Social Media and Libraries: A Symbiotic Relationship for 21st Century Librarianship

Abstract The present paper presents the symbiotic relationship between the libraries and social media for the creation of digital environment in the LIS domain. It is noted that 21st century librarianship witness’s huge changes in the field of Library and Information science. As a result of which many changes in the LIS domain have altered the forms of information and nature of services but the basic role of the libraries - to cater the information according to need and demand of the users- is the same. Digital library along with the internet helps the library users to access their necessary resources without physically visiting the library. So, it is the high time for the library professionals to think the alternate ways to attract the users and to meet their need and demand. As the popularity of social media are growing exponentially, library professionals cannot keep themselves aside without exploiting the social media. By using social media libraries can attract their users and enable them to participate in the production of library products and services. By posting library material, library news, etc. via social media on library page, library authority helps their users to inform the library related matter at any time by the variety of locations on the Web. So many libraries in India and abroad are providing facility to use social media for their users through libraries website. The paper discusses how the social media can be exploited for the benefit of the users of library. It presents the name of libraries which uses social media in their libraries. At the end some suggestions are enumerated for the benefit of the library professional before choosing the social media in the library.