Librarians on quarantine: a new challenge and a unique experience

Abstract

The article highlights the results of the online survey “Librarians in Quarantine” conducted among fans of the page “Scientific and Methodological Department of the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine” on Facebook. The survey was conducted to find out the readiness of librarians, representatives of different types of domestic libraries, to quickly adapt to working in an emergency and to establish high-quality remote provision of information, educational and cultural needs of users. The survey involved 601 respondents, such as librarians representing various collections of books: from national to rural and school ones. Among them, there are 18 representatives of libraries of higher education institutions (universities): directors and their deputies, heads of departments, and bibliographers / librarians. The studied issues are the following: the creation of closed groups on social networks for communication, online learning, online meetings, webinars; wages during the lockdown; types of work performed by librarians at home, remote customer service, the work of university libraries during the quarantine period, new habits of library users, readers’ perceptions of users during the quarantine period, the functioning of libraries after leaving quarantine. The results of the online survey shows that in a pandemic, many libraries have adequately responded to external challenges and restructured their work, which will enhance the importance of libraries in modern Ukrainian society. For libraries to function effectively in quarantine conditions in particular and in future in general, it is necessary to overcome digital inequality between libraries, provide libraries with computers, high-speed Internet, and modern gadgets for the development of electronic communication channels with users.