SOCIAL MEDIA UTILIZATION IN UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA LIBRARY

Social media currently are tools which simplify people to communicate with each other. Besides to communicate, social media are also used to do promotional activities. Libraries as nonprofit organizations may definitely also utilize social media as promotional media. King (2015) stated that the use of social media in libraries functions to listen, respond to users quickly, give flexible services, and extend the range of information access to society. One means of which libraries can take advantage of doing promotions is social media. Garofalo (2013) claimed that social media are websites and applications which make users create and share contents easily. And furthermore, Garofalo (2013) also explained that social media rely on social interactions and internet-based technologies and webs to change the way people communicate with one another and receive news, information, and entertainment. Social media has changed people from content consumers to content producers. Libraries, including academic libraries, are able to make use of social media to promote the existed collections and services. Nduka (2015) revealed that social media may be used by academic libraries to: give the latest and up-to-date information; give information about the newest collection; promote new service provided by the library; provide reference service for users; provide links for electronic resources; provide news for the library; provide entertainment for users; and serve ‘Ask a Librarian’. Garofalo (2013) also revealed, there are at least five things which should be noticed in managing social media owned by libraries. Those five things are consistency (actively content uploading on social media), giving accurate information, observing library visitors, having a good attitude, and doing an evaluation. Universitas Indonesia Library (subsequently called UI Library) is one of the academic libraries which also have social media accounts. Those social media accounts include Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. This research aims to investigate social media utilization done by UI Library. Research results were analyzed by using social media utilization approach initiated by Nduka (2015) and Garofalo (2013). This study also tried to elaborate difficulties faced in managing the library’s social media. Findings from this research may also be records in order to arrange an academic library’s social media application guide, particularly in Universitas Indonesia, and on a bigger scale, in Indonesia. II. LITERATURE REVIEW At the international level, studies about social media in libraries have been done a lot by using many kinds of approaches. A research by Lili et al. (2013) identified four factors contributing to the success of Tsinghua university library promotion video project with the title "Falling in Love with the Library". Xie and Stevenson (2014) described social media utilization on ten digital libraries. Results show that social media utilization characteristics are a social media type, update frequency, and interaction with users. In Indonesia, one of the studies about social media utilization was done by Istiana (2017). The research of Istiana (2017) elaborated Facebook utilization in three Universitas Gadjah Mada faculty libraries. Siswanti (2015) also did a study concerning library lending period extension through Facebook in Universitas Gadjah Mada social and political sciences faculty library. However, studies about social media utilization using concepts as initiated by Nduka (2015) and Garofalo (2013) had not been done before. That is why this research is expected to enrich literature treasures regarding social media utilization, especially in Indonesian academic libraries.

This research is qualitative research using case study method. The research object is UI Library social media and the subjects are UI Library social media administrators and staff related to the use of library social media. Data collection technique researchers used was by observing UI Library social media accounts and interviewing informants. The interview with informants was done to recognize social media management by the library. Informants in this research were librarians involved directly in managing social media belong to Universitas Indonesia Library. The number of informants in this reasearch was three with their names in disguise, Raisa (female, social media account administrator), Rio (male, social media account administrator), and Rina (female, General Administration and Facility Coordinator).

The research results were presented through two big outlines. They are Twitter and Instagram utilization forms and also Social Media Utilization Policy in UI Library. A. Twitter and Instagram Utilization Forms Social media in UI Library, particularly Twitter and Instagram, have utilized some ways by promoting services, collections, etc. Below are utilizations has done by UI Library: 1) Giving The Latest and Up-To-Date News Utilization forms through social media by UI Library in giving the latest and up-to-date news consist of announcement which may be in the form of holiday announcement, trouble announcement, operational service hour announcement, provisions for visitors from outside or non-UI, loaning and the amount of borrowed collections, lending period extension through email, procedures for broken and lost library materials, library membership account activation procedures, printed and digital script thesis submission guidelines, and acquisition proposal information. Information shared on social media includes information about UI Library services, holidays, and also announcement if there are troubles such as server website down and so on. An announcement regarding holidays was always shared one day before. This was done so that every follower and other visitors could notice that the UI Library did not operate during holidays. That information wasn’t only shared on certain social media, but also on every social media owned by UI Library. As on Instagram, announcement was always shared on two features of Instagram which are through feeds and also Instagram stories. Besides holiday announcement, there was also an announcement when there were troubles in UI Library which could obstruct library services. FIGURE 1. INFORMATION ABOUT APPLICATION MAINTENANCE IN UI LIBRARY Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) Information shared was about disturbance and difficulty announcement happened in the library. One of the examples was the announcement about plagiarism checking service having troubles, Turnitin and iThenticate. Besides problems on plagiarism checking service, researchers also found information about disturbance or troubles on the server of the online database and the library website. However, this announcement was given after there were users reporting or complaining that the website or server online database could not be used. In other words, the announcement showed up after users told about it through social media. Next, information shared was regarding provisions applied in UI Library. Besides sharing information about an announcement, UI Library social media also shared other information which involved provisions, regulations, and even procedures. Figure 2 is the examples of posts on social media concerning provisions in the UI Library. On the picture below, there are some contents or information shared on library social media about provisions occurred in UI Library. Information on library operational hours could be found on the profile description column in UI Library’s Twitter and Instagram. In addition to library service operational hours, one of the posts shared routinely was about provisions for visitors outside or non-UI. This information was also shared by routine, seeing UI Library had been utilized a lot by users who were from outside or non-UI. That information was intended to help those users who would want to visit UI Library. Non-UI visitors then could know from the information that they had to pay some money in order to utilize the library. Some information above were shared routinely so that there would be no information vacuum. The information was also packed in the form of posters or infographics. That information was also saved on highlights Instagram feature which aimed to make users easier in searching for information. FIGURE 2. INFORMATION ABOUT UI LIBRARY PROVISIONS Source: UI Library’s Instagram and Twitter (2018) Furthermore, other information grouped in the newest information consists of new book acquisition suggestion, information about UI-ANA and thematic collections every month, as seen on the below picture: FIGURE 3. NEW BOOK ACQUISITION Source: UI Library’s Instagram and Twitter (2018) This is another information given on social media. There was a suggestion of book acquisition in UI Library. On that picture, what was displayed was only the link. The purpose of the existence of information about book acquisition was so that Universitas Indonesia Civitas Academica which were students, lecturers, education staff, and others could find out and propose printed books they needed. The link listed on the picture of the book acquisition suggestion was a form of UI Library printed book acquisition suggestion. It could be said that the utilization form done by UI Library was in line with Nduka (2015) who stated that one of social media utilization in libraries is giving the latest and up-to-date information. 2) Giving information about newest collections Besides giving the newest information on social media, UI Library also gave information about collections, especially the newest collections owned by the library. The newest collections include new book collection and online database which were newly subscribed. One of the social media accounts which were Twitter had promoted new book collections. The new book collections promoted were mostly fiction books. This was for attracting users to use those new collections. However, the new book promotion was not done by the Public Relation staff. This promotion, in fact, was done by one of the Knowledge Management staff because it was a part of the work in Knowledge Management division. For now, there had not been posts which promoted new book collections on social media, especially Twitter. The latest book collection on the picture above was published on the 13th of December, 2017. For the period of January-April 2018, there had not been promotion about new books, while promotion through Instagram had been done before and there was the post about new book collections on the Instagram account. However, it was just sharing a link which would refer to UI Library website pages. There had not been special posts to promote the newest collections. Other newest collections were about the online database. The picture below (fig. 4) shows posts on social media about online database information which was just subscribed by UI Library recently. That information was shared on Twitter and Instagram. On Twitter, users could find information about Taylor & Francis online database which had been subscribed while Scientific.net online database was still on a probationary period. There was a content difference since Twitter and Instagram had different characteristics. Information about online database also was last shared in September 2017. There had not been new posts on feed column about the newest online database. From the explanation above, it may be said that UI Library has utilized Twitter and Instagram to promote the new collections existed. Even though the information about it had not been plentiful. This fits with what Nduka (2015) explained about giving information regarding newest collections in libraries so that users could utilize the collections and be more interested to visit libraries. 3) Providing links for electronic resources Other informations which could be shared on social media were links about electronic resources in UI Library. Figure 4 is one example of information about electronic resources shared through UI Library social media. As seen from the picture below (fig.4), UI Library Twitter account gave information about electronic resources links. Information shared was such as new online database access, while on Instagram, it was still considered rare to share information about links of electronic resources in the library. Information about those links were still published through website. It may be said that the active social media account in sharing information about electronic resources link was Twitter. In other words, it also can be said that UI Library had provided information about electronic resources and been in accordance with the theory of Nduka (2015). FIGURE 4. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES LINKS Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) 4) Providing Entertainment and Activities for Users Through social media, UI Library also could give an entertainment in a form of activities. The library needed to provide entertainment and also information regarding activities held. The series of activities held in the library from January to April 2018 included Information Literacy Training periodically, training and socialization about a certain online database, and the 35th anniversary of UI Library also contained another series of events. One of the events which interested users and society the most was novel writing training in the style of overseas children by Ahmad Fuadi. An informant said that: “I shared a digital poster on Instagram for a registration which not long after that had fully booked. When there was this novel training event with Ahmad Fuadi, the registers were almost 300 persons even though the target was only 150. We were wondering how could it been sold that fast. The registration was closed on the same day as we published it on Instagram.” (Rio) According to the informant, the novel writing training had attracted a lot of users. It was seen from the abundance of registers on that training. The quota of participants was also fulfilled completely in a very short amount of time. This showed that social media were an effective means to spread information as Ryan and Jones (2009) said about information disseminated extensively and quickly. Other activities which also could interest users to visit UI Library were photography competition and bazaar held in the library’s area. B. Social Media Utilization Policy in UI Library 5) UI Library’s Social Media Consistency UI Library had been consistent in its social media since it had disseminated information on social media at least two or three times a week. This showed that UI Library social media were active. Pictures below (fig.5) are examples of information shared consistently and on the schedule set on Twitter. Those pictures below are the information shared through Twitter. The first post which was shared at 9:31 am was about the provisions of non-UI library visitors, while at 12 pm the post given was regarding the provisions of the number of books able to be borrowed by Universitas Indonesia Civitas Academica, the third information was at 4 pm about the provisions of book extension through email, and the last information was given at 7 pm about suggestions on book acquisition in the library. All of the information was given on the 21st of March 2018. Information shared was not only text but also with the addition of infographics or posters. That schedule was made by the administrators to make information dissemination on Twitter easier. This had also been in line with UI Library’s social media posting schedule said by Rina who was the informant. According to Rina, the effective hour to share information was from 6 to 8 am and 4 to 6 pm. That time was effective since it was seen from the experience of people around regarding social media users who were active in those hours. Based on her, this thing was just seen from the opinion of people around. That statement indicated that social media effective hour determination in the library was only based on subjective opinion which the validity had not been guaranteed. Moreover, there had not been any written policy about special schedules to share information on the library’s social media. Meanwhile, the library’s Instagram had not made any special schedules to post information. Currently, staff assigned to particularly manage Instagram had not set special schedules to share information on Instagram because, in his/her opinion, managing social media was not in his/her main job description. Although had not set any special schedules to share information on Instagram, the Instagram administrator tried to disseminate information each day by following the followers’ active hours on social media. The administrator watched the followers’ active hours by using Instagram Insight. UI Library’s Instagram followers’ active hour according to Insight was at 6 pm. Even though information about the followers’ active hour was mostly at 6 pm, the administrator did not always share information at that time. However, the administrator did not share information from 4 to 6 pm. It could be said that Instagram administration staff had not had special schedules and had not shared information in accordance with the coordinator policy. It could be said that both UI Library’s Twitter and Instagram had been consistent in giving information every two to three times a week. This statement is in line with Garofalo (2013). FIGURE 5. PERIODICAL POSTS Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) 6) Giving Accurate Information on UI Library’s Social Media The truth and validity of information need to be made sure while sharing information on social media. Verification is required before the information is shared in order to avoid wrong information because information dissemination through social media is very quick. Below is what Twitter administrator said in giving accurate information on UI Library’s social media: “Yes, we have to confirm it first, except we are certainly sure with the answer. But, if the question is something new and we have not known about it, we will try to find it first.” (Raisa) Information was given by the informant especially in answering questions which had not yet been known would be confirmed by asking to the related division first. The Instagram administrator also said the same thing: when there was a question asked by users concerning the library that staff had not been able to answer, that question would be given to the Coordinator. This showed that both social media administrators did not want to give wrong information. 7) Language Use on UI Library’s Social Media Social media accounts handled by the library needed to be managed professionally, especially in language use and the choice of profile photo or avatar used. According to the library’s Instagram administrator, the language chosen had to be in accordance with the followers’ age on Instagram: around 18 to 24 years. The language picked by the administrator was not too formal but still polite. The selection of language which was not too formal aimed to be accepted and understood by the young generation. The Twitter administrator also said that the language selection used in managing social media was done naturally without had to be learnt first. As on the picture below, one of the examples of language selection on UI Library’s Twitter. Rina as an informant said that language selection was still given to the staff managing social media. According to her, the language selection used to interact on social media did not use too informal language. However, there had not been any written policy managing the style of language on UI Library’s social media. It could be said that language selection on library’s social media had been in line with Garofalo (2013), by using language which could be accepted by society in universities, college students, lecturers, and even people from outside. For profile photo use on both social media, UI Library set a profile photo in a form of library building silhouette according to Rina’s explanation. The below picture is the silhouette of UI Library: FIGURE 6. BUILDING SILHOUETTE Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) Rina, the informant, declared that the silhouette picture was a marker for UI Library. She thought that the picture was made and set on social media so that every follower on the library’s social media and users could notice that the design belonged to UI Library called The Crystal of Knowledge. According to the Twitter administrator, the library at first did not use that profile photo. Instead, it used the real picture of the UI Library. In the beginning, the silhouette was created because the Head of Library wanted the library to have branding from Crystal of Knowledge. That picture was also not a logo from the library because UI Library is a part of Universitas Indonesia which he/she thought could not have its own logo. There had not been any written policy which obliged to use that design for social media. The Twitter administrator also thought that changing the profile photo indicated that the library’s social media seemed to be more active. The profile photo put forward could be said in accordance with the theory of Garofalo (2013) which was the profile photo used by professionals and reflecting the library’s image as the core of knowledge. 8) UI Library’s Social Media Person in Charge On UI Library’s social media, there had already been admin or staff dissemination managing the social media. Recently, UI Library’s social media were administered by Public Relation Team. Twitter was managed by one of the staffs and so was Instagram. Both of the staff were still under General Administration and Facility Coordinator which was Public Relation Division. This finding was aligned with the statement of Garofalo (2013) who declared that one of the conditions or guidelines on social media utilization by choosing the responsible persons on every social media owned by the library. 9) Purpose and Strategy of UI Library’s Social Media The purpose of social media utilization in UI Library was to promote printed collections, the buildings, services, and facilities in UI Library so that they could be used and up-to-date. Besides, according to the administrator, social media were means easy and quick to share information. Social media also could be the promotion means which could decrease the expense, especially for printed budgets. That was also aligned with theory initiated by Ryan dan Jones (2009) about the profit of social media utilization which could minimize special company budgets in promotion and information dissemination which was extended. Meanwhile, the strategy for managing social media in UI Library had not been done. There had not been any special strategies in managing social media because of the time issue, other job burdens, and no written policy determined to manage social media. 10) UI Library’s Social Media Success Measurement To reach purposes, there should have been benchmarks or success measurement from social media utilization in UI Library. The measurement from social media utilization was the direct effect like when there were activities, in the library, which involved users who participated a lot. The measurement was from also the decreasing questions about UI Library operational hour and the responses given such as comments from users after the staff shared information on social media, and other feedbacks and also significant increase on the followers’ amount. The success measurement according to the administrator was the responses given by users from information shared by the staff on social media, responses could be in the form of many Retweets and Likes. Another measurement was by the existing followers which kept increasing on social media. The success measurement from social media utilization in UI Library was that there were direct responses from the users. 11) UI Library Social Media User Target Researchers did the interview with the Coordinator and Instagram and Twitter administrators in UI Library. The target from the library’s social media was Universitas Indonesia Civitas Academica which was Universitas Indonesia students. That target was chosen so that the services and collections published on UI Library’s social media could be directly used by Universitas Indonesia’s students. The other target was public visitors or society. According to one of the administrators, the response given by the society was quite well. On Twitter, there were many followers from society or visitors outside. However, the main target from social media users was millennials or Y generation 12) Doing Conversations on UI Library’s Social Media On social media, there needed to be space to communicate between social media administration staff and users. This was required so that social media in the library would stay active. Communication on UI Library’s social media showed up more on Twitter than Instagram. On UI Library’s Instagram, there were more documentation contents about the ongoing events, while Twitter showed quite a lot of interactions like the below picture displays: FIGURE 7. COMMUNICATION ON TWITTER (1) Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) FIGURE 8. COMMUNICATION ON TWITTER (2) Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) A lot more communications like Q&A (Questions and Answers) between Twitter administrator and users. As the picture above, there were questions given by users about how to borrow collections in the new book display room. Then, the admin answered those users’ questions. Another question also showed up as on the second picture which is about obstacles in accessing online database Taylor & Francis from long distance. Then, admin answered that question which was asked by users. This showed that on Twitter, there were more two-way communications between social media administrator and users. While on the Instagram platform, there were still fewer conversations or communications happened between the administrator and users. The Instagram administrator said that the cause of that less interaction was there was no issue or new post currently. According to her, besides Q&A, another form of communication by users on UI Library’s Instagram was that users uploaded photos when they were in the library and tagged them on UI Library’s Instagram. On Instagram, she thought that conversation was rarely happening on Instagram compared with Twitter. It could be said that communication activities on social media were done on Twitter recently, such as users giving questions until users tagged and mentioned UI Library’s Twitter account on their posts, while responses like comments to the admin were very little on Instagram. However, because Instagram was a platform to upload photos, there were many interactions addressed by users through photo posts on their accounts and tagged the location which was UI Library. If searching with the location of UI Library was done, there were quite a lot people uploading photos in the library. 13) Listening to UI Library’s Social Media Users Libraries’ social media may be the means to collect users’ responses and complaints. UI Library’s Instagram had still a few responses from the users. Most complaints and responses accepted by UI Library were through email and other platforms such as Twitter. On social media, users have usually expressed complaints found in the library. After researchers did an observation on the library’s Twitter, direct complaints by users were found. One of the complaints can be seen in the picture below. A user complained about disturbance while accessing IEEE Xplor online database subscribed by UI Library over long distance (remote-lib.ui.ac.id). FIGURE 9. USER’S COMPLAINT Source: UI Library’s Twitter (2018) One day after the user gave his/her complaint, Twitter admin right away responded the user’s tweet and gave an explanation that online database wanted to be accessed by users could not be accessed through long distances, but only could be accessed through UI network and website. However, a few days later, the Twitter admin gave further information that online database could be used again through remote access. 14) Social Media Use Evaluation in UI Library Social media management evaluation activities in UI Library especially Instagram had not been done. There were different reports on social media progress between Twitter and Instagram. The administrator said that there had not been an Instagram progress report every month. Nonetheless, the administrator made a progress report every year starting from 2017. The reason why Instagram administrator did not have monthly report was because there were other jobs. The Instagram report involved any documentations published through UI Library’s Instagram. Social media progress report had not been done due to the lack of interactions and responses coming into UI Library’s Instagram compared to its Twitter. Meanwhile, the report done by UI Library’s Twitter administrator was using statistical data. Points attached to the monthly report from Twitter consisted of FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) by users, followers’ growth every month, activities on social media and also complaints and feedbacks. Feedbacks given by users could be the consideration for the headship in decision making. Rina, the informant, said that the evaluation had been conducted since last year. However, what had been done was just the utilization of information shared on social media. Evaluation activities were done by analyzing FAQ or repetitive questions and looking for solutions and causes of information vacuum. For evaluation focused on social media management and development in UI Library had not been done. That thing could be said that there had not been obligations from the staff to make a special report about social media management and development in UI Library. Materials evaluated was only information utilization, complaints, and users’ opinions about the library. The evaluation conducted was aimed to improve services and facilities in UI Library.

Results from this research may be concluded that UI Library has utilized social media to do promotions which were through Instagram and Twitter. Currently, social media utilization used by UI Library was for promotion about collections, services, or even facilities in the library. Besides, the library also used social media to collect users’ responses, either recommendations or complaints, which were taken as evaluation materials for service improvement. On Twitter and Instagram, the library had done four out of eight points which were giving the latest and up-to-date news, newest collections, information about links for electronic resources, and providing entertainment for users in social media. However, interactions with users had not been woven maximally on the Instagram account. On the other side, the difficulty faced by the library was time allocation which had not been optimal between the library works and social media account management.