Stretching the Training Dollar in Stringent Economic Times

This article provides suggestions on ways in which the library can engage in staff training even on a very stringent budget. Three strategies are suggested, and these are (a) each one teach one, (b) leveraging the knowledge of faculty and library staff, and (c) utilizing the power of the webinar.

Library Websites During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to impact the business environment in different ways. The current paper presents how the university and research library websites in Tanzania responded to the changes in the working environment and style following the outbreak of COVID-19. This study employed a content analysis method to collect and analyse data from academic and research library websites in Tanzania. This study focuses on how library websites in Tanzania were used to update and connect library users with relevant information resources and services during the outbreak of the COVID-19. The findings show that 12 of the 24 library websites had the opening and closing hours, two university library websites had information related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 and 12 had no information related to the outbreak of the COVID-19. This study has an important practical implication for the academic and research librarians on the effective use of library websites for information sharing and communication.

A Caribbean Visionary and His Literary Collection, Karlene Saundria Nelson

The voices of West Indian writers in the 1950s changed the landscape for Literature emerging out of the West Indies. These powerful literary voices were a means of creating and recording a facet of West Indian history and cultural heritage. West Indian writers wrote their stories through their own eyes. John Hearne was one of the most eloquent voices among them. He became a known voice in the West Indian literary world, using his recognition to facilitate the indigenous West Indian Literature genre’s development. He was also a prominent Jamaican political and social commentator. The John Hearne archive not only produced an important historical picture of the development of the West Indian Literature genre, but West Indian political history, and changes in the cultural and social fabric of the West Indian society, with special emphasis on Jamaica. This paper aims to present this archive as a fundamental body of primary resources for historical research.

Teaching and assessing students of information literacy in a single session—The case of the University of the West Indies Mona library

Assessing the performance of information literacy (IL) students can be a daunting task for librarians globally. Most IL sessions are taught in 1 to 2 hours where any meaningful assessments are difficult to achieve. This research demonstrated how this feat was achieved in an active learning environment through the use of Google Forms. This mixed method study shows how this was effectively achieved to test both lower and higher order skills in a 2 hour session to one hundred and seventy-two foundation writing course students.The research tested a rarely examined feature of Google Forms which is the tool’s effectiveness in enabling comprehensive assessment, facilitating active learning, and identifying instructional errors in an IL instruction session. The findings show that Google Forms can be used to teach and administer a quiz using both multiple-choice as well as open-ended questions to assess both low and higher order learning skills in IL. Students were able to actively respond to questions while they were being taught, the data gathered and analyzed and used to inform future library instruction. It also showed that Google Forms are useful not simply to administer multiple-choice quizzes at the end of teaching but can be used in executing real-time assessment and support active learning. Because Google Forms support the easy creation of charts and downloading/exporting of statistics, results of assessments can be shared among librarians, faculty, and students to motivate and encourage digital pedagogy. It allows for greater collaboration with faculty in the cooperative teaching of students in single sessions where there is usually difficulty in having dialogue with faculty once a session ends. This case study is based on a limited number of students; thus, the findings of this research may not be generalized but the methodology and some skills in teaching the concepts encountered by librarians may be replicated.

Public libraries in times of Covid-19

This article deals with the way in which, because of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the National Library of Peru found ways to continue creating spaces, physical, virtual or remote, of access to information and culture. The article understands this right as a fundamental right of people, which must not be diminished and which, on the contrary, must be promoted even in times of emergency or pandemic.

KBR during the Covid pandemic: Accelerated roll-out of the digital strategy and preparations for a museum opening

The covid pandemic forced KBR, Belgium's national library, to close its doors to the public and staff on March 18, 2020. The opening of a new museum had to be postponed. But ultimately, the covid closure led to an accelerated rollout of KBR's digital strategy.

Disruption, values and resilience: The British Library’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic

This article focuses on the institutional response of the British Library to the Covid-19 pandemic over the course of the past year. National libraries have a key part to play as the world recovers, and the experiences of the British Library highlight the central role of digital in adapting to massive disruption, of the importance of institutional values in steering a course through a year of crisis, and the contribution that we can make to building national and international resilience against future shocks and turmoil.

The German National Library and the Covid-19 pandemic

As a library with books and other resources that can be used only onsite for copyright reasons, the German National Library faced special challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The article describes how the German National Library has been answering to the new situation.

Library of the National Congress of Argentina: How BCN Argentina has responded to the immediate crisis of the pandemic, development of protocols for reopening and the future of libraries

In the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, BCN Argentina has faced new challenges in order to go on providing access to information and culture to all. At this particular time, we feel compelled to find new ways to achieve our goal of assisting the community and with quality services, through the incorporation of new digital services and the development of protocols for a safe reopening.

The National Library of Latvia in the early stage of Covid-19 exit

The National Library of Latvia had to close for two and a half months when emergency situation was declared in Latvia. The library took proactive steps to protect its staff and ensure continuous on-line services to readers, as well as prepared re-opening plan with physical service transformation according to existing health and safety protocols. The National Library of Latvia engaged in different initiatives to diversify its products and services, including contribution of library data centre processing power to crowdsourcing initiative battling Covid-19. Library major achievement was to receive the license from the state copyright agency that allowed public access to copyright protected collections of books and periodicals from the Latvian National Digital Library throughout the entire Covid-19 crisis. Unlimited access to library digital collections was significant contribution in supporting general public, students and researchers during homestay period. The library re-opened in late May adapting to new normal and has strong future vision of improving information and communication technologies (ICT) of state cultural sector and implementing several international projects.