This year has been a difficult time for everyone and library service was not spared from the devastating effect of this pandemic. Libraries around the world were closed and library staff obediently followed these instructions in support to minimize the transmission of the virus. Administrators from private and public institutions chose to cut budgets to less vital services and divert it to COVID responses. But information service is a vital service! Especially during this pandemic, many people fall into believing wrong information being shared online. Making fake news/misinformation pandemic also a problem to face during this year.
That is where we initiated to take part in this fight against COVID. To fight misinformation or the spread of fake news. Early on March, we already posted infographics to help people avoid consuming or sharing wrong information online. During that time, the goal was to spread awareness of the seriousness of the virus while avoiding mass hysteria or panic.
Aside from releasing infographics for information tips, we also increase access to useful databases and e-resources that researchers could use. We also made these infographics more accessible by increasing its reach. So we translated them into English, Iloko, and Tagalog.
We also provided a lot of links and libguides on our blog and Facebook pages to helps students in their academics and researchers on their studies. We also added virtual activities, puzzles, and other self-care activities for students to have something to be busy with to relax.
When services started to reopen, we also tried to make some changes in our services to abide by the protocols. We made every transaction contactless and all activities touchless. From footbaths, handwashing stations at the entrance, alcohol dispensers around the library, foot-operated flushers, touchless bell, and many more. We tried to implement these small, simple yet effective innovations to adapt to the new normal. Of course, all these ideas are brainstormed and planned based on practices being shared on webinars. We attended a lot of online seminars to update our knowledge on how to shift library services.
With the shift of the instruction into blended learning, the library must also find a way to provide service through virtual means. So we initiated an online document request mechanism that students, staff and faculty could request materials to be scanned and be packaged for online delivery.
For those who could visit the library, protocols are being imposed. We also extended borrowing periods depending on the students’ market day schedule. We also slackened the imposition of overdue fines. In fact, duedates within the quarantine were waived. We also added a quarantining room for the books being returned to assure there would be no transmissions via book handling.
Aside from online services being improved, the physical set up of the library was also altered to be new normal compliant. Chairs and tables were arranged to apply social distancing. To support online classess and webinars, the discussion rooms were converted to a recording studio with complete equipments from sound and lighting.
These services are being mobilized during this time to expand the reach of our service. One way to do this is to market our services with monthly infographics that show our services are being utilized by many clients. We also try to analyze these data about their requests and search words on our database to further improve our services.
This year, we are hoping to become more efficient on our pledged vocation of stewarding books and information to clients. We still hope to share our skills in library work despite the pandemic and provide whole-hearted amateur dilettante information work to our clients.
Benguet State University Library & Information Services 