Displacement or complementarity? Assessing the relationship between social media and public library usage in the U.S., South Korea, and Singapore

- Services at nine public libraries showed statistically significant complementary relationships with social media use.
- The most prominent complementary relationship with social media was found with computer and information literacy training.
- Signs of displacement effects were found in the odds ratios statistics among daily social media users.
- Reference services, library visits, and spending time in the library also showed signs of displacement effects.

The relevancy of public libraries is often called into question, with some saying that library services have been or will be displaced by, among other things, new media such as social media. This study tested this displacement hypothesis with survey data collected from three nations (the U.S.: N = 879; South Korea: N = 700; and Singapore: N = 987). Ordinal regressions were used to investigate the relationship between the use of social media and nine public library services, taking into account individual demographic differences. The results show that for all three nations, social media use has significant complementary relationships with all nine library services examined. Computer and information literacy training showed the largest effect size. However, signs of displacement effects were observed in the odds ratio statistics, particularly among daily social media users and in reference services, library visits, and time spent in the library, suggesting that where displacement is concerned, these areas warrant extra attention.