English abstract
The study aimed to identify the role of academic libraries in Omani
Universities, in promoting awareness of the risks and methods of social
engineering through evaluating the awareness among the staff working in
the academic libraries about social engineering, also identifying the roles
and programs offered by the academic libraries in Oman's universities to
promoting awareness on social engineering. It also aimed to identify the
challenges encountered by the mentioned libraries to raise awareness of
social engineering and its methods.
The study adopted Mixed methods approaches the convergent
parallel design method to collect data where quantitative data was
collected through questionnaires to achieve the first objective. A
community that included 147 information specialists working in academic
libraries did the study. Out of those, 78 questionnaires got a positive result
of approximately %53. Qualitive data collected by using the interviewing
process to achieve the second and third goals.
The study community included 32 General Managers or their
deputies. The response rate for the interview was 16. The Quantitive data
analyzed by the Descriptive and inferential analysis using SPSS. The
qualitative data analyzed by the objective analysis by following its methods
in defining the units of analysis.
The study produced a set of results and the most important of which
are: high awareness of social engineering concepts such as phishing
among academic library staff, and a high frequency of using social
networks and applications in general. The results also showed a high
technical awareness related to the nature of activities and practices on
social networks while the legislative awareness of the nature of activities
and practices on social networks was medium and the organizational
awareness was high.
The qualitative results showed that academic libraries pass their
messages related to raising awareness of the dangers of social
engineering through a set of activities, procedures and initiatives. As
organizational policies to ensure information security and cybersecurity,
technical measures represented in technological infrastructure protection
systems, training courses and workshops in the field of cyber security,
Community initiatives (external programs) for the external community. The
results of the study also showed the existence of some challenges
encountered by academic libraries to spread awareness of the dangers of
social engineering, represented in poor awareness of senior management
of the tasks and new roles of information specialists. The lack of qualified
staff, and the limited knowledge of information specialists in the new roles
in light of social responsibility.
The study came out with a set of recommendations, most notably:
the need to raise awareness among higher administration in academic
libraries of the modern roles and tasks of information specialists through
coordination with library departments and professional associations in the
Sultanate of Oman, in order to set plans and strategies for development
and training. The need to activate the role of information specialists in
social responsibility in spreading awareness of cybersecurity risks.
