Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID

Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change

David Baker, Lucy Ellis

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780323884938
• eBook ISBN: 9780323905985
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

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. - Focuses on the immediate practicalities of service provision under COVID-19 - Considers longer-term strategic responses to emerging challenges - Identifies key concerns and problems for librarians and library leaders - Analyzes approaches to COVID-19 planning - Presents and examines exemplars of best practice from around the world - Offers practical models and a useful framework for the future

Table of contents

• Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID
• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Forewords
• Preface—What is in this book
• Contributors
• Author biographies
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 Libraries, digital information, and COVID: Practical applications and approaches to challenge and change
• 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 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
• 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
• 17 The use of data in publishing and library acquisition strategies
• 18 Trustworthy or not? Research data on COVID-19 in data repositories
• 19 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific production
• 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
• 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☆☆ This chapter builds on articles by the author which previously appeared in CILIP’s Information Professional and a guest blog for Blackbullion.
• 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
• Index