Students’ Interaction with Librarians through Twitter andTwitter-like Technologies

Authors:         Wilson Maxwell Leonie Lai-Ching Tang                   Samuel Kai-Wah Chu Dora Yu-Ting Chen Selina Wen-Zhe Li This study investigates how students interact with librarians by using Twitter and Weibo in academic and public libraries. Participant sites includes libraries from both Greater China regions and English speaking countries. Using a mixed-methods research design, librarians from Greater China and English-speaking countries ( N= 120) were invited to answer an online survey. Follow-up interviews were conducted and dialogues between librarians and students were harvested from the web. Findings may provide insights into the benefits and challenges of using Twitter or Twitter-like tools for interactions between students and librarians. Practical implications are offered for libraries to make informed decisions on the utilization of Twitter to support library functions.