Popularization of videos on social media versus serving research purposes: issues and approaches for librarians

Abstract

This article disaggregates videos uploading on social media and websites into information, education, and communication (IEC) sector and proposes tagging videos, i.e., as promotional, educational through formal institutions (e.g., schools), and population videos aimed at the general population to foster interest, and create demand and support for end user’s activities. It describes the typology of content creators of videos as characterized by the fact that they are non-experts and hence the need to put in place a ‘brokerage’ system that can be managed by librarians. Librarians can help video tagging to allow access to these media efficiently-an important aspect of popularization and information dissemination. With this approach, social media and websites can become efficient in the diffusion of videos to a broad target audience. The article surveys social media and websites situations through literature review and proposes ways in which librarians may be used to help disseminate videos more effectively and more accurately.