Research output and visibility of librarians: Are social media influencers or distractors?

Abstract

The study examined the influence of social media use on research output and visibility of librarians in university libraries in southwestern, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research approach was utilised in the study. The population consisted of 363 librarians from all of southwestern Nigeria’s university libraries. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that librarians produce a high level of research output but their research visibility is low. The use of social media significantly positively influenced the research output and visibility of librarians. The study concluded that the use of social media can improve librarians’ research output and visibility, and thus recommends that more effort be made to expand the use of social media such as Yahoo, ResearchGate, Zotero, ORCID and LinkedIn, as well as greater awareness of social bookmarking tools such as Bibsonomy.