Role of Medical Libraries in the Current and the Emerging Post Covid 19 Scenario

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IJARSCT

ISSN (Online) 2581-9429

ISSN (Print) 2581-942X

International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT) Volume 10, Issue 2, October 2020

Copyright to IJARCST DOI: 524.102020/IJARSCT 232

www.ijarsct.co.in

Impact Factor: 4.819

Role of Medical Libraries in the Current and the Emerging Post Covid 19 Scenario

Mrs. Sreeja Ramachandran¹ and Mr. Sajan C. S² Chief Librarian, Believers Church Medical College, Thiruvalla, Kerala¹

Librarian, J. P. M. Arts and Science College, Idukki, Kerala²

I.INTRODUCTION

A pandemic is an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population. The biggest role libraries can play in a national response to the emerging COVID-19 threat is as information specialists. Dealing with COVID-19, the disease caused by the Corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) raises many questions for librarians. Since being designated as essential disaster services, libraries have to focus on the roles that we can serve during emergencies. Most of the attention has gone to natural, weather, and human disasters as opposed to widespread disease outbreaks.

As health professionals, medical librarians are sometimes considered essential personnel and therefore required to work, either onsite or remotely. Even if they are staying at home to flatten the curve. The information they provide must travel with physicians, nurses, hospital administration, patents, technicians etc. Different medical libraries have developed various strategies to meet these challenges like improving the cleanliness standards up to hospital levels.

Sanitizing the books regularly along with making sure the hand sanitisation of each library user.

Some of the libraries have limited numbers of meetings with more than fifteen members. Limited the brainstorming too. Practicing social distancing in the public places like cafeterias and alike. Some of them facilitated the library entry after thermal check of each library user at the entry points.

II. UNDERSTANDING COVID-19 AND ITS SPREAD

Corona virus refers to a family of viruses. COVID-19 – or Coronavirus Disease – is the infectious disease caused by a newly discovered type of corona virus. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has set out, most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. Common symptoms include fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, aches and pains, sore throat, and very few people will report diarrhoea, nausea or a runny nose.

The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is to be well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

III. TRADITIONAL LIBRARY ROUTINE WORKS VS THE POST COVID-19SCHEDULES

Traditional libraries where we store books and disseminate information contained in the books in a systematic order.

The libraries are keeping different strategies in maintaining day today works like borrowing and lending books. In a way to simplify how the library works, ancestors have applied many laws and principles. For the easy cover up of the library works , the library has been divided into different sections. Each section performs its function separately to achieve the rhythm of work in the library. Acquisition section performs the initial steps of purchasing the books and journals to strengthen the library collection. Different libraries are adopting different modes of purchase. Technical sections will cater the books according to the classification and cataloging rules and make ready to avail to the users.

Then the circulation section will borrow the book to its users as per the institutional policies. Maintenance section will take care of the damages of the books. These were the pre pandemic situations in the libraries. But the current situation demands to redesign the traditional routine works in account of COVID-19

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Now in terms of maintaining strong collections, many libraries have suspended purchases of print titles while they are closed during the crisis. This could have major implications going forward. How many libraries will be able to double back at some point to buy copies of print books published during the crisis for their collections? And, of course, without the proper logistic systems in place, some titles might not even appear in a library's catalog .Predictably, e- books, digital audio, and other streaming services have become essential during this crisis. Over Drive has reported a surge in the number of libraries now offering instant library cards, and a massive increase in books borrowed. In the last week of March, after stay-at-home orders went in place around the country.

That growth trajectory is an opportunity, and is encouraging news for libraries that have tried for years to get more traction for their digital collections. However, the digital library market has been tenuous in the best of times, marked by high prices, lend limits, and other restrictions. And this sudden shift to digital now presents a whole new set of potential concerns, not the least of which is that this increase in digital usage does not automatically come with additional support for public library budgets. And, of course, users without good access to cell and Internet service are excluded.

A) Library Functions: If Libraries were Decided to Close

Medical Colleges libraries are always attached to its mother hospital. As the hospital is coming under the emergency services, medical colleges libraries need to function and deliver its services to its users . But in rare cases , the parental organization decides to close the library during a pandemic situation, the library can still continue to serve the users by the online services.

1. Online Resources 2. Remote Access 3. Chat, Reference Service 4. Research Service 5. Website, OPAC, IR

B) Library Functions: Parent Institution is Working

If the parental organization has the ambiance to continue the service, the library can also continue its functioning.

1. Ongoing program – online classes eg. Zoom or google class room etc 2. New batch program inaugurated virtually

3. Selection interviews – ongoing virtually 4. All staffs can also work even at home

C) Truly an Online Library

Today's world responds to the Covid-19 pandemic, most governments have temporarily closed all educational institutions. These nationwide closures have impacted 90 per cent of the world’s student population. Localised closures in other countries have affected millions of additional learners.

Consequently, there is a transition to distance learning on an unprecedented scale. Institutes are racing to shift their courses online; students are engaging en masse with e-books and e-learning; and researchers are drawing chiefly on electronic journals. As an emergency response, UNESCO has launched the Global Education Coalition to help countries scale up their best distance learning practices.

Digital libraries and publishers have risen to the occasion, offering more and more free content and curating personalised collections so that people can continue to read and learn without disruption. Indeed, as the demand for credible e-resources surges, digital libraries have emerged as vital pathways to high-quality e-books, journals and educational content.

The present scenario demands the forceful conversion of the physical formats to the digital formats to some extent.

Mainly the hardcopies of the textbooks to the EBooks version. Even Though it is a little bit hard for some users to transform or to transplant to the digital era. Here the

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1. Online orientation Ebooks – textbooks

2. Online resources – how to search and use - effectively and legally 3. Improve search and discovery of content

4. Chat / Email mode Automated response – Librarian Robot?

D) Issues and Challenges

Digital libraries are services that have been developed and enhanced for years, but the recent Covid-19 pandemic has made many users aware of the service for the first time. Especially because of the closure of libraries, during the pandemic, additional efforts have been made to promote Digital Libraries and their services, as clearly visible and active libraries. Moreover, traditional libraries or those without many digital services are having the challenge of keeping their services active for their users virtually during this emergency, and librarians have been engaging in new work practices in order to achieve such objectives from their home offices.

This special issue aims to understand the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to digital libraries and users and how they are responding to these challenges.

E) Budget

Budget issues remained the top challenge for librarians at the Academic Library conference and across the globe.

This includes: competing for funding, growing the library's resources within allocated means, and defending the amount of library resources.

● Users need books – physical

● Online content

● Social distancing –

● RFID : sometimes it was impossible to maintain a 6 feet distance inside the libraries in many situations such as when helping them make copies ,sending emails or faxes, check out or in the books. Medical librarians have been in contact with faculty, residents, students and staff

● Search to Research and reference services

● Improve how to guides:

a. Identify the relevant resource b. Access a particular resources

c. Discover content – scholarly – non scholarly

F) Future of Library

Looking ahead, we are confident that the use of e-libraries will continue to grow exponentially. This growth will be driven by immediate exigencies and global trends such as the explosion in smart phone penetration, the increase in ownership of ICT-based reading devices, and the now entrenched habit of seeking information online.

On the occasion of World Book and Copyright Day 2020, let us recognise that digital libraries are helping us achieve certain key targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, let us celebrate their power to ‘ensure public access to information’, to ‘safeguard the world’s cultural heritage’, and to provide ‘safe, inclusive and effective learning environments for all’.

Around the world, library and information workers are doing their best, both personally and professionally, to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as some libraries are – cautiously – beginning to loosen restrictions, others are seeing them come into place.

Naturally, the focus is on the short term – how to keep staff, patrons safe, how to keep offering services as best possible, how to manage uncertainty. For many, it will seem difficult to think even beyond the coming days.

In the context of technology disruption in the education sector, libraries have been in a flux with fast-paced changes all around us. The impact of technology in libraries has been witnessed majorly in the collections domain that led to

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changes in the services domain. Changes in these two domains have forced library staff to re-look at their competencies and skills to upgrade and reorient themselves. Another major technology impact includes the library spaces.

The library leaders, in addition to young library professionals, will gain valuable insights to plan their education and training in areas that hold promise for the future libraries. Planners and policy makers will rethink their notions of libraries and their role in enhancing the quality of education and research as such. Also, this webinar aims to help library heads to visualise the future of libraries and develop strategies to address challenges.

IV. CONCLUSION

In the 14th century, Europe experienced the most fatal of all pandemics, killing nearly 200 million people – 60 percent of the population. In the 20th century, the world witnessed three influenza pandemics – H2N2 in 1957, H3N2 in 1968, and the Spanish Flu in 1918. Dubbed as ‘the deadliest flu pandemic in recorded history’, the Spanish Flu killed at least 50 million people worldwide – more than 30 percent of the global population.

The first influenza pandemic of the 21st century, Swine Flu was caused by a new form of the H1N1 influenza strain, similar to the one found in pigs. It originated in Mexico in April 2009 and spread across continents in less than nine weeks, courtesy ease and frequency of international travel. The pandemic affected nearly 24 percent of the global population, taking over 2,84,000 lives. The practice is followed even today in our battle against COVID-19. Every pandemic – irrespective of its severity and impact – has valuable lessons to impart, strengthening our defence against future outbreaks.

The dynamics of pandemic diseases are ever-evolving. By mapping the spread of infectious diseases as well as augmenting our critical and clinical care capacity, we can mitigate their impact. While researchers across the world are consumed by the arduous process of understanding COVID-19, and finding a vaccine and cure, it is pertinent for us to remember the teachings from past pandemics. So the libraries should also move forward with the situations by adapting the needful as the times needs to do

REFERENCES

[1]. https://www.ifla.org/covid-19-and-libraries [2]. https://www.publishersweekly.com [3]. https://www.sciencedirect.com [4]. https://webinars.wileyresearch.com