Urban Farmers via Social Media Groups: Role of Internet - based Information Services in Meeting Urban Agricultural Information Needs

SAMSUDDIN, Samsul Farid (2018) Urban Farmers via Social Media Groups: Role of Internet - based Information Services in Meeting Urban Agricultural Information Needs. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Transform Libraries, Transform Societies in Session 166 - Agricultural Libraries SIG.

Bookmark or cite this item: https://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2248
[img]
Preview
Language: English (Original)
Available under licence Creative Commons Attribution.

Abstract

Urban Farmers via Social Media Groups: Role of Internet - based Information Services in Meeting Urban Agricultural Information Needs

Social media has become a vital part of social life. It affects the beliefs, values, and attitudes of people, as well as their intentions and behaviours. Meanwhile, the emerging trends in Internet - based Information Services via social media enables governments and organizations to engage people while allowing consumers to make informed decisions. In supporting the Malaysian agriculture information needs and demands, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Library were looking forward to provide the best practices in Information Services via Internet based and social media on Urban Agriculture, which is in line with the university goals “Strengthening UPM as a Centre of Excellence in Agriculture” besides the WLIC 2018 theme “Transform Libraries, Transform Societies”. The purpose of this case study is to describe the initiatives taken by several netizen which have same interest in Urban Agriculture by developing a Social Media Group for the sake of local communities in Malaysia. In particular, the significant role of analysing social media is to advance the understanding of information sharing, communication, opinion formation, and dissemination could be recognized. The social media group were named “Kebun Bandar: Jom Tanam Sendiri” (Urban Farm: Let’s Plant) which encourages resource-sharing, through the social media locally and globally, in the urban agricultural context. This case study on specific social media group will find the information needs of urban farmers and provide guides in Web based information services for UPM Library in meeting the information needs of urban farmers. It is an initiative to study the social media content in providing the best practice for Internet based - Information Services to the library user also the local communities. The data for this study were collected through content analysis, observations and documents shared in this specific social media group. Findings of the studies consists of the general contents of the social media group “Kebun Bandar: Jom Tanam Sendiri” such as the focus and objectives of the group. Patterns on information sharing, communication, opinion formation, and dissemination via the social media group were also analysed and discussed. Using the information obtained from social media, researchers can gain valuable insights into the beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceptions of social media users with regard to the utility of user-generated content and trust formation. This paper may be used as an initiative of information service management and also as a useful research tool that may help and assist other information providers from other countries in facilitating their diverse communities.

FOR IFLA HQ (login required)

Edit item Edit item
.