Indonesian Islamic Academic Libraries Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Social Media Observation
Thoriq Tri Prabowo1 & April Ramos Manabat2
1Department of Library Science, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2Nazarbayev University Library, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
1[email protected]; 2[email protected]
ABSTRACT
From a historical perspective, Islamic libraries have a unique role, starting from being a center for learning, research and translation up to being a hub of technological innovations. As technology develops, they are transformed into modern libraries that are adaptive to technology. Since the pandemic hit Indonesia, Islamic libraries, especially in the academic realm, have also been adapting to provide extensive library services to their patrons. This study aims to describe the role of Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia amid the pandemic. These observations were focused on the social media owned by the library, specifically their Instagram (IG) accounts. Three IG accounts of Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia were observed in this study: UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library, UII Library, and UMY Library. The three libraries were considered to represent the characteristics of Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia. This study will be observing the volume and variant of the libraries’ posting materials during the last three months (September-November 2020) in Instagram. Aside from this, user engagement will be measured using analisa.io analytics. In addition, this study will describe the role of Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia in socializing and disseminating the dangers and prevention of COVID-19 which can serve as a model for evaluation for other libraries against the pandemic.
Keywords: academic libraries, COVID-19, Indonesian Islamic academic libraries, Islamic libraries, social media
INTRODUCTION Background of the Study
Islamic libraries are libraries that either owned by Islamic institutions, having collections of Islamic fields, or serving Muslim users (Laugu, 2015, p. 88).
Islamic libraries have a significant contribution to society and the world from a historical perspective. Some of these contributions include as a learning resource, research center, center for translation, and book copying (Laugu, 2013, p. 319).
However, in the context of the modern world, its role is the same as that of libraries in general. The difference is that the library usually assists Muslim communities who are in schools, universities, or state institutions that have an Islamic population.
Indonesia, as a country with the largest Muslim population as well as being a beacon of an Islamic state (Wajdi, 2016, p. 93), has many Islamic-based
universities. Academic reference sources in these tertiary institutions are supported by academic libraries. Academic libraries in Indonesia generally have a function to help universities carry out the duty of higher education tri dharma, which includes:
teaching, research, and community service. Meanwhile, Islamic academic libraries carry out these functions based on Islamic values.
The COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world around the beginning of 2020 made everyone need to adapt to a new life order or what is commonly referred to as the new normal (Prabowo, 2020, p. 8), including library services. Library services, which were originally dominated by physical services, during this pandemic, came to be oriented towards virtual services. One of the most effective virtual tools used during this pandemic is the social media. Social media is capable of being a reliable medium of communication as well as a medium for disseminating information. Libraries can use it for several things, such as for surveys of user information needs, evaluating user satisfaction with library services, and others (AlAwadhi & Al-Daihani, 2019, p. 228; Winata et al., 2020).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries around the world adapted to welcome the new normal era. Provision of long-distance services is an inevitable part of the adaptation process towards this new normal era. Each type of library has a different tendency in providing this remote service. For example, innovation in school library activities during a pandemic is storytelling through social media platforms. Then, the service for searching scientific articles online for academic libraries (IFLA, 2020).
Libraries' social media accounts during the pandemic are commonly used to inform library services and to promote events. Only a few libraries use social media to promote public health during this pandemic (Koulouris et al., 2020). In addition, this role is truly strategic because through social media, there is a lot of misinformation due to the massive coverage of COVID-19 on the Internet, which is very much worrying.
Libraries need to take an important role in preventing misinformation by providing education or providing accurate information (Ale, 2020, p. 1). In this context, the library's social media can play a bigger role such as to help users avoid being misinformed. Islamic academic libraries will not only consider fake news as a social deviation phenomenon but also the practice of violating religious teachings.
To overcome this issue, Islamic academic libraries are not only based on the spirit of professionalism but on the sentiment that is oriented towards upholding the truth (Norazman et al., 2019, p. 249).
There are various dimension variants in the Indonesian Islamic academic library, such as religious thought, organizational pathways, and gender issues (Laugu, 2015, pp. 191–206), that are interesting to observe especially during this pandemic. His findings potentially yields a comprehensive perspective on social
media content from Islamic academic libraries. This study aims to describe the role of social media in disseminating the dangers and overcoming COVID-19 in selected Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia such as the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library, UII Library, and UMY Library.
These three libraries were chosen because they are considered to represent Indonesian Islamic academic libraries with a large amount of Islamic literature.
Based on the data obtained in 2015, it is known that UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library, the UII Library, and the UMY Library have quite a lot of Islamic literature with 13,518 titles , 3,644 titles, and 2,033 titles, respectively (Laugu, 2015, p.105).
Moreover, the three libraries have various ideological variants, both traditionalist and modernist (Laugu, 2015, pp. 161–169). The three of them, according to Laugu (2015, p. 166), also have moderate ideologies. In terms of ownership, these three libraries are considered to represent government ownership (UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library) and private ownership (UII Library and UMY Library). In the context of achievement and recognition, the three of them have achieved an A accreditation from the National Library.
If you look at the research locus that takes place in the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library (a government institution), the UII Library, and the UMY Library (a private institution), there is a complex miniature to explain Islamic ideology in library management. As a government-owned institution, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library is indeed more open from an ideological perspective because almost everyone has the opportunity to reach it due to the guarantee of policies and regulations from the government. The UII Library is also quite similar. However, since the library is managed by the private sector, there may be some limitations that may not be as free as in UIN Sunan Kalijaga. It is different from the UMY Library, which is a product of Muhammadiyah mass organizations, which certainly have a spirit of Muhammadiyah in every step of the organization.
The social media platform for Islamic academic libraries that will be observed in this study is Instagram (IG). Instagram, as one of the social media platforms used to share visual content, is said to be relatively not easily infiltrated by fake news (Anderson, 2018, p. 4). Instagram’s popularity continues to increase from time to time (Habibi & Cahyo, 2019, p. 400). Social media is said to be widely used for Indonesian higher education institutions (Kurniawan et al., 2020, p. 887) because it has interesting features for visual publication purposes. Some of the Instagram features include; stories, messenger, IGTV, shopping, and search and explore (Instagram, 2020). Through these features, users can optimize their upload variants with media that are not only informative but also interesting.
Based on data search on December 3, 2020, it is known that the profiles of the Instagram accounts of the three selected libraries are as follows:
Figure 1. Library Instagram Profiles Source: instagram.com (December, 3rd 2020)
Figure 1 shows the Instagram profiles of these three libraries. The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has 1,916 uploads, 14,400 followers, and follows 60 IG accounts. Furthermore, the UII Library IG account has 24 uploads, 987 followers, and follows 24 accounts.. Finally, the UMY Library account has 328 uploads, 3047 followers, and follows 112 accounts.
Based on the phenomena and data description above, this research will not only discuss the technical aspects of social media management from several Islamic libraries but also discuss whether the Islamic ideology as described above also has implications on whether or not the use of library social media in socializing the dangers and prevention of COVID-19. The results of this study will not only contribute to knowledge at the technical level regarding the optimization of library social media during the pandemic but also highlights social media as a representation of organizational ideology.
Given the aforementioned reasons, this study aims to describe the role of social media for Indonesian Islamic academic libraries in the socialization of the dangers and prevention of COVID-19.
Literature Review
Even though COVID-19 escalated in the many parts of the world at the beginning of 2020, there are quite a few studies related to it, specifically, researches related to library services during the pandemic. One of these studies was conducted by Koulouris et al. (2020) which aims to explore the presence and participation of social media in libraries in Greece during the lockdown period. This study surveyed 189 libraries of various types of libraries excluding school libraries. The study
1916 24 328
14400
987 3047
60 24 112
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library UII Library UMY Library
Instagram Profile
Total Post Follower Following
revealed that Facebook was the most used social media platform during the lockdown period. In general, social media was used to announce library services and events. However, its use to inform public health was not utilized. There were only a few libraries that use social media to help promote health awareness during the pandemic.
The study conducted by Sobaih et al. (2020) aims to describe the role of social media in universities, both by lecturers and students for formal communication and teaching and learning activities in developing countries. They conducted an online survey among students and lecturers. The study revealed that lecturers specifically use social media only for teaching and learning purposes, as a substitute for the learning management system (LMS). Meanwhile, students use social media not only to learn but to form and join online communities to encourage and support one another, especially during a crisis.
Another research was conducted by Chan et al. (2020 which aims to formulate an effective knowledge dissemination strategy related to COVID-19 through social media. Based on some of the literature cited in this study, it presented the potential of social media to be a successful channel for knowledge dissemination such as infographics. An infographic is a type of upload that meets the criteria for good knowledge dissemination (Thoma et al., 2018, p. 301). The success of knowledge dissemination through infographics uploaded on social media depends very much on the reputation of the institution, the quality of the images/infographics, and the content and speed of knowledge dissemination. One such good practice found in this research was having an infographic that represented and made by professionals, so it can be freely disseminated by various institutions. Thus, each institution does not need to bother making promotional materials related to COVID-19, they just need to disseminate it through their social media accounts.
This research is conceptually a slice of the three studies mentioned above.
Taking into account some similarities and diferences on both subject and objects, the study conducted by Koulouris et al. (2020) is the most identical to this study.
As mentioned, the role of library social media in promoting public health during the pandemic was still lacking, so this research focuses on the role of library social media in the efforts to prevent COVID-19. Moreover, this research will focus on the COVID-19 related content of the Indonesian Islamic academic library's Instagram accounts. These libraries’ locus and ideologies will provide a specific and in-depth perspective on the role of libraries in dealing with COVID-19. This study highlights the role of libraries in various dimensions such as social media and library ideology.
Theoretical basis
Islamic Academic Libraries in Indonesia
Libraries consist of four main components, such as place, people, activities, and collections which together make up the library organism. More specifically, the four main components are also present in an Islamic library, of course, with Islamic characteristics. Islamic library, according to Laugu (2015, pp. 88–89), is one type of library which at least can be grouped into five types, namely; mosque libraries, madrasah or Islamic boarding school libraries, libraries of Islamic state rulers, private/scientific libraries, and Islamic academic libraries.
Laugu (2015, pp. 161–177) argues that the Islamic library is not a site without ideology, on the contrary, it contains ideological contestations with or without being realized by the actors in it. Some of these ideologies according to Laugu (2015, pp. 161–177) include traditionalism and modernism, liberalism and fundamentalism, moderates, and pluralism and non-pluralism. This ideology is said to have direct implications for increasing the dynamics of individual and group performance in the library. This understanding is important as a starting point for researchers to verify Laugu's theory, especially concerning library performance in terms of social media use during the pandemic.
When discussing the profile of Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia, it cannot be separated from the dualism of higher education management in Indonesia as the parent institution of the Islamic academic library, namely by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) and the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) (Zakaria, 2018, p.105). The higher education institutions under the Ministry of Education and Culture that have Islamic libraries usually come from universities associated with certain mass organizations such as Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), or other organizations that have a spirit of Islam (Laugu, 2015, p. 89).
Meanwhile, universities under the auspices of the Ministry of Religion consist of State Islamic University (UIN), State Islamic Institute (IAIN), and State Islamic Religious College (STAIN) (Laugu, 2015, p. 88).
Social Media in Library during COVID-19
In general, libraries use social media for several purposes, which include promoting collections, promoting activities or services, uploading photos/pictures of activities that have been carried out, developing services, informing internal activities, promoting activities from libraries or other institutions, informing various things that are important to users, and simply greeting users (Istiana, 2017, p. 69;
Kurniasih, 2017, p. 2). Each library which uses social media shows different activities and intensities (Istiana, 2017, p.69). As for the intensity and success in managing social media to gain attention from the audience, it depends on the commitment and ability of the organization (Guesalaga, 2016, p.72).
The purpose of using social media by libraries should not only be oriented to the volume of information but must also ensure the validity of the information presented. Therefore, in this case, the librarian is also responsible for providing information literacy education to its users (Fatmawati, 2017, p. 25). In the context of its use during the pandemic, libraries that social media platforms must be more careful in sharing information. Lots of information is available on social media which contains COVID-19-related contents without any scientific basis that can endanger the public (Pennycook et al., 2020, p.770). While the information on social media can be reassuring, well-founded information can be stressful.
Therefore, there is a need for social media managers and its users to share accurate news (Bashingwa, 2020, p. 419).
Figure 2.Illustration of COVID-19 News on Social Media Source: (Bashingwa, 2020, p. 419)
Social media has several roles in helping to prevent the spread of falsified information relating to COVID-19 pandemic such as fostering a culture of disaster preparedness, providing psychological support, supporting distance learning, being a reference for remote diagnosis of COVID-19 symptoms, accelerating research, preventing misinformation, and media for disseminating scientific literature (Goel
& Gupta, 2020, pp. 1–4; Merchant & Lurie, 2020, pp. 2011–2012). Social media can also be a platform for coordination in crises due to COVID-19 (Li et al., 2020, p. 698). The indicators of social media use mentioned by Goel & Gupta (2020) and Merchant & Lurie (2020) will be used as a measure of how far the social media use of Indonesian Islamic academic libraries in the dissemination of information related to the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic disaster.
Information dissemination through social media needs to be carried out effectively, efficiently, and also attractively. In a study, it was found that there were 23 uploaded themes related to awareness of COVID-19 on Instagram, which included epidemiology and statistics, training and care, general prevention guidelines, hygiene, diet, and healthy lifestyle, and others (Niknam et al., 2020).
Dabbagh (2020) also presented that Instagram has proven to get positive feedback from the audience when it is used to inform about COVID-19. In the context of the
number of Instagram users, Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world with a user age range of 18-34 years (Damayanti, 2020, p. 177).
Content Analysis of Social Media
Social media, which is the library's new service window for at least the last ten years (Gerolimos & Konsta, 2011), needs to be evaluated for its utilization.
Although its use is relatively easy, to achieve optimal results for library service purposes is not as easy as it seems. This can occur because the vision and reality in social media are viewed differently by librarians or social media users of the library itself (Chu et al., 2010, p. 11). To understand social reality in social media, a special approach is needed. This research adopts the media object approach and experiential stories developed by Cantoni & Tardini (2006) in (Nasrullah, 2020, p.63) below:
Level Object
Media object - The context in the online space
- Interactions that occur on the social media
- The reality that occurs in the online space and its relationship with the offline space
Experiential stories - The context in the offline space
- The motive, reason, or purpose of the text on social media - The reality that occurs in the offline space and its relationship
with the online space
Table 1. Levels of Cyber Media Analysis Source: (Nasrullah, 2020, p. 63)
The choice of media object and experiential stories approaches is to provide a complete picture of the phenomena that is happening in the online and offline space. This approach fits well with thematic analysis, which focuses on examining themes or patterns of meaning in data (Nowell et al., 2017). Themes or patterns in social media that have been determined can easily be seen with the media object approach and experiential stories.
Research Methodology
This research combines qualitative research and literature study. The object of this research is social media content from selected Indonesian Islamic libraries that are related to library services and the response to COVID-19. The researchers collect primary and secondary data independently. Primary data from this study will be collected using a qualitative approach. Meanwhile, secondary data will be collected from related academic works of literature. Primary data collection in the form of uploads related to COVID-19 where came from three Instagram (IG) accounts of the Indonesian academic Islamic libraries, namely; the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library (https://www.instagram.com/perpusuinyogyakarta/), the UII
library (https://www. instagram.com/perpustakauii/), and the UMY library (https://www.instagram.com/perpustaka_umy/) were carried out by in-depth observation. These observations were carried out from September to November 2020. Social media data analysis was carried out using the assistive media portal https://analisa.io/. Uploads related to COVID-19 from the three IG accounts will be described in the narrative, tabulation, and image formats. The data will then be analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is used in qualitative research and focuses on examining themes or patterns of meaning in data. In this context, the themes and patterns of the posts from the three libraries will be mapped, either directly by the researchers or by comparing them with related literature.
DISCUSSION
Literature Analysis
To obtain an overview about the role of social media for Islamic academic libraries in the efforts to socialize the dangers and prevention of COVID-19, a simple analysis was carried out on some of the latest literature discussing this as presented on Table 2 below.
Author Title Role of Social Media in During the Pandemic
A. K. M. Chan, C. P.
Nickson, J. W. Rudolph, A.
Lee, & G. M. Joynt
Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination:
early experience from the COVID 19 pandemic (2020)
Providing access to reliable information related to COVID- 19 quickly and effectively
A. Dabbagh The role of Instagram in
public health education in COVID-19 in Iran (2020)
Public health campaign related to COVID-19
A. Damayanti & K.
Yuriawan
Instagram as a Medium of Risk Communication in COVID-19 Pandemic: A Netnography Study of Virtual Community
KawalCOVID19.id (2020)
Risk communication about the COVID-19 virus
A. Goel and L. Gupta Social Media in the Times of COVID-19 (2020)
• Fostering a culture of disaster preparedness
• Provide psychological support
• Supports distance learning
• Become a reference for remote diagnosis of COVID-19 symptoms
• Research acceleration
• Misinformation prevention
• Media for disseminating scientific literature
A. Koulouris, E. Vraimaki, &
M. Koloniari
COVID-19 and library social media use (2020)
• Announce library services and events (major)
• Promote public health (minor)
Table 2.Literature Analysis of Some Articles on the Role of Social Media among Islamic Libraries during the Pandemic
Source: (Chan et al., 2020; Dabbagh, 2020; Damayanti, 2020; Goel & Gupta, 2020; Koulouris et al., 2020)
As shown on Table 2, it can be generally understood that the role of social media can be summarized in the research conducted by Ashish Goel & Latika Gupta (2020). These roles include fostering a culture of disaster preparedness, providing psychological support, supporting distance learning, being a reference for remote diagnosis of COVID-19 symptoms, accelerating research, preventing misinformation, and media for disseminating scientific literature. Unfortunately, the research did not specify how social media was utilized during the pandemic by institutions such as libraries. Some of the items described by Goel & Gupta (2020) also do not always coincide with the library's core business, so it is understandable that not all libraries have contents like these items. The item "being a remote diagnostic reference for COVID-19 symptoms" according to the researchers' opinion is more suitable for uploading by health institutions, such as hospitals.
However, libraries can upload these items by providing relevant references.
Separately, in other literature, it is stated that the role of social media for library services, including promoting collections, promoting activities or services, uploading photos/images of activities that have been carried out, developing services, informing internal activities, promoting activities from libraries or other institutions, informing various things that are important to users, and greeting users (Istiana, 2017, p. 69; Kurniasih, 2017, p. 2). The roles mentioned by Istiana (2017) and Kurniasih (2017) do not directly have implications for the dissemination of the dangers and prevention of COVID-19. However, indirectly along with the transformation of library services from offline to online, all forms of these activities contribute to the socialization of the dangers and prevention of the virus.
In a crisis due to virus, just staying at home can be considered as an effort to prevent spreading the virus because it is an implementation of “physical distancing” as mandated by WHO. The “physical distancing” policy does limit the movement of everyone, but that does not mean that they do not need to do anything.
Creativity during the quarantine period must be maintained (Yip & Chau, 2020, p.
154). Likewise, with libraries, the adaptation of physical services to online services is creativity oriented towards the prevention of COVID-19.
Analysis of the Indonesian Islamic Academic Libraries’ Instagram Accounts
To provide a comprehensive understanding, the role of social media before, during, and after the pandemic needs to be further analyzed. Several types of social media uploads from Islamic academic libraries will be discussed to disseminate the dangers and prevention of COVID-19, both with direct or indirect implications.
As mentioned, Instagram (IG) is said to be the most used social media platform in Indonesia. The researchers analyzed the Instagram account of the three libraries and then describes them through meaningful narratives, pictures, graphics, and tabulations. Figures 3, 4 and 5 shows the data about social media uploads from UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library, UII Library, and UMY Library, respectively. Table 3 below shows a summary of the libraries’ IG account profiles which include the number of uploads, most used captions, and most used hashtags from 1 September 2020 to 30 November 2020 which were collected through analisa.io portal.
Instagram (IG) Account Profiles
UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library (@perpusuinyogyakarta)
UII Library (@perpustakaanuii)
UMY Library (@perpustakaan_umy) Number of
uploads 90 8 10
5 Frequently Used Captions
- Journal - Sunan Kalijaga - Library - Book - Event
- Library - Book - Islam - Research - University
- Library - Services - Collection - Essay - Building
5 Frequently Used Hashtags
- #uinsukalib - #uinsukalibrary - #sukacorner - #uinsuka - #sunankalijaga
- #PerpustakaanUII - #UIIYogyakarta - #PerpusUII - #uiilibrary - #PerpustakaanUII
Melayani
- #perpustakaanumy - #temanperpus - #layananperpus - #resourceguide - #muhammadiyah
Table 3. Instagram Account Profiles of Three Islamic Academic Libraries (Source: analisa.io)
Figure 3. Instagram Profile of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library (@perpusuinyogyakarta)
Source: www.instagram.com/perpusuinyogyakarta (2020, December 3)
Figure 4.UII Library Instagram Profile (@perpustakauii) Source: www.instagram.com/perpustakaanuii (2020, December 3)
Figure 5. Instagram Profile of UMY Library (@perpustaka_umy) Source: www.instagram.com/perpustakaan_umy (2020, December 3)
The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library and UMY Library Instagram account profiles provide information related to hashtags that refer to uploads from the library and contact details such as office and email addresses, office hours, telephone numbers, other social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube), and website. The same goes with the UII Library Instagram account which also provides contact information such as description/biography, email address, telephone number, mobile phone number, and website. Among the three library IG accounts, the UMY Library Instagram account profile provides the most complete information. The use of captions and hashtags from the three libraries refers to strengthening the branding of each library as well as services and events carried out by the library.
Based on popular captions and hashtags that have emerged from the three libraries, the COVID-19 pandemic has not received enough attention. Uploads from the three libraries show the library's adaptation to the pandemic with the emergence
of adjustment policies and new services such as the dispensation of fines for late return of books, online user education, online training, online referral services, and others. The library's adaptation to the pandemic, which is informed through social media, does not directly reduce the number of cases affected by the virus but informs the adjustment policies and new services to their patrons. In that way, users do not need to come directly to the library to avail the services.
Uploading announcements or posts to promote the library and its services is said to be the primary goal of having a library social media account. Through uploads, the library is now able to reach more clients and audience. To find out audience participation among the three library IG accounts, Figure 6 presented the uploading volume and engagement calculated based on the average number of likes.
Figure 6. Average Instagram Uploads of Libraries Source: analisa.io (December, 3rd 2020)
As shown on the graph, it can be seen that the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library IG account has an average of uploads of 1, 7, and 30 per day, week, and month respectively, which means that the Library uploads at least one post per day.
Furthermore, the UII Library IG account has an average upload of 0.29, 2, and 8.57 on per day, week, and month respectively. Finally, the UMY Library IG account has an average upload per day, week, and month of 0.14, 0.95; and 4.05. As per engagement, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library is again superior when compared to the other two libraries.
1
7
30
0.29 2
8.57
0.14 0.95 4.05
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Avg. Post per day Avg. Post per week Avg. Post per month
Average Post
UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library UII Library UMY Library
Figure 7. Engagement Instagram Library Source: analisa.io (December, 3rd 2020)
Social media engagement is also important to measure the reach of the posts of the social media accounts of the library. Figure 7 presents the number of engagements generated per library IG account. As observed, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library IG account generates an average engagement of 399, an average of 396 likes, and an average of 3 comments. Furthermore, the UII Library IG account generates an average engagement of 145, on average like of 139, and an average of 6 comments. Finally, the UMY Library IG account generated an average engagement of 118, an average of 114 likes, and an average number of 4 comments.
The engagement of UII Libraries and UMY Libraries is quite similar, however when compared to the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library, the two were quite behind. The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has received twice the engagement of the other two libraries. This might happen because of several things such as the number of followers of the Instagram account of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library which is indeed the largest of the three and possibly due to the consistent number of uploads generating more permanent audience or enthusiasts.
In terms of the number of followers, the average number of uploads, and average engagements, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library IG account is superior when compared to the other two library Instagram accounts. Furthermore, the uploaded material from each library will be analyzed based on the matrix of the role of social media for library activities as conveyed by Istiana (2017, p. 69) & Kurniasih (2017, p. 2) and the role of social media to disseminate hazards and prevention of COVID- 19 presented by Goel & Gupta (2020). Table 4 below shows a matrix of upload types on the Instagram account of each library:
399 396
3
145 139
6
118 114
0 4 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Avg. Engagement per Post Avg. Likes per Post Avg. Comments per Post
Engagement
UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library UII Library UMY Library
No Indicator The UIN Sunan Kalijaga
Library
The UII Library
The UMY Library 1 Promotion of library
collections
6 2 1
2 Promotion of library activities or services
9 1 2
3 Activities that have been carried out by the library
23 0 0
4 Development of new services 2 0 1
5 Information on the internal activities of the library
8 0 1
6 Promotion of collaborative activities
3 0 0
7 Information on various things that are important to users
26 1 2
8 Greeting users 13 4 3
Total uploads 90 8 10
Table 4. Library Social Media Activities from September-November 2020
As shown in Table 4, it can be understood that UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library carries out all activities according to the matrix regarding the role of social media for libraries. Meanwhile, the UII Library only did four of them, and the UMY Library was slightly superior in doing six of them. The three libraries were certain to carry out activities even though they have a different number of uploads, including promoting library collections, promoting library activities or services, informing various things that are important to users, and greeting users. Posts of these three libraries varies depending on what message or announcement they want to convey to their clients, thus, the IG accounts should be utilized. They can do this by increasing the volume of uploads, which may have implications in increasing upload variants as observed with the Instagram account of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library.
Furthermore, uploaded materials that are oriented towards the dissemination of the dangers and prevention of COVID-19 from each library are presented in the table below:
No Indicator The UIN Sunan
Kalijaga Library
The UII Library
The UMY Library 1 Enabling a culture of
preparedness
3 0 0
2 Enabling connectivity and psychological first aid
4 1 0
3 Advancing remote learning 43 1 0
4 Diagnostic tool and referral system
0 0 0
5 Accelerating research 7 1 2
6 Against misinformation 0 1 0
7 Scientific literature dissemination
9 2 2
Total 66 6 4
Table 5. Types and Number of Library Social Media Uploads Related to COVID-19
In terms of quantity, the IG uploads of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library during the pandemic totaled 66 (73.33%) out of 90 uploads. The percentages of the uploads were 4.54% oriented to foster a culture of disaster preparedness through posters related to COVID-19, photos, and appeals to obey the health program; 6.06%
about provision of psychological support through return dispensation, tardiness, and fines; 65.15% oriented to support distance learning through promotions and reports on online learning activities such as webinars, online courses, and online user education; 10.6% related to research acceleration including limited services to support final projects, adjustment of library services during the pandemic; and 13.63% as a medium for disseminating scientific literature through the promotion of book collections and resources.
Furthermore, the UII Library's IG uploads during the pandemic amounted to 6 (75%) out of 8 uploads. The percentages of the uploads were 16.67% about provision of psychological support through uploading posters with the hope that pandemic would pass quickly; 16.67% oriented to support distance learning through promotions and reports on online learning activities such as webinars, online courses, and online user education; 16.67% about research acceleration including adjustment of library services during the pandemic; 16.67% oriented to prevent misinformation through uploading posters related to the importance of literacy during the pandemic; and 33.33% as a media for disseminating scientific literature through the promotion of book collections and resources.
Finally, the UMY Library has uploaded 4 (40%) out of 10 uploads during the pandemic. The percentages of the uploads were 20% oriented to accelerated research including information and adjustment of library services during the pandemic; and 20% as a medium for disseminating scientific literature through the promotion of book collections and resources.
The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library and UII Library have 5 out of 7 upload types according to the matrix. Meanwhile, the UMY Library only has 2 types of uploads. All libraries’ IG accounts has posts related to accelerating research and scientific literature dissemination. Meanwhile, the three libraries did not perform the diagnostic tool and referral system at all. This is understandable considering that the three libraries do not have a core business related to the diagnosis. However, in the aspect of enabling a culture of preparedness which is the public domain, only
the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has done it. The same thing also happened in the aspect against misinformation which was only done by the UII Library.
Optimization of Features in Instagram
Figure 8. Sample IG Story of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library
Source: www.instagram.com/perpusuinyogyakarta (December, 3rd 2020)
The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library utilized the IG Story feature to highlight information uploads for users from feed uploads. The uploads were highlighted such as official announcements, infographics, and short-duration videos related to adjustments to library services during the pandemic, online user education, limited- service infographics, free online library services, event promotions, and activity reports such as webinars, research support for final projects, collection promotion;
books and resources, as well as activity reports from librarian activities. In terms of IG story clusters, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has the most clusters than the other two libraries.
Figure 9. Sample IG Story of UII Library
Source: www.instagram.com/perpustakaanuii (December, 3rd 2020)
The UII library uses IG Story to provide some information such as library service hotlines and information on the dispensation of fines for late repayment of collection loans. As observed, the IG Story feature was not fully utilized.
Figure 10. Sample IG Story of UMY Library
Source: www.instagram.com/perpustakaan_umy (December, 3rd 2020)
The UMY library uses IG Story to provide some information such as library hotline, checking plagiarism, free libraries, final project support, user service Q&A, and promotion of webinar events. The UMY library was able to utilized the IG story feature by making series of stories in one post which makes it easier for users to find information because users are given more choices.
With regards to the use of other IG features, IG TV has not been utilized that much by UII Library and the UMY Library. Even though it is not as much as a photo or image uploaded feed, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has used IG TV quite well since they used it to post live event uploads of the library. The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library often uses other platforms when conducting online meetings such as Zoom Meeting rather than IG TV.
The UIN Sunan Kalijaga library is the most prominent of the three libraries when it is viewed from the aspect of volume and upload variants. The nuances of spontaneity and carefulness to perpetuate every moment of library activities are the hallmarks of this library. This turns out to refute the assumption that state institutions have lower performance when compared to private institutions, even though the data obtained is certainly not sufficient to describe the performance of government organizations and private organizations as a whole. At least in the
context of social media utilization by Islamic library institutions, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library is quite superior compared to other two libraries.
The superiority of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library compared to the other two libraries is not directly interpreted as the victory of the state institution over the private sector, or the victory of an institution that is more pluralist than the other, which is more exclusive. However, based on the literature review, this success can be interpreted as recognition from the audience for the commitment and competence of the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library in managing social media. The consistency of the uploads is evidence of commitment and competence that can be witnessed by the audience at the moment, while offline programs are not.
However, to provide a comprehensive understanding, it is certainly necessary to carry out further research on the realities that occur in the online space.
Does it have significant implications for offline space or not? As for other factors that may influence this phenomenon such as organizational culture, leadership, resources, and other factors (e.g. ideology in the organization).
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
The role of library’s social media during the pandemic must also develop along with the evolving needs of its users. Apart from providing the information needed even before the pandemic, libraries also need to provide valid information related to the pandemic to support the health and safety of its users.
The social media for the Indonesian Islamic academic library did not directly reach the COVID-19 prevention stage. However, uploads from the three libraries' Instagram accounts helped prevent the spread of the virus by informing them of limited services following health protocols. These services include online services such as optimization of electronic journal database services, online search guidance, and so on. Meanwhile, physical services are provided with limited services, especially as a form of support for student final assignments.
Furthermore, from the seven matrices obtained from a literature review related to the direct role of social media in efforts to socialize and prevent COVID- 19, Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia carry out six functions including enabling a culture of preparedness, enabling connectivity and psychological first aid, advancing remote learning, diagnostic tools and referral systems, accelerating research against misinformation, and scientific literature dissemination. The diagnostic tool and referral system functions are still not available in the three libraries because libraries do not have a service orientation in that direction. Given this reason, some of these functions particularly enabling a culture of preparedness and against misinformation are still not being fully performed.
Of the three Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia, there are differences in using Instagram during the pandemic. The difference lies in the variant and upload
volume as well as the utilization of additional social media features. The UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library has the highest upload volume when compared to the UII Library and the UMY Library. In terms of upload variants, the UIN Sunan Kalijaga Library is the same with the UII Library, while the UMY Library came the least.
To see the complete reality regarding the role of social media from Islamic academic libraries in Indonesia to disseminate the dangers and prevention of the virus, researchers suggest that further research be carried out by observing the offline realm. Likewise, to find out the level of influence of the ideology of each library on the material, volume, and variant of the upload, it is necessary to carry out further research involving informants or research respondents for deeper data mining.
REFERENCES
AlAwadhi, S., & Al-Daihani, S. M. (2019). Marketing academic library information services using social media. Library Management, 40(3/4), 228–239.
https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-12-2017-0132
Ale, V. (2020). A library-based model for explaining information exchange on Coronavirus disease in Nigeria. Ianna Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(1), 1–11.
Anderson, K. E. (2018). Getting acquainted with social networks and apps:
Combating fake news on social media. Library Hi Tech News, 35(3), 1–6.
https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-02-2018-0010
Bashingwa, M. (2020). Role of Social Media during the Global Pandemic: The Case Study of Facebook and Instagram in prevention of the Covid-19. The Journal of Academic Social Sciences, 107(8), 409–422.
https://doi.org/10.29228/ASOS.44037
Cantoni, L., & Tardini, S. (2006). Internet. Routledge.
Chan, A. K. M., Nickson, C. P., Rudolph, J. W., Lee, A., & Joynt, G. M. (2020).
Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination: Early experience from the COVID-19 pandemic. Anaesthesia, 75(12), 1579–1582.
https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15057
Chu, S. K. W., Cheung, H. S. C., Hui, J. S. C., Chan, R. L. S., & Man, K. S. Y.
(2010). Applications of social networking tools in libraries.
http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/136168
Dabbagh, A. (2020). The role of Instagram in public health education in COVID- 19 in Iran. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, 65, 109887.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinane.2020.109887
Damayanti, A. (2020). Instagram as a medium of risk communication in COVID- 19 pandemic: A netnography study of virtual community
KawalCOVID19.id). Jurnal Komunikasi Pembangunan, 18(02), 176–193.
https://doi.org/10.46937/18202032355
Fatmawati, E. (2017). Dampak media sosial terhadap perpustakaan. LIBRARIA:
Jurnal Perpustakaan, 5(1), 1–28.
https://doi.org/10.21043/libraria.v5i1.2250
Gerolimos, M., & Konsta, R. (2011). Services for academic libraries in the new era.
D-Lib Magazine, 17(7/8). https://doi.org/10.1045/july2011-gerolimos Goel, A., & Gupta, L. (2020). Social media in the times of COVID-19. Journal of
Clinical Rheumatology, 00(00), 1–4.
https://doi.org/10.1097/RHU.0000000000001508
Guesalaga, R. (2016). The use of social media in sales: Individual and organizational antecedents, and the role of customer engagement in social media. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, 71–79.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.12.002
Habibi, M., & Cahyo, P. W. (2019). Clustering user characteristics based on the influence of hashtags on the Instagram Platform. IJCCS (Indonesian Journal of Computing and Cybernetics Systems), 13(4), 399–408.
https://doi.org/10.22146/ijccs.50574
IFLA. (2020, October 13). COVID-19 and the global library field. IFLA.
https://www.ifla.org/Covid-19-and-libraries
Instagram. (2020, November 26). Instagram Features. Instagram.
https://about.instagram.com/features
Istiana, P. (2017). Penggunaan media sosial oleh perpustakaan. LIBRARIA: Jurnal Perpustakaan, 5(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.21043/libraria.v5i1.2252 Koulouris, A., Vraimaki, E., & Koloniari, M. (2020). COVID-19 and library social
media use. Reference Services Review, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print).
https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-06-2020-0044
Kurniasih, N. (2017). Optimalisasi Penggunaan Media Sosial untuk Perpustakaan (pp. 1–10) [Makalah]. INA-Rxiv. https://doi.org/10.31227/osf.io/aj2z9 Kurniawan, Y., Setiawan, S., Bhutkar, G., Johan, & Cabezas, D. (2020). Instagram
engagement for university. 2020 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech), 887–892.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIMTech50083.2020.9211134
Laugu, N. (2013). Perkembangan dan kontribusi perpustakaan Islam terhadap masyarakat dan dunia Islam. In Merangkai Ilmu-ilmu Keadaban:
Penghormatan Purna Tugas Ustadz Muhammad Muqoddas (Vol. 1, pp.
282–324). Fakultas Adab dan Ilmu Budaya UIN Sunan Kalijaga.
http://digilib.uin-suka.ac.id/19234/
Laugu, N. (2015). Representasi Kuasa dalam Pengelolaan Perpustakaan: Studi Kasus pada Perpustakaan Perguruan Tinggi Islam di Yogyakarta.
Gapernus Press.
Li, Y., Chandra, Y., & Kapucu, N. (2020). Crisis coordination and the role of social media in response to COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 698–705.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020942105
Merchant, R. M., & Lurie, N. (2020). Social media and emergency preparedness in response to novel coronavirus. JAMA, 323(20), 2011–2012.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.4469
Nasrullah, R. (2020). Media Sosial Perspektif Komunikasi, Budaya, dan Sosioteknologi. Simbiosa Rekatama Media.
Niknam, F., Samadbeik, M., Fatehi, F., Shirdel, M., Rezazadeh, M., & Bastani, P.
(2020). COVID-19 on Instagram: A content analysis of selected accounts.
Health Policy and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2020.10.016 Norazman, H., Naganathan, K. K., & Basiron, B. (2019, December 15). Media
Sosial dan Perpustakaan Menurut Islam [Conference].
http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/85125/
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1609406917733847.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847
Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770–
780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054
Prabowo, T. T. (2020). Memperebutkan Ruang Publik Virtual: Literasi, Hoax, dan Perdamaian. Zahir Publishing.
Sobaih, A. E. E., Hasanein, A. M., & Abu Elnasr, A. E. (2020). Responses to COVID-19 in higher education: Social media usage for sustaining formal academic communication in developing countries. Sustainability, 12(16), 6520. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166520
Thoma, B., Murray, H., Huang, S. Y. M., Milne, W. K., Martin, L. J., Bond, C. M., Mohindra, R., Chin, A., Yeh, C. H., Sanderson, W. B., & Chan, T. M. (2018).
The impact of social media promotion with infographics and podcasts on research dissemination and readership. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(2), 300–306. https://doi.org/10.1017/cem.2017.394
Wajdi, M. B. N. (2016). Metamorfosa perguruan tinggi agama Islam. At-Tahdzib:
Jurnal Studi Islam dan Muamalah, 4(1), 92–109.
Winata, A. P., Fadelina, R., & Basuki, S. (2020). New normal and library services in Indonesia: A case study of university libraries. Digital Library Perspectives, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP- 07-2020-0059
Yip, P. S. F., & Chau, P. H. (2020). Physical distancing and emotional closeness amidst COVID-19. Crisis, 41(3), 153–155. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227- 5910/a000710
Zakaria, M. (2018). Pendidikan dan realitas sosial (analisis struktur konflik). EL- HIKMAH: Jurnal Kajian Dan Penelitian Pendidikan Islam, 12(2), 105–121.
https://doi.org/10.20414/elhikmah.v12i2.243