Ethics and Equity Considerations in Electronic Resources Work: An Introduction to Basic Resources and Practices to Support Librarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought innumerable changes to the lives of individuals and institutions across the country and around the world. In this uncertain time, access to information is crucial. Electronic resources were a significant content type for libraries prior to the pandemic, and the pandemic has only increased the importance of access to these collections. With the increasing reliance on electronic content and services, some libraries are having to make rapid shifts and transitions that may change the job duties of personnel, potentially bringing new personnel into the area of electronic resources work. This column seeks to assist such personnel, particularly in the areas of ethics and equity concerns in the electronic resources field. This column reviews the literature, offers resources for further reading and consultation, and considers how the COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting these issues.

Increased utilization of electronic collections during the covid-19 pandemic

“…Hambatan dalam pemanfaatan koleksi elektronik di masa pandemi berkaitan dengan penggunaan, pemeliharaan, dan manajemen perpustakaan. Terlepas dari keuntungan eresources yang tidak terhitung jumlahnya, penerapan kerangka kerja, etika perawatan, dan penyediaan teknologi di perpustakaan merupakan cara untuk menghilangkan hambatan bagi pengguna (Craft, 2021). Di situasi pandemi dan tren masa depan, hambatan dalam pemanfaatan koleksi elektronik harus mampu diatasi perpustakaan.…”

“…Peningkatan pemanfaatan koleksi elektronik di masa pandemi Covid-19 telah menunjukkan bahwa akan ada lebih banyak tugas yang diminta dan diberikan untuk perpustakaan di masa depan. Berbagai studi terbaru terkait dengan Covid-19 dan peran perpustakaan yang telah ditinjau, berasal dari beberapa negara, seperti Jepang (Kodama et al, 2021), Amerika (Craft, 2021;Mehta & Wang, 2020;Murphy & Newport, 2021), Arab Saudi (Ahmad & Mohammad, 2020), Italia (Peruginelli et al, 2021, India (Mitra, 2020), Pakistan (Rafiq et al, 2021;Sadia et al, 2020), Nigeria (Okike, 2020), Swedia (Temiz & Salelkar, 2020), Kuait (Alajmi & Albudaiwi, 2021), Inggris (França, 2021), Nigeria (Owolabi et al, 2016), dan Indonesia (Fadilla et al, 2021;Suharso et al, 2020;Winata et al, 2021;Yois & Marlini, 2020). Secara umum, ditunjukan bahwa pandemi Covid-19 telah dan akan menuntut perubahan yang signifikan bagi perpustakaan.…”

Steady ship: Digital, online, and e-libraries (1971–2020)

“…In the same way, the librarian of educational institutions was also tried to provide teaching material electronically [21][22][23] . University libraries were also shifted to e-libraries and they shift their print resources to digital resources [24][25][26] . It is pertinent to mention here that the concept of e-library is rapidly prevailing in all the developing and developed countries to provide digital resources at the doorstep and clockwise 15,16 .…”