Abstract

This study examines the diffusion of social media adoption in everyday academic information seeking from the perspective of communication, and further explores the implication of this diffusion for information services in academic libraries. Using the framework of social cognitive theory of mass communication, a survey was conducted to examine the relationship between structural context and adoptive behavior. Non-adoptive behavior is also examined to identify the factors obstructing the diffusion of library social media usage. The structural context consists of demographics, experience in information seeking, dependence on information sources, and psychological factors. Statistical analyses indicate significant relationships between structural context and adoptive and non-adoptive behavior. The low coverage of library social media and inactive diffusion via social networks are identified as the main barriers to obstruct the diffusion of library social media usage in an academic community. The findings suggest that more user-centric content should be generated on library social media to meet users’ information needs. The findings also suggest that a content analysis should be conducted to further explore the relationship between the characteristics of information content and the diffusion of library social media adoption.