Search

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which academic libraries are using social media to fundraise, what tactics they are using to fundraise on social media and how academic libraries’ social networks are responding to their fund-raising efforts.Design/methodology/approach This research is a content analysis of 276 posts from 2015 on the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts of 16 academic libraries.Findings This study found that academic libraries are just beginning to use social media for fund-raising with many adopting non-profit best practices that brought significantly more likes and shares/retweets to their accounts.Originality/value This research is one of the few systematic examinations of how libraries use social media to discuss fund-raising, and the findings suggest tactics for libraries to adopt in their fund-raising posts to generate more likes and shares/retweets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the recent economic crisis, a number of academic libraries have faced the possibility of having to cancel database subscriptions. As a major user group of academic libraries, faculty have a history of being involved in collection decisions, but it is unclear to what extent they want to be involved in cancellations. Also, while the library literature outlines a variety of processes that libraries have used to involve faculty in their serials cancellation decisions, very little is written about eliminating databases. This study examines whether the strategies outlined for involving faculty in serials cancellations are applicable to database cancellations. We surveyed tenure-track and full-time faculty members at Towson University to determine their preferences for involvement in database cancellations and to determine if those preferences are a function of knowledge about the library and/or discipline of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]