Investigating the factors affecting the willingness to continue using Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province during the COVID-19 pandemic

Instagram pages of public libraries were a suitable platform to establish and maintain communication with users and provide services and information they needed, especially during the epidemic of diseases such as COVID-19. The aim of the present study is to identify the factors affecting the willingness of users to continue using the Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey of correlation type in terms of the data collection method. The research was carried out in 1399-1400. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, whose face validity was confirmed by experts in this field, and its reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient at 72%. The statistical population of the research included all the followers of the Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province during the COVID-19 pandemic, from which 20 active pages were selected, and the questionnaire was provided to them privately by the managers of the pages, and finally 212 questionnaires were returned. Descriptive statistics were used to determine frequency, frequency percentage, standard deviation and mean in SPSS software, and the structural equation modeling by partial least squares method in SmartPLS software was used to investigate the relationships between variables and test hypotheses.

The findings of the analysis of path coefficients showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between perceived usefulness, responsiveness, social benefits and satisfaction with the desire to continuously use Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province. Satisfaction with the path coefficient (0.446) was the strongest factor in predicting the continued use of Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province during the COVID-19 pandemic. After satisfaction, responsiveness, usefulness, and social benefits, respectively, had the greatest impact on the desire to continuously use these pages. Interestingly, no significant relationship was observed between the variables of ease of use, expectations, perceived enjoyment, type of post uploaded, post upload time, content, social influence, and correlation with the tendency to continuously use Instagram pages of public libraries. The results related to the path coefficients of the factors of type of uploaded post, time of uploading post, ease of use and content on the perceived usefulness of users from the Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan province showed that there is a positive and significant relationship and the type of uploaded post with the path coefficient (0/290) was the strongest predictor of perceived usefulness. Furthermore, the analysis of path coefficients showed that the relationship between perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness on user satisfaction is not significant, but the coefficients of the effect of ease of use and expectations on user satisfaction from Instagram pages of public libraries in West Azerbaijan Province is positive and significant. In general, the value of the goodness of fit was 0/641, which indicates the appropriateness of the overall fit of the model.

Originality/value:

 Considering that the desire and intention to continue using social media sites is an act after their admission and so far, few studies have identified the factors influencing the desire to continue using social media, especially Instagram pages in public libraries, the results of this study can have valuable scientific and practical implications for managers and policy makers in this field.