Comparing digital libraries with social media from the dual route perspective
| Date | 12 August 2019 |
| Pages | 617-634 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2017-0344 |
| Published date | 12 August 2019 |
| Author | Xianjin Zha,Kunfeng Liu,Yalan Yan,Guanxiang Yan,Jia Guo,Fenfang Cao,Yunzhi Wang |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Comparing digital libraries
with social media from the dual
route perspective
Xianjin Zha
School of Information Management, Center for Studies of Information Resources,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Kunfeng Liu
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Yalan Yan
Evergrande School of Management,
Center for Service Science and Engineering,
Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Guanxiang Yan
Laboratory Center for Library and Information Science,
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, and
Jia Guo, Fenfang Cao and Yunzhi Wang
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –Digital libraries and so cial media have emerged as two prominent online in formation sources
with different charac teristics. The purpo se of this paper is to compa re digital libraries a nd social media
from the perspective of the dual route model which out lined a general framework of central and pe ripheral
route-induced attitu de change.
Design/methodology/approach –Research hypotheses were developed and data collected from users of
digital libraries and social media were used for data analysis. The paired samples t-test was employed to
compare the means.
Findings –Both central route (information quality) and peripheral route (source credibility and reputation) of
digital libraries are higher than those of social media.
Practical implications –The important status of digital libraries as conventional information sources
should be propagated by various “marketing”ways. Managers of digital libraries should encourage their
users to use both digital libraries and social media so that some unique advantage of social media could
usefully complement digital libraries. They should also recognize the challenge brought by social media and
try various ways to enhance reputation.
Originality/value –Building on the dual route model, this study compares digital libraries and social media
in terms of the central route and peripheral route, which the authors believe presents a new lens for digital
library research and practice alike.
Keywords Digital libraries, Social media, Reputation, Information quality, Source credibility,
Dual route model
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Digital libraries are the extension of traditional physical libraries, delivering information
collection and associated services to users (Heradio et al., 2012). In China, digital libraries
in universities have developed rapidly since the China Academic Library an d Information Online Information Review
Vol. 43 No. 4, 2019
pp. 617-634
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-11-2017-0344
Received 30 November 2017
Revised 4 June 2018
1 October 2018
23 January 2019
Accepted 3 February 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 71573195,
71774126, 71874124, 91646206, 71804136).
617
Comparing
digital libraries
with social
media
System (CALIS) project was initiated by the Ministry of Education in 1998. CALIS
includes four national information centers: the Science, Social Science and Humanities
Information Center, the Engineering and Technology Information Center, the Agricultural
Information Center and the Medical Information Center. It has introduced various famous
Chinese and English databases covering diversified subjects and disciplines (Zha et al.,
2015). Social media are “a group of internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content,”becoming popular in the early 2000s (Kaplan and
Haenlein, 2010, p. 61). Social media not only provide social support but also informational
support for users (Bertot et al., 2012). Younger generations use social media to satisfy their
academic and everyday-life information needs (Kim, Sin and Yoo-Lee, 2014). Given that
individuals might use several information sources, digital libraries and social media are
selected as the two objects examined in our study. In the following, the research problem is
elaborated, the literature is reviewed, the hypotheses are developed and the methodology
is described. Then, the data analysis and results are presented, and finally implications
are discussed.
2. Research problem
There is ongoing discussion about digital libraries and social media. It was suggested that
digital libraries are “no longer islands of information, but one among many nodes through
which information flows to the users”(Ross and Sennyey, 2008, p. 146). It was also
suggested that “the epistemic consequences of people using Wikipedia as a source of
information are likely to be quite good”(Fallis, 2008, p. 1662). Consequently, building and
retaining the loyalty of users poses new challenges for digital libraries (Kiran and Diljit,
2012). The loyalty of users to digital libraries is declining (Xu and Du, 2018). Indeed, most
users enter the library but do not use library resources or services. Instead, “they are buying
coffee in our cafes, reading e-mail on our terminals, socializing with friends, or using group
studies”(Ross and Sennyey, 2008, p. 146). Furthermore, prior literature illustrates that many
university students depend much on social media. Students’information behavior habits
were suggested to have been well-developed before attending universities (Ross and
Sennyey, 2008). University students tend to have positive attitudes toward academic use of
social media ( Jahan and Ahmed, 2012). More than 80 percent of college students use social
media for their academic purposes in addition to information seeking in daily life (Kim, Sin
and Yoo-Lee, 2014). College students use social media as a quick channel to expand their
knowledge (Sharma et al., 2016). In China, the number of social media users continues to
grow rapidly, and most users are college students (CNNIC, 2018).
In the modern information society, we suggest that highlighting the important status of
digital libraries as conventional information sources is critical. Regarding the attitude
change toward information sources, the dual route model provides a useful perspective in
terms of the central and peripheral routes (Petty and Cacioppo, 1984, 1986). Following the
dual route model, prior studies have tested and extended the causal relationship proposed in
the dual route model in various information settings, such as the adoption of document
management system (Bhattacherjee and Sanford, 2006), members’loyalty to online
communities (Chen and Ku, 2013) and persuasive processes of mobile tourism shopping
(Kim et al., 2016). However, employing the dual route model to compare different information
sources, especially compare digital libraries with social media, has been largely overlooked
in the literature. Given the increasing appreciation of quality and knowledge value of social
media, drawing on the dual route model to compare social media with digital libraries is
much needed. To fill this gap, the current study aims at exploring the exact nature by
comparing digital libraries with social media from the central route (information quality)
and the peripheral route (source credibility and reputation).
618
OIR
43,4
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