Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID
Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change

Written by practitioners, for practitioners, this book gives immediate and long-term solutions for librarians responding to the challenge of COVID-19

David Baker (Edited by), Lucy Ellis (Edited by)

9780323884938, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 25 June 2021

420 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 1 kg

COVID-19 is profoundly affecting the ways in which we live, learn, plan, and develop. What does COVID-19 mean for the future of digital information use and delivery, and for more traditional forms of library provision? Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID gives immediate and long-term solutions for librarians responding to the challenge of COVID-19. The book helps library leaders prepare for a post-COVID-19 world, giving guidance on developing sustainable solutions. The need for sustainable digital access has now become acute, and while offering a physical space will remain important, current events are likely to trigger a shift toward off-site working and study, making online access to information more crucial. Libraries have already been providing access to digital information as a premium service. New forms and use of materials all serve to eliminate the need for direct contact in a physical space. Such spaces will come to be predicated on evolving systems of digital information, as critical needs are met by remote delivery of goods and services. Intensified financial pressure will also shape the future, with a reassessment of information and its commercial value. In response, there will be a massification of provision through increased cooperation and collaboration. These significant transitions are driving professionals to rethink and question their identities, values, and purpose. This book responds to these issues by examining the practicalities of running a library during and after the pandemic, answering questions such as: What do we know so far? How are institutions coping? Where are providers placing themselves on the digital/print and the remote/face-to-face continuums? This edited volume gives analysis and examples from around the globe on how libraries are managing to deliver access and services during COVID-19. This practical and thoughtful book provides a framework within which library directors and their staff can plan sustainable services and collections for an uncertain future.

1. Libraries, digital information, and COVID: Practical applications and approaches to challenge and change Part One: Immediate challenges 2. Working towards a “new normal?: HKUST’s innovations and adaptations in response to COVID-19 3. Back to the future? Practical consequences and strategic implications of a UK academic library’s COVID response 4. Teaching librarians’ experiences in the first months of system change 5. How the Corona pandemic has influenced public libraries in Denmark 6. Digital information services provided by libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic: Case studies from the viewpoint of supply chain management 7. COVID-19: Libraries’ responses to the global health emergency 8. The role of research libraries in promoting open-access resources and maintaining online community 9. Project and programme delivery in a pandemic setting Part Two: Analysis and opportunities for new behaviours Section A: How we learn? 10. Acceleration of digital learning and what it means for libraries 11. Libraries, learning, and porous boundaries: Reimagining the library landscape and its inhabitants 12. Digital-first approaches and the library brand in a post-pandemic world 13. During COVID-19: Emerging themes in higher education 14. Student satisfaction with library resources in the COVID-19 era: A case study of Portuguese academic libraries 15. No one left behind 16. COVID-19 and the digital divide in higher education: A Commonwealth perspective Section B: Supply of information 17. The use of data in publishing and acquisition strategies 18. Trustworthy or not? Research data on COVID-19 in data repositories 19. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific production Section C: Psychological effects—Adjustment or radical alteration? 20. Something old, something new 21. Library space and COVID-19: Re-thinking of place and re-designing of digital space 22. Online misinformation, its influence on the student body, and institutional responsibilities 23. Crowdsourcing COVID-19: A brief analysis of librarian posts on Reddit 24. No child ignored Part Three: Re-shaping society and the future 25. “Normalizing? the online/blended delivery method into a lasting cultural shift 26. The battered library—Navigating the future in a new reality 27. Look to the future now, it’s only just begun. The changing role of libraries during and after COVID-19 28. After COVID? Classical mechanics 29. The times they are a-changin': But how fundamentally and how rapidly? Academic library services post-pandemic 30. Envisioning opportunities and movement for the future of academic libraries 31. A framework for sustainable success Appendix A: Delphi questions

Subject Areas: Management of specific areas [KJMV], Business strategy [KJC]