Purpose

The study aims to explore Greek libraries’ social media presence and library operation and social media use during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were collected via an online questionnaire that was distributed to the Greek libraries. The final sample comprised 189 libraries of all types with the exception of school libraries.

Findings

Results indicated that Facebook is the most widely used platform, while social media are mainly used for sharing announcements about library operations and for the promotion of events. During the COVID-19 lockdown, libraries responded quickly to the new circumstances by taking many of their services online. However, they did not fully use social media for service provision but rather used social media as a static communication channel. Only a few of the libraries grasped the opportunity to highlight their role in the promotion of public health by providing timely and reliable information.

Practical implications

Library leaders who are looking to harness the power of social media for service promotion and outreach should build a strategy that takes platform popularity, current social media trends, patron preferences and the specific promotional objectives of their library into consideration.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current research is the first which attempts to explore the social media presence of Greek libraries of all types and changes made to library operations and social media use in response to the COVID-19 lockdown.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19和图书馆社交媒体的使用

目的

该研究旨在探讨在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）锁定期间希腊图书馆在社交媒体中的存在以及图书馆的运作和社交媒体的使用。

设计/方法/方法

通过在线调查表收集了主要数据，该调查表已分发给希腊图书馆。最终样本包括除学校图书馆外的所有类型的189个图书馆。

发现

结果表明，Facebook是使用最广泛的平台，而社交媒体主要用于共享有关图书馆运营的公告和活动的推广。在COVID-19锁定期间，图书馆通过使许多服务在线化，对新情况做出了快速响应。但是，他们没有完全使用社交媒体来提供服务，而是使用社交媒体作为静态沟通渠道。只有少数图书馆抓住机会，通过提供及时和可靠的信息来强调其在促进公共卫生中的作用。

实际影响

希望利用社交媒体的力量进行服务推广和推广的图书馆领导者应制定一项战略，考虑平台受欢迎程度，当前社交媒体趋势，顾客偏好和图书馆的特定促销目标。

创意/价值

就作者所知，当前的研究是第一个尝试探索各种类型的希腊图书馆在社交媒体中的地位以及针对COVID-19锁定而对图书馆运营和社交媒体使用进行更改的尝试。