Recently, we have started selecting articles of similar themes for regular issues and writing editorials to guide readers better to the Library Hi Tech and other related literature, such as “Bibliometrics and literature review” (Chiu and Ho, 2021, 2022a; 2023) in 39 (4), 40 (3) and 41 (2); “Contemporary digital culture and reading” (Chiu and Ho, 2022b) in 40 (5) and “40th anniversary: contemporary library research” (Chiu and Ho, 2022c) in 40 (6).
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has seriously affected many cultural organizations, including educational institutions, libraries and museums (Fasae et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2021, 2022; 2023; Guo et al., 2021; Meng et al., 2023; Yu et al., 2023), though we are now ready for reopening (Abbass et al., 2022; Suh and Alhaery, 2022; Kumar et al., 2021). Wide-spread and high-quality online information services have provided alternative sources during the lockdown (Ding et al., 2021; Hsieh et al., 2023; Lo and Chiu, 2015; Lo et al., 2015, 2017; Suen et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2016; Wong and Chiu, 2023; Fan and Liu, 2022; Zuo et al., 2023; Cheng et al., 2022; Cheng, 2022; Wang et al., 2022; Wong et al., 2023) and people have further changed their information and learning habits to digital, particularly for the newer generation (Chan et al., 2022; Chan et al., 2020; Dai and Chiu, 2023; Guo et al., 2022; Shahzad and Khan, 2022; Soroya and Faiola, 2023; Sung and Chiu, 2022; Yi and Chiu, 2023; Wai et al., 2018; Wong and Chiu, 2023; Yu et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2021). Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated service transformation (Chan et al., 2022; Cheng et al., 2022; Chin and Chiu, 2023; Khan and Ayesha, 2022; Khan et al., 2022; Li et al., 2023; Li et al., 2023; Lin et al., 2022; Lo et al., 2020; Noh, 2022; Nwagwu and Matobako, 2022; Tseng and Chiu, 2022; Tse et al., 2022; Yao et al., 2023; Wong and Chiu, 2023; Wu et al., 2022b, 2023; Xue et al., 2023), especially supported by ubiquitous mobile Internet services, social media, apps and devices (Dukic et al., 2015; Ezeamuzie et al., 2022; Fan et al., 2020; Fung et al., 2016; Gong et al., 2017; Hui et al., 2023; Lau et al., 2017, 2020; Law et al., 2019; Ni et al., 2022; Yip et al., 2021).
Information organizations, such as libraries and museums, have gradually adopted social media to maintain a social presence for building social capital besides being widely adopted for promotion and learning aids (Chung et al., 2020; Fong et al., 2020; Ho et al., 2018; Nabi et al., 2023; Lam et al., 2019; 2023; Lei et al., 2021; Leung et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2023a, b; Li et al., 2023; Lo et al., 2014; Jiang et al., 2023; Mak et al., 2022; Xie, Chiu, and Ho, 2023; Xie et al., 2023a, b; Wong et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2021; Yang et al., 2022; Wójcik, 2022a; Wu and Yang, 2022), especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. Particularly, digitalization technology enables libraries to share links and content on social media to attract users (Banshal et al., 2022; Lo et al., 2019; Ocran and Afful-Arthur, 2022; Wu et al., 2022a; Xu and Du, 2022).
For universities, libraries and learning commons can serve as places to build social capital (Chan et al., 2020; Deng and Chiu, 2023; Leung et al., 2022; Zhou et al., 2022). Also, some studies have shown that the frequency of library visits is positively correlated with the perception of meetings to some extent (Lu et al., 2023). This suggests that although university libraries do not reach as broad an audience as public libraries, they also have the potential to serve as social asset generators (Leung et al., 2022). Therefore, a holistic approach to handling social media and physical spaces to build trust and social capital is still necessary.
Thus, social media is now an integral part of our society. In this issue of Library Hi Tech, we present 14 papers that research various issues related to social media and social network topics.
Research on the influences of videos posted on social media
Chi and Park (2023) studied YouTube and identified the characteristics of videos and discussions related to them using t-tests. They noted that forum comments about the videos were related to the content communities instead of the video content. Deori et al. (2023) also studied videos uploaded to YouTube. They focused on studying those videos prepared using Koha and DSpace using Webometric Analyst and Parallel Dots API for data analyses. They showed that the videos they analyzed had positive and happy comments.
On the other hand, Hsu and Lin (2023) used the uses and gratification theory and the flow theory to develop a research model for studying live streaming services. They showed that entertainment, informativeness and sociability gratifications positively influenced satisfaction with live streaming services and the flow-mediated the impact of interactivity and telepresence on satisfaction.
Research on how social media interact with psychology
Nowadays, people post reviews on social media and the Internet. Keshavarz et al. (2023) used structural equation modeling to investigate evaluation behavior through personality, self-efficacy and attitude using responses from Iran. They confirmed that personality, self-efficacy and attitude would affect evaluation behavior directly and personality would also affect self-efficacy and attitude. Yin et al. (2023) studied the user transfer behavior from QQ to WeChat in China. They showed that subjective norm, transfer experience, social communication and knowledge acquisition were related to transfer intention and switching behavior.
Zhang and Lu (2023) also studied how academic libraries used WeChat official accounts (WCOAs) to engage with their users, and they discovered that users evaluated their services mainly through service responsiveness, information timeliness and system security. Zhang et al. (2023c) also studied how social media members contribute their knowledge to the knowledge community. They used the theory of reciprocity and the theory of self-efficacy to build their model. They showed that both i-intention and we-intention positively influenced members' knowledge contribution behavior. Readers may also be interested in recent work on using crowdsourcing (Al-Aufi et al., 2022) through social media to improve information services.
Yoon and Syn (2023) used eye-tracking devices and a survey questionnaire to investigate people's reading patterns related to reading Facebook health information posts. They showed that it is more effective to use text-embedded images would provide better results in recall and recognition. Readers may also be interested in research using eye-tracking (Su et al., 2022; Wu and Zhang, 2022; Zhang et al., 2022) and brain-computer interfaces (Wójcik, 2022b; Wang et al., 2022) on the design, use and evaluation of information retrieval systems.
Zhang et al. (2023b) also examined whether central cognition elaboration cue and peripheral cognition elaboration cue could influence users' health information sharing intention, with a model developed based on Elaboration Likelihood Model, Media Richness Theory, Trust Theory and Regulatory Focus Theory. Yuan and Bi (2023) studied people's availability information disclosure and explored how people interact with others in their social media network and use butler lies. They showed that people would be less likely to use butler lies with their significant others. Readers may also be interested in recent studies on people's well-being under COVID-19 (Avçin and Can, 2022; Javed et al., 2023; Nguyen and Le, 2021; Ye and Ho, 2023; Wang et al., 2023).
Bibliometric and related studies on social network
Akça and Akbulut (2023) used social network analysis to study mythology using literature from 1990 to 2019. They showed that mythology literature was focused on four subject areas, i.e. sociology, folklore, politics and anthropology. Li et al. (2023) analyzed the linguistic characteristics of the academic social Q&A platforms in ResearchGate. They show that such platforms can assist scholars in having improved scholarly communications. Liu et al. (2023a, b) also studied how to disseminate and manage emergency information in social media using case studies. Prebor (2023) also used text mining to study how different feminist Facebook groups in the Hebrew language in Israel operate. She analyzed Facebook posts using the Voyant Tools and found unique keywords, different degrees of discussions and engagement within different feminist groups. Readers may also be interested in recent research on social media bibliometrics (Batooli et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2023a, b, c) and the dissemination of academic results (Li et al., 2021).
