Abstract：Research on the application of SNS in university librariesA case study of microblogs in Chinese211 projectuniversities Purpose This study aims to analyse the basic status of application of social networking sitesSNSsin Chinese university libraries and explore the relationship between microblog and the output of scientific research achievements in universitiesThis study suggests methods for improving the efficiency of SNS use in university libraries and promotes scientific research achievements and social services in universitiesDesignmethodologyapproach Online survey and statistical analysis were conducted to collect the number and types of SNSs used by 112 libraries in Chinese universities under the211 projectThis study used microblog as an example and analysed the distribution of SNS use in different types of university librariesCorrelation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the factors related to microblogssuch as number of followingsfollowersposts and published articlesFindings SNSs changed the information utilization behaviour of usersSurvey results show that an increasing number of university libraries are using SNSsThese sites are mainly microblogs and WeChatThe proportion of the number of SNSs applied by comprehensive universities and science and technology universities was higher than that of other types of universitiesResults of multiple regression analysis using microblogs showed that the number of followers has a significantly positive effect on the number of published articles of the universityResearch limitationsimplications This study has three main limitationsFirstdata collection is incompletewhich easily causes the error of analysis resultsSecondthe overall status of SNS use in libraries is lacking in accurate understandingwhich indicates limitations in terms of the analysis and conclusionFinallythe research scope was narrow and only studied the situation of libraries using microblogsFuture research should focus on the data collection and sortingmake comparative studies of different periods of dataconduct cultural studies on the user usage perspective and conduct research on the application of different social network platforms in librariesPractical implications The use of SNSs has brought new challenges and opportunities to university libraries because of rapid development of the internet and the scale of expansion microblogsMoreovermicroblogs have become an important platform of university libraries for self-promotion and marketingThis study proposes methods and measures for promoting the SNS popularity of university librariesenhancing their content and increasing the role of SNSs in their interactionOriginalityvalue Statistical analysis was conducted to analyse the status of SNS use in university libraries and the data of SNS use in different types of universitiesEffective measures were offered to address the issues found in the studyThe results confirmed that the number of followers has a significantly positive effect on the number of published articles of the universitywhich could improve the enthusiasm of university libraries in using SNSenhance the efficiency of information service and strengthen the use awareness of the teachers and studentsConsulting ServiceThrough the use of social networking sitesespecially Weibothe university library can self-promote and marketInstificational CollectionSocial media platforms such as Weibo may be used as a scientific research result of sharing and publicity universitiesThis study adopts statistical analysisespecially correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to explore the basic situation of social networking sites used by the Chinese university libraryas well as the relationship between the output of Weibo and the output of the scientific research results of the universityThese analysis techniques are part of data explorationwhich are used to extract useful patterns and information from a large amount of data