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The librarian 2.0: Identifying a typology of librarians' social media literacy

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Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

Published online on

Abstract

This article reports on the identification of librarians’ social media literacy profiles. These profiles were developed through the construction of scales measuring social media competencies. An online questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 184 librarians working in Flemish public libraries. Cluster analysis revealed four social media literacy profiles: (1) social media workers; (2) social media laggards; (3) social media literates; and (4) social media spare-time users. This typology of social media literacy profiles is necessary information when developing a successful social media literacy strategy in libraries. Our research results further indicate that librarians who fit the social media literate or social media worker profiles are expected to play a central and facilitating role in the adoption and implementation of social media within public libraries.