Assessment of the Functionality of the Academic Librarians in the Philippines During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the Philippine government declared a lockdown of cross-border supermarkets and educational institutions, affecting library services around the world. Academic libraries struggle to choose the specific services and methods they offer, from minimal dialogue to no user dialogue. This study aims to assess the functionality of academic librarians during COVID-19 pandemic as a basis for enhanced guidelines for academic libraries in the Philippines. Researchers used a qualitative approach, specifically the phenomenological study and interviewed a total of five academic librarians. Participants from the study are from selected Adventist institutions chosen through heterogeneous purposive sampling. Interviews were video recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Results revealed that COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to the libraries such as internet connection issue, budget constraints, usable platforms, and limited online resources, yet they continued their operations and services through via online. Five out of seven librarians consider the COVID -19 as positive because despite the current situation, they continued receiving support from their administrators that speeded up the digitization for their collection.