Abstract:
Social media is a pathway to anyone to create share and collaborate subject matters and
information through information technology. According to Amarakoon (2012), the library
should adopt social media for maximum exploitation of library services. Therefore it is high
time to study the adoption of the social media to enhance library services. Amir Ali public
Library (Grade II) is located at Sammanthurai, in the Ampara district. Sammanthurai is vast
area which has a population of 37,000, so the library serves for a large user community. This
library has developed Social Media as a supporting service. The objective of this study is to
examine how far library users and staff are adopt Social Media to access library services.
This research was conducted using survey method. Though there is a big population,
researchers were unable to get a big sample. Due to time limit the researcher used a
handful of small sample by using purposive sampling technique. Questionnaires and
interviews were used as research tools. The study revealed 10 to 30 years age groups of
this library are using the social media frequently and others use rarely. However, Most of the
users perceived that they prefer to use Facebook to access the library. This study
recommends that Facebook page of this public library should be enhanced and the other
social media also should be introduced. Librarian has to start training program for library staff
to provide excellent services through this media. In addition users also should be trained on
how to use this type of services.
