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Abstract
The Twitter hashtag is a unique tagging format linking Tweets to user-defined concepts. The aim of the paper is to describe various applications of Twitter hashtags and to determine the functional characteristics of each application. Twitter hashtags can assist in archiving twitter content, provide different visual representations of tweets, and permit grouping by categories and facets. This study seeks to examine the trends in Twitter hashtag features and how these may be applied as enhancements for next-generation library catalogues. For this purpose, Taylor's value-added model is used as an analytical framework. The morphological box developed by Zwicky is used to synthesize functionalities of Twitter hashtag applications. And finally, included are recommendations for the design of hashtag-based value- added dimensions for future library catalogues.
Introduction
The social media world contains a plethora of current information; however, it is not always easy to keep up with the volume or retrieve valuable information using traditional search engines. Various applications have been developed to help information consumers locate and share social media resources that match their interests. Twitter, a social media platform with 140 character limits, serves as a real time information communication network. A Twitter hashtag is a unique tagging format with a prefix symbol, #, that associates a user-defined tag with Tweet content. Beyond supporting different search criteria, various Twitter hashtag applications may also provide users with functionalities to organize, share, save, or publish the search results of twitterverse resources.
Management of information and information systems often emphasizes the importance of user needs. Taylor's value-added model is one of the few models that provides the notion of adding value to both information and information systems as a way to meet user needs (Taylor, 1982). The core function of information systems is to manage the information required to perform business processes, regardless of the devices adopted to implement it. Hence, this study discusses Twitter hashtag applications available for use in computer and mobile devices.
The morphological box developed by Zwicky (1969) is a design tool that supports generating ideas and detailing. The primary processes include (1) defining user requirements, (2) collecting functional characteristics from existing systems, and (3) listing attributes for each functional characteristic. Based on user requirements suggested by Taylor (1986), this study explores notable...