Preliminary Study: The Use of Social Media in China’s University Libraries

Abstract

Social media is a new type of online media that gives users a great space for participation. Its characteristics include online, open communication, dialogue, community, connectivity, etc. Social media is now widely used in many areas of Chinese society. Social media is increasingly reliant on information access and information exchange activities. This phenomenon also appears in the field of China's higher education information service. This paper focuses on how university libraries can effectively use social media functions to carry out virtual education better. The aim is to find out whether the instrument of the survey is reliable to explore the impact of new social media functions of university libraries on the effectiveness of virtual education. The methods of this paper include the following stages: (1) identifying and describing the problem; (2) reviewing literature research; (3) elaborating on the research methods (including the questionnaire survey); (4) data analysis and findings; finally (5) summarizing and forming conclusions and giving suggestions. Based on the total sample size of 50 students from the first to the fourth year of Shandong Youth University of political science, Shandong Management University and Shandong Police College. This preliminary survey found that the instrument is reliable in measuring the social media functions among respondents. This indicates that the respondents have a relatively comprehensive understanding of the new functions and are willing to use them to achieve better virtual education. Therefore, Chinese student students are strongly willing to use new social media functions, and university libraries can promote virtual education by innovating new functions.