nebeker, 2019, p.312).

Today, as information professionals it is our mission to propel the society forward with information and technologies. SM prevalence transformed the landscape of information context unprecedentedly. Only with perseverance, vigilance, creativity, courage and devotion can we ride on opportunities and confront challenges. Let’s do our utmost to safeguard our information society on its path to social networking.

References

Alexander, D. E. (2014). Social media in disaster risk reduction and crisis management. Scienceand Engineering Ethics 20 (3):717–33. doi:10.1007/s11948-013-9502-z.

Bell, S. (2012). Students tweet the darndest things about your library – And why you need to listen. Reference Services Review, 40(2), 217–20. doi:10.1108/00907321211228264

Bell, S. (2013). Promise and problems of big data. Library Journal, (March 13, 2013).  http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/03/opinion/steven-bell/promise-andproblems-of-big-data-from-the-bell-tower/

Beninger, K. (2017). Social media user’s views on the ethics of social media research. In Sloan, L., & Quan-Haase, A. (2017). The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods (First ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Bishop, B. W. & S. R. Veil. (2013). Public libraries as post-crisis information hubs. Public Library Quarterly 32 (1):33–45. doi:10.1080/01616846.2013.760390

Collins, G. & Quan-Haase, A. (2014). Are social media ubiquitous in academic libraries? A longitudinal study of adoption and usage patterns. Journal of Web Librarianship, 8(1), 48–68. doi:10.1080/19322909.2014.873663

Cuddy, C., Graham, J. & Morton-Owens, E. G. (2010). Implementing Twitter in a health sciences library. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 29(4), 320–30. doi:10.1080/02763869.2010.518915.

Han, S. (2019). Weathering the Twitter Storm. Information Technology and Libraries 38, (2), 37–48. doi:10.6017/ital.v38i2.11018.

Kim, B. (2020). A New Tech Revolution AI, Big Data, and other disruptive technology. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/05/01/new-tech-revolution/

Lessick, S. & Kraft, M. (2017). Facing reality: the growth of virtual reality and health sciences libraries. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 105(4), 408–409. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2017.329

Library of Congress. (January 2013). Update on the Twitter Archive. Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/files/twitter_report_2013jan.pdf

Liu, J., Tu-Keefner, F., Zamir, H. & Hastings, S. K. (2017). Social media as a tool connecting with library users in disasters: A case study of the 2015 catastrophic flooding in South Carolina. Science & Technology Libraries, 36(3), 274–87. doi:10.1080/0194262X.2017.1358128.

O’Connell, J., Liu, Y. H. & Wallis, J. (2018). Social Networking for Information Professionals. [INF506_202090 Module 2]. Interact 2.   https://interact2.csu.edu.au

Pagoto, S. & Nebeker, C. (2019). How scientists can take the lead in establishing ethical practices for social media research. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(4), 311–313. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy174

Xie, I. & Stevenson, J. A. (2019). @ Digital libraries: Harnessing Twitter to build online communities. Online Information Review, 43(7), 1263–83. doi:10.1108/OIR-02-2018-0058.

I work in a public library and I think its future development will be pinned on technologies. Our library is steering efforts for a smart library to deliver automated self-serve information services. Renovation works are being planned for automated facilities which will largely facilitate users’ efficient and flexible access to library materials. For example, they will be able to take reserved items during library closed hours. To tie in with the technological trend the library could employ artificial intelligence (AI) in optimising smart library services. I am fascinated to learn about the Helsinki’s new central library, Oodi (opened in 2018) which largely employed AI and automated systems. It uses robots to help kids learn to read, instruct users on using equipment such as 3D printers, giving directions and find books (Axelsson, 2019). I was overwhelmed at how technologies have transformed the information services.

Along this direction, it is time during renovation that our library to adopt more state-of-the-art technologies. This is in fact inevitable in developed places like Hong Kong where the birth rate has been declining. AI would be very helpful in supplementing manpower shortage in future. In addition to the above operational and customer service functions, AI can also be extended to human functions in social media (SM) networking. AI is now able to chat and recommend activities to improve users’ wellbeing (de Jesus, 2018). They could be leveraged on promoting library activities and collections in SM networking. Meanwhile, new technologies suggest that the future of social media will be more sensory-rich (Appel et al., 2020), therefore we should insert more augmented or virtual reality elements in our SM networking channels to bring visual richness to users (Perry, 2018).

With the advance of technologies, it is obvious that expectation on us as public library librarians would become higher in various aspects. First, as AI shared some handy work on information services, it is likely readers may have higher expectation from librarians to provide more in-depth advisory services, so we must advance our professional knowledge with untiring efforts. More importantly, we must advance our digital literacy skills to master and evaluate different types of AI and SM technologies for extending the service coverage. On the ethical side, we need to become ever prudent on the collection and use of readers’ personal data as massive volume of data can now be easily gathered through online services. Safeguarding readers’ interests become a prime yet challenging task particularly in a technological environment which requires our perseverance, vigilance and uncompromising efforts.

References

Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R. & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), 79-95. doi:10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1

Axelsson, M. (2019). The little robot that lived at the library. Medium. https://towardsdatascience.com/the-little-robot-that-lived-at-the-library-90431f34ae2c

de Jesus, A. (2018). Chatbots for mental health and therapy – Comparing 5 current apps and use cases. Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research. https://emerj.com/ai-application-comparisons/chatbots-mental-health-therapy-comparing-5-current-apps-use-cases/

Perry, E. (2018). Meet HearMeOut: the social media platform looking to bring audio back into the mainstream. Social media week. https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2018/05/meet-hearmeout-the-social-media-platform-looking-to-bring-audio-back-into-the-mainstream/

I work in a public library and as a librarian I think we may use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube as a combined social media strategy for service outreach. Facebook and Twitter are among the most effective Web 2.0 tools for marketing library resources and services (AlAwadhi & Al-Daihani, 2019) and are ideal to deliver marketing campaign in our library 2.0 environment.

Facebook provide a fast-spreading method for advertisements and promotions of libraries. We may use it to give information to the users, as well as collect views and opinions of users through the “share” and “comment” functions (Lam et al., 2019). It would be a good static platform with Twitter and YouTube to supplement with dynamic contents and forging engaging relationship with users.

Twitter is influential in maintaining connections and forging ongoing engagements with our users. Stvilia and Gibradze (2014) noted most library tweets were related to building and maintaining connections with library users and informing library users about library events and facilities and to promote the library collections and services. Further, it creates an open forum for users by disrupting the boundaries of geography, position, institution, and hierarchy (Admon et al., 2020). By effectively utilising the Twitter platform, the traditional library extension activities in our library can be effectively enhanced by virtual mode to cover remote users. Twitter would enable our library to remain as a community living room by opening virtual doors for people to come and stay safe during extreme social conditions like during Covid-19 (Alajmi & Albudaiwi, 2020). In adopting Twitter, fellow colleagues should be trained to involve in producing Twitter contents. By actively engaging with users and consistently providing patrons with service updates users would be encouraged to come back for more (Potter, 2012).

Online promotion can be optimised with the effective use of video marketing. Marketing with video can be extremely powerful to convey a lot of information about the library in an arresting way. Our library may make use of Youtube to conduct virtual library visits for schools or interested parties and the number of visits will likely surge it is no longer bound by physical walls. Furthermore, the use of Youtube ties in with the current trends of social media marketing with video streaming. Youtube promotes the interactions between libraries and its users through broadcasting live videos. We may use Youtube to broadcast live videos of popular events such as talks of celebrities and famous authors to favour a massive number of audience and ensure the smooth delivery of service despite extreme social conditions.

References

Admon, A. J., Kaul, V., Cribbs, S. K., Guzman, E., Jimenez, O. & Richards, J. B.  (2020).Twelve tips for developing and implementing a medical education Twitter chat. Medical Teacher, 42(5), 500-506. doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2019.1598553

Alajmi, B. M. & Albudaiwi, D. (2020). Response to COVID-19 pandemic: Where do public libraries stand? Public Library Quarterly, 1-17.

AlAwadhi, A. & Al-Daihani, S. M. (2019). Marketing academic library information services using social media. Library management, 40 (3/4), 228-239. www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm

Lam, E. T. H., Au, C. H. & Chiu, D. K. W. (2019). Analyzing the use of Facebook among university libraries in Hong Kong. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45(3), 175–183.

Potter, N. (2012). The library marketing toolkit. Facet Publishing.

Stvilia, B. & Gibradze, L. (2014). What do academic libraries tweet about, and what makes a library tweet useful?. Library & Information Science Research, 36, 136-141. doi: 10.1016/j.lisr.2014.07.001.

 

Web 2.0 movement has a dramatic impact to ignite the Library 2.0 movement to revolutionise libraries and the LIS profession (Casey, 2005). Library 2.0 is a change in the “interaction between users and libraries in a new culture of participation catalysed by social web technologies” (Holmberg et al., 2009). In library 2.0, a successful librarian should combine the roles as an educator, collaborator, advocator and IT specialist to serve users.

For the broad range of duties, librarians 2.0 should be a generalist who is broadly educated with a wide range of knowledge, so that they have the ability, insight and knowledge to advocate a dynamic information profession (Abram, 2005), catalyse management innovation and foster change (Peltier-Davis, 2009) as an advocator. They should also be eager to learn constantly and quickly and be courageous to take risks and work under pressure.

As an educator, they should be creative and communicative to embrace the role of teaching and develop a strategy guide for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content. They need to plan user-centered technology, services, materials and outreach activities and marketing approaches.

Most importantly, librarians 2.0 need to have sufficient IT skills and knowledge to master the Web 2.0 environment and social media tools. Librarians 2.0 should be able to use Creative Commons and manage social media contents which include blog posts, photos, videos, podcasts and screen casts. In a library 2.0, librarians must be able to deliver and complement libraries’ reading activities with various media-writing, photography, audio, and video elements (King, 2007).

As a collaborator, IT capacity is also essential for librarians 2.0 to be familiar with Web 2.0 tools in order to nurture a climate for collaboration with other thriving information communities to build connections online with remote users and comrades. Librarians 2.0 should be able to use Instant Messaging to meet users in their space online, build Weblogs and wikis as resources to further the mission of the library, and mashes up content via APIs to build useful Web sites.

References

Abram, S. (2005). Web 2.0, huh?! Library 2.0, librarian 2.0. Information Outlook, 9(12), 44–46.

Casey, M. (2005, September 26). Librarians Without Borders. LibraryCrunch blog. http://www.librarycrunch.com/2005/09/librarians_without_borders.html

Holmberg, K., Huvila, I., Kronqvist-Berg, M. & Widen-Wulff, G. (2009). What is Library 2.0? Journal of Documentation, 65(4), 668–681.

Peltier-Davis, C. (2009). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, library user 2.0, librarian 2.0: Innovative services for sustainable libraries. Computers in Libraries, 29(10), 16–21.

King, D. L. (2007). Basic competencies of a 2.0 librarian. David Lee King. http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/07/11/basic-competencies-of-a-20-librarian-take-2

The emergence of virtual reality (VR) extends library service to unprecedented heights with outreaching capacity and provision of multi-sensory experience. Library service enhancement is a very big advantage that virtual reality brings to the society. VR provide opportunities for schools to supplement travel abroad with virtual tours of sites that are inaccessible (Hannah, 2019). Likewise, libraries have good opportunities to extend library tours, reading activities and subject talks in virtual and online mode to cover geographically bound users. Further, VR allows the addition of multi-sensory experience into the virtual session which could enhance impression of those knowledge to be acquired in these sessions. The multi-sensory elements produce new avenues for libraries to develop innovative reading activities. For instance, VR allows the provision of gamified media which will invite repeated usage and therefore serves the function of stock promotion. VR allows the creation of addictive media which has habit-forming qualities (Lichty, 2019). By providing a VR online environment that facilitate user-generated content will allow the users to learn by participation and will evolve into a new mode of service. Libraries may transform library space to a gamified one for changing pure entertainment to inspiring intellectual experience.

While VR brings immense advantage to the library service, there are challenges that libraries have to deal with for introducing VR. A major disadvantage it will bring to library service will be its incapability to fit into traditional libraries infrastructure and libraries will expose to a big challenge of 3D object preservation. This will require new storage infrastructure for libraries to cope with the new development. Adding space in existing repositories for VR becomes a big challenge for libraries in the 21^st century. Libraries will anticipate challenges in restructuring existing repository to house functioning repository for 3D objects and developing metadata that fosters open access, sharing, and preservation. This does not only require development of hardware, but also digital literacy of librarians to operate and maintain 3D objects and relevant repository. Librarians must learn to adapt to the new scale of service in the VR era and navigate new ways to store, preserve, and make discoverable VR collections.

Despite dealing with disadvantages that VR are going to impact the library service could be very challenging, the advantages that VR will bring to the library service and the opportunities it opens worth information professionals to embrace and translate such challenges to development opportunities. I believe that such development is going to reward ourselves and our next generation with an advanced and pioneering information society.

References

Frost, M., Goates, M. C., Cheng, S. & Johnston, J. (2020). Virtual Reality. Information Technology and Libraries, 39(1).

Hannah, M., Huber, S. & Matei, S. A. (2019). Collecting virtual and augmented reality in the twenty-first century library. Collection Management, 44(2-4), 277-295. doi:10.1080/01462679.2019.1587673

Lichty, P. (2019). The gamification of augmented reality art. In: Geroimenko V (eds). Augmented Reality Games II. Springer, Cham.

Technologies propel the society forward to ride on the digital wave. What is pivotal for organisations to progress in a digital world is that they must be constantly manage to grasp the trend of technological developments and stand at upfront of digital wave in order to stay relevant to the market.

Digitalisation transforms and benefits the society in an unprecedented way. It connects those unconnected (Kemp, 2020). Take education as an example, digitalisation facilitates distant learning and allows online education to bloom and benefit the society at large by disrupting geographic restrictions. It can alter the student population drastically by benefiting those in remote districts which are normally barred from attending classes personally. It also allows educational service to proceed undisrupted even under extreme social conditions. Like under Covid-19, online teaching is essential to make course delivery feasible.

What comes along with the progressing of the digital era is the increasing influence of social media, particularly among the younger generation. Social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Sina Weibo has been enjoying exponential growth in recent years. Marketers can now use Facebook to reach one-third of all the world’s adults aged 18 and above, and more than half of all the world’s adults aged 18 to 34. The total number of active users of Pinterest has grown by 29 percent over the past year. The platform has attracted more than 70 million new monthly active users (MAUs) over the past 12 months and the MAU figure reaches 322 million at the start of 2020. MAU for Sina Weibo should also pass the half-billion mark very soon (Kemp, 2020).

Along with the prevalence of social media that comes with digitalisation, organstions needs to deal with technological challenges. Among which, privacy is a major concern that organisations have to dealt with carefully. The latest research finds that people are more concerned about privacy issue than ever before. GlobalWebIndex reports that 64 percent of internet users are worried about how companies use their data, up from 63 percent at the start of 2019 (Kemp, 2020). In future, organisations must look into online security issues prudently and invest in online security infrastructure to protect users’ privacy during transmission. For instance, users should be free from the worry that their privacy will be intruded by hackers or via other data leakage channels when attending online education or interacting with the organisation via social media.

References

EDUCAUSE. (2020). 2020 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report™ | Teaching and Learning Edition. EDUCAUSE. https://library.educause.edu/resources/2020/3/2020-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition

Kemp, S. (2020). Digital 2020: 3.8 Billion People Use Social Media. Digital 2020 Global Digital Overview. https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2020/01/digital-2020-3-8-billion-people-use-social-media

This study explores relationship between family characteristics and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) using online survey data from Flemish and Brussels adolescents aged 13 to 18 years old. I learnt from the study that family structure and parenting style play important roles in the development of FoMO and high-quality relationship with parents is related to lower FoMO. Though this founding is contrary to much of the literature, I think it cannot make more sense because high quality family relationships mean more human interactions in family lives. FoMO is a type of internet addiction that predominantly affects children and adolescents (Tomczyk & Selmanagic-Lizde, 2018). Interpersonal relationships are bilateral. It is essential that both parents and the children devote time and effort to foster a close and high quality relationship. In line with this, adolescents with closer relationships with parents are less likely to be internet addicted because they would have less capacity for virtual interactions and developing internet addictions. Strong attachment to parents is negatively correlated with internet addiction in adolescents (Chang et al., 2015).

Gunuc and Dogan (2013) found that low parental involvement increases adolescents’ likelihood of internet addiction and subsequently the development of FoMO. Adolescents having less lower quality parental relationships, for example, those living in single parent households are more inclined to digital technologies and adopt risky online behavior more quickly than adolescents living in two-parent households (Notten, 2013). Poor family functioning and conflict between parents are important predictors for the development of internet addiction in adolescents (Ko et al., 2015), which is closely associated with FoMO. High quality family relationship is likely to deter digital addition and subsequently FoMO. Family structure exert contextual influences in internet addiction and the development of FoMO through the time spent by the parents with the adolescent, the frequency of contact with parents, or the influence of new family members etc.

This study remind parents the importance of fostering strong relationship with their children for their healthy development both physically and psychologically. It is essential that for the parents to devote time and effort for sufficient interactions with their children for a healthy family environment. As long as sufficient parental guidance is in way of adolescents and children’s development, they could avert from the risk of internet addiction and the development of FoMO.

References

Gunuc, S. & Dogan, A. (2013). The relationships between Turkish adolescents’ Internet addiction, their perceived social support and family activities. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2197–2207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.011

Tomczyk, L. & Selmanagic-Lizde, E. (2018). Fear of missing out (FOMO) among youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina—Scale and selected mechanisms. Children and Youth Services Review, 88, 541–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.048

Chang, F.-C., Chiu, C.-H., Miao, N.-F., Chen, P.-H., Lee, C.-M., Chiang, J.-T., & Pan, Y.-C. (2015). The relationship between parental mediation and Internet addiction among adolescents, and the association with cyberbullying and depression. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 57, 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2014.11.013

Notten, N. (2013). Risicogedrag en het wereldwijde web: De invloed van gezin en samenleving op het online risicogedrag van adolescenten vanuit een Europees perspectief [Risk behavior and the world wide web: The impact of family and society on the online risk behavior of adolescents from a European perspective]. Mens en Maatschappij, 88(4), 350–374. https://doi.org/10.5117/MEM2013.4.NOTT

Ko, C.-H., Wang, P.-W., Liu, T.-L., Yen, C.-F., Chen, C.-S. & Yen, J.-Y. (2015). Bidirectional associations between family factors and Internet addiction among adolescents in a prospective investigation. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 69(4), 192–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12204

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