Reaching academic library users during the COVID-19 pandemic: New and adapted approaches in access services

Decker, Emy

doi:10.1080/15367967.2021.1900740

Cited by 38 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…These findings coincide with the literature review of American and international academic libraries during this time period. For those libraries who were already well-versed in online librarianship prior to March 2020, the move to a largely online learning environment was far more manageable in terms of preserving library instruction, services, and communications ( Decker, 2021 ; Guo & Huang, 2021 ; Howes et al, 2021 ). Having existing information systems and policies in place allowed librarians to concentrate on the added workload from faculty and student requests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In such a tumultuous time of rapid change, prompt communication between the library and the university campus was essential. The library website appears to have been the primary means by which these changes were communicated ( Condic, 2021 ), however social media and library chat technology such as Springshare's Ask-A-Librarian LibChat were also used ( Decker, 2021 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two such universities were the University of Alabama (UA) and Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU-SOM). Decker (2021) described the rapid deployment of the UA library's LibChat system, technology which was already in place but not used until the COVID-19 pandemic forced librarians to move solely to online communications with patrons. Similarly, SIU-SOM had focused primarily on in-person library transactions pre-pandemic due to the preferences of their students and faculty ( Howes et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Crisis Librarianship: An Examination of Online Librarianship Roles in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Reed

Kester²,

Kaufmann

et al. 2022

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Crisis Librarianship: An Examination of Online Librarianship Roles in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Reed

Kester²,

Kaufmann

et al. 2022

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The research concluded that online education showed that the Covid-19 threat had a largely positive effect on online medical education. Subsequently, Amita 17 obtained online input from students of higher education institutions about their experience with e-learning approaches used by their faculty and institute. The findings showed that the faculty did its best in this crisis period because, despite some difficulties, the software resources helped the students cover the majority of their syllabus.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Academic Education during Covid-19 Pandemic – Perception of College and School students in Andhra Pradesh

Kumar¹

2022

cit

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The purpose of this study is to examine the view of college and school students of Andhra Pradesh on virtual education through web conference tools in response to the Covid-19 crisis. From July to September 2020, an online survey was conducted, with 123 responses selected for the study. For answering the study objectives, the data was examined using the Mann Whitney U test and the Friedman test. Out of 123 people who took part in the online survey, 48% were high school students and 52% were college students, male respondents made up 63% of the overall population while female respondents made up 37%. The majority of school pupils (30%) were aged 12 to 15, while the majority of college students (39%) were aged 20 to 23. When it came to accessing web-conference applications, the most popular choices among survey participants were Mobile and Tablet. The most often utilized web conferencing tools for virtual learning were Zoom (90%) and Cisco Webex Meeting (87%). The results of the Mann Whitney U test revealed that college students scored higher than schoolchildren, implying that the former population was more responsive to certain aspects of online education than the latter. The test revealed a statistically significant discrepancy between college and school students’ expectations of the benefits and drawbacks of online learning. Furthermore, the Friedman test revealed a significant difference in total satisfaction between college and school students (χ2 (1) = 29.121, p ≤ 0.000). Additionally, both the school and college populations benefited from online library services such as virtual book exhibitions, webinars, and awareness programmes on Covid-19 and academic/research-related topics; lowering penalty/ overdue charges on borrowed library materials; providing licenced electronic resources and educational video materials.

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“…During the work from home period, circulation staff were largely asked to focus on chat as it was akin to their serving at the service desk and it was, in a few cases, the only non-site-specific activity they could do from home. Whereas librarians could pivot to work from home more easily, for staff it was not always such an easy transition (Decker, 2021). With the chat hours finalized, the staff supervisors worked with the librarian supervisors to create assigned shifts to cover the hours.…”

Section: Launching the Servicementioning

confidence: 99%

Launching chat service during the pandemic: inaugurating a new public service under emergency conditions

Decker

Chapman

2021

RSR

Self Cite

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PurposeThis article details the implementation of a live online chat service which was suddenly necessitated by the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The approaches used to train chat operators during this time inform both current and future training initiatives toward continuous improvement in this academic library setting.Design/methodology/approachChat transcripts from the period of March 2020–April 2021 serve as the dataset for this study.FindingsIn bringing a live chat service online during a global pandemic, chat transcripts from this period reveal 19.3% of all chat interactions related directly to COVID-19. The transcripts also reveal the types of questions, whether reference or directional, and these, combined with staffing patterns, indicate that staff were addressing reference questions more often than librarians. In addition, 25.2% of all transactions, whether by staff or librarians, resulted in tickets or referrals to hand off the question to a subject or functional specialist. These findings help to inform targeted face-to-face refresher training for chat operators.Originality/valueWhile bringing a live chat service online is certainly not novel, the impetus behind the quick setup was. This unusual circumstance allowed for an in-depth look at the nature of chat and its training requirements and limitations due to campus stay-at-home orders. It also provided a new understanding that influenced subsequent face-to-face trainings.

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Reaching academic library users during the COVID-19 pandemic: New and adapted approaches in access services

Cited by 38 publications

References 16 publications

Crisis Librarianship: An Examination of Online Librarianship Roles in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Crisis Librarianship: An Examination of Online Librarianship Roles in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Digital Academic Education during Covid-19 Pandemic – Perception of College and School students in Andhra Pradesh

Launching chat service during the pandemic: inaugurating a new public service under emergency conditions

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