Social media and NSW public libraries: an investigation into the platforms being used to engage online communities
Date
2025
Authors
Daly, R.
Velasquez, D.
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Journal article
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Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, online, 2025; online(1):1-24
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Abstract
As the role of social media in society continues to grow, it is increasingly necessary for libraries to engage their users via the online platforms facilitating their communities. Despite this need, there is a lack of discourse on the topic in the Australian public library space. This study targets this gap by investigating the social media platforms used by public libraries in New South Wales to engage with their communities. Echoing Nguyen's (2023) study into academic libraries, descriptive statistics were gathered from the states 90 library networks to identify the social media platforms in use, with engagement measures determined by the volume of followers or subscribers. Comparing the data based on geographically allocated groups demonstrated the extent to which social media use and engagement varied depending on location. The investigation established that the majority of libraries in the state held a presence on social media, however the findings revealed a discrepancy between different geographical areas in terms of libraries social media uptake, the platforms most in use, and engagement levels. Notably, these geographical differences also marked a regional influence over the extent to which NSW public libraries social media use reflects wider social media trends and studies into academic libraries.
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Copyright 2025 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)