Adapted Services by University Libraries from the Lockdown to the Post-Pandemic Period: The Case of USST

Abstract

As public assembly occupancies, academic libraries in China have been implementing effective strategies in response to the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic since January 2020, in order to meet the teaching, learning, and researching needs of the faculties and students due to the closure of libraries. The library at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) is one of the typical cases with significantly increased user access during the pandemic. In this article, a reflection is made on the emergency measures and endeavours by the library in USST to adapt various services, including digital resources guarantee while working remotely, moving from an offline reference service to online ones, extending circulation from an in-door service to an out-door service, the use of social media, and so on, in order to discuss the emerging problems and to analyze the lessons learned. On this basis, this article proposes suggestions for university libraries to realign their development directions and measures to digital collections and online services as well as to improve the vocational skills of librarians in the post-epidemic period, so as to provide more professional, active, and considerate services in the future.