Abstract
This chapter highlights the challenges and opportunities that have and will arise as a result of the epidemic. When the spread of CoronaVirus 2019 (COVID-19) was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO), most schools, colleges, and tertiary institutes around the world were ordered to close so as to contain the spread. Currently, most learning institutions are experiencing challenges related to how to provide critical services; the most critical ones are linked to the library services. With the COVID-19 pandemic still in place, it is evident that libraries will greatly be affected in their service delivery. This chapter, therefore, brings into perspective the eminent changing roles of libraries and the challenges and opportunities that did and will emerge as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides different library case studies and how the COVID-19 pandemic is being handled in Kenya, Morocco, and Hungary. The chapter puts into perspective new insights that will enable libraries to adapt quickly to the new technologies substituting the obsolete and redundant ones.
TopBackground
Libraries have always been considered as a vital and integral organ in a society; they are established to meet the information needs of learners, researchers and other users in the community. To the pupils’ libraries are a source of information and also an avenue of developing and inculcating a reading culture, to students, it enhances effective teaching and learning, to the researchers it is a road map to conducting research, discovery and publications, while to the local community, it offers an ample environment for community outreach programs, engagement and awareness on local and international issues affecting them. In earlier studies, Blair (1998) described library as a place that is imperative for self-development and learning of students. In a nutshell, a library is a necessity in any community, region, country or the entire world. It is a gate way to information discovery and a source to various solutions.
However, with Coronavirus epidemic all over the world and with physical libraries closed it is eminent that the libraries and librarians need to device appropriate new roles so as to ensure there is free access and consumption of information for all in an easy and innovative way and at the same time enhance safety measures. Nakitare et al. (2020) supports that library services need to be provided to users regardless of location, program or mode of study. While Osuchukwu, et al. (2019) asserts that librarians are in the information business which entails that they must have ongoing activities to ensure their services are felt with strong indication of affecting changes in the society. It is from this background that this paper highlights the new emerging roles of libraries and librarians during and posts Covid-19.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Public Libraries: Used to refer libraries that provide information service to communities of all sizes and types. They are libraries that serve the general public.
School Libraries: They are libraries that are usually part of a school system, and serve students between Kindergarten and Grade 12.
Information Literacy: Is the ability or skills required to identify what information is needed, understand how the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically and effectively share that information.
Coronavirus: Coronavirus disease 2019 also (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. See the definition of COVID-19.
COVID-19: A highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 is thought to spread from person to person through droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. It may also be spread by touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching one’s mouth, nose, or eyes, but this is less common.
Developed Countries: Used to refer to a country with a more developed industrial base and a High Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries.
Academic Libraries: This has been used to refer to all tertiary libraries both colleges and university libraries.
Pandemic: In this chapter, pandemic refers to the infectious disease COVID-19. But ideally a pandemic is an epidemic or outbreak of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people.
Developing Countries: Countries with a less developed industrial base and a low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. In this study the developing country is Kenya and Morocco.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Global goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”. The SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.
National Library: They are libraries that in most cases are specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country also referred as legal deposit institutions.
Reading Culture: Refers to habitual and regular reading of books and information materials for leisure and not necessarily for passing example. The love to read books for leisure and during leisure time.