Impact of Social Media in Disseminating of Information in the Libraries of Higher Education

Abstract

This study analyses the perception and impact of social media among the Research Scholars, PG & UG students in the Higher Educational Institutions with special reference to the Universities in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, India. A Structured questionnaire was designed to collect data from the Research Scholars, PG & UG students with a total representative sample of 350 students from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Anna University, Avinashilingam University, Bharathiar University, Karpagam University, Karunya University and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The study found that majority of Research Scholars use social media for their research and academic communication. All the PG and UG students are aware of social media and use them for friendly communication and many of the students are using them for their academic purpose. All the respondents are using Face book and YouTube and majority of them use LinkedIn and twitter. The Library professionals should equip with good perceptive of social media strategy for their Libraries of Higher Education and prepare and inspire to create their institution’s own social media strategy to disseminate the right information to the student community.