A Survey of Librarians' Perspectives on Marketing Library Services Using Social Media in Tehran, Iran, and Shahid Beheshti Universities of Medical Sciences

Background and Aim: The present study has examined librarians' views on the marketing of library services using social media as well as the applications, benefits, and challenges of their use in Tehran, Iran, and Shahid Beheshti Universities of Medical Sciences.  Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive and applied survey and was conducted in 2019. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on texts. The validity of the content of the questionnaire was confirmed by 9 professors of librarianship and medical information, and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by an alpha coefficient of 0.95. The study population consisted of 115 librarians working in the mentioned libraries. Descriptive statistics and SPSS software were used to analyze the data.  Results: The results of the present study indicate that the level of librarians’ knowledge about social media tools with an average of 3.49 is at a relatively desirable level and the rate of use in library affairs with an average of 1.81 is undesirable. In addition, Telegram, WhatsApp and blogs are the most frequently used social media tools, respectively. Moreover, challenges examined from librarians’ point of view are examined separately at different levels of factors related to librarians, users, technical factors and organizational factors. Challenges of social media filtering in Iran are those in marketing library services with an average of 3.6 and security issues in using social media with an average of 2.8 with the fewest challenges among organizational factors. From librarians’ point of view, lack of specific rules for using social media in marketing library services with an average of 3.25 is the most and the challenge of legal and financial issues of the library as an affiliated organization with an average of 2.91 is one of the fewest challenges in using social media in marketing library services from the librarians' point of view. Conclusion: Familiarity and importance of using social media for marketing in libraries was in a relatively favorable position from the librarians' point of view. Low cost of use has been the most important advantage and lack of interest and resistance to use have been the most important challenges of using social networks in library marketing.