Usage of digital library services during COVID-19 pandemic: a study of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)

Purpose: This paper aims to find out the digital services of management libraries provided during the library closure and the challenges and initiatives the libraries have taken up to fulfill the need of their user community during the pandemic crisis. Design/methodology/approach: To meet the purpose of the study, the investigators have used a survey method. An online questionnaire was devised and administered among the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) librarians using Microsoft Forms. Findings: The study's findings suggested that all the libraries under investigation must avail of various digital library services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Further, the investigators recommend that libraries formulate a disaster preparedness and management plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic so that libraries can prepare themselves for the future. Originality/value: The pandemic has affected every aspect of life and changed the digital library services scenario. Thus, it is essential to examine the role libraries have played during the COVID-19 pandemic and distinguish the challenges and initiatives libraries have taken to tackle the problems they faced. This study has been conducted on the digital library services that were provided by the libraries of IIMs. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The Changing Role of Learning Resource Centre in Providing ICT Based Services during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The current study focuses on the numerous duties of "Academic Learning Centres” within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Novel Corona Virus pandemic has created new problems for all stakeholders inside the education system. Given the extrinsic obstacles of delivering services during a public health crisis, the unexpected emergence of the virus pushed libraries to migrate to digital platforms whenever possible and deliver acceptable remote services to users. The purpose of this study is to discover how technology became an impediment for India's best educational institutes during the Covid-19 situation. The current article assists library professionals in improving their skill set in accordance with things and serving information as a responsible citizen of the country. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Users' perceptions about e-resources and information services in a public library: a study of Kerala State Central Library

A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain user feedback on various aspects of resources and information services provided by the Kerala State Central Library (KSCL), Thiruvananthapuram. The findings revealed that 43.2% of the respondents were aware of the reading circle and book display services available in the library. The study also found that only a few users (9.1%) are highly-satisfied with the e-resources provided by the library. The users are aware about the quiz programs (40.9%) conducted by the library. The study found that the primary barriers for library users are the lack of computers and internet services. About 34.1% of the respondents adhered to the hygiene guidelines provided by the library during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study suggests that the library should conduct conferences, workshops, and training programs for its users to enable them to use e-resources and ICT services effectively and efficiently. © 2022, National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research. All rights reserved.

Discovery and use of electronic information resources by higher education students during the COVID19 pandemic

Discovery (locating) and use of information resources in academic community (in general) are two essential activities supporting teaching and research. Recent generations of university students are commonly focused on e-resources which offer them easy access to up-to-date data and information in various research areas. However, not all e-resources are of the same quality or easily usable in the higher education environment and therefore research user studies should be caried out to get insight into perception of students about discovery and use of e-resources. The research study of students carried out at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia in December 2021 showed frequent use of selected types of scientific and professional e-resources. E-resources are accessed mostly by mobile devices suggesting their ability of use of e-resources at different locations. The problem arose with trust in librarians when locating e-resources, however, librarians were chosen for recommending e-resources. In this research study, students identified most important advantages of e-resources that server as selection criteria for e-resources for studying. The findings confirmed students' high confidence in value of e-resources for studying. Finally, the findings confirmed that the COVID19 pandemic influenced students to use e-resources more frequently than before. © 2022 Croatian Society MIPRO.

Acceleration of digital learning and what it means for libraries

Learning in Higher Education is changing across the globe, driven by demographic and economic shifts which combine to create an unprecedented increase in demand for access to high-quality, flexible online provision. This trend has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this shifting landscape, libraries also have to adapt. In this chapter, we have drawn on our experience at the University of London of running a digital library for large cohorts of distance learners all over the globe, and have provided detailed, practical information about running such a service, in the hope that this may be useful as a comparator, benchmark, or guide for the interested reader. Creating a successful digital library which meets the learning, teaching, and research needs of an academic institution is not a simple transference of physical library collections and practices to an online version. It calls for a thorough understanding of the distance learners’ individual learning and information needs, the information environment in which they work, and the barriers to accessing and using the library and other information sources. In addition, it requires technically competent librarians, a robust digital infrastructure, carefully selected and licensed digital collections, an integrated information and digital literacy framework, close partnerships with faculty, commercial publishers, and senior management. Although fewer staffing resources and less accommodation are required to run a wholly digital library compared with running a physical library, it is not an inexpensive undertaking. © 2021 David Baker and Lucy Ellis Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Role of National Digital Library of India (NDLI) for facilitating open access resources (OARs): an investigation on COVID-19 research repository

Purpose - This paper aims to proffer a glimpse of diverse e-resources and materials accumulated by National Digital Library of India (NDLI) for facilitating open access resources (OARs) during the difficult times of global pandemic. Out of all the resources, an attempt has been made to place a focus on COVID-19 research repository maintained at NDLI platform to facilitate related research activities for envisaging experiments by scientists and researchers. Design/methodology/approach - The study is based on COVID-19 research repository assimilated by NDLI, and a detailed investigative research has been made about various resources and materials available for research community. The official website of NDLI (direct link of NDLI website: https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/) has been referred for collection of requisite data for study. The collected information has been presented through eight tables, two charts and two figures, which have further been analyzed and interpreted to attain the objectives. Findings - The brief examples in this paper indicates that a wealth of OARs related to COVID-19 such as scholarly communications, data sets, documents and videos and journals and conferences, etc. are available for access and research by scientists and researchers to expand their research during and also beyond this global crisis. Social distancing has forced academics to displace to online platform fram physical deliverables. Institutions are forced to adopt new technologies for delivering education in online mode such as online teaching, online access of educational resources, online conferences, webinais and a host of such related activities, NDLI has been instrumental in this journey by accumulating providing research materials through its platform. Originality/value - In addition to the blended learning process, this paper provides a structured overview about COVID-19 research repository facilitated by NDLI to provide access about related research activities by scientists and researchers. This investigative research on NDLI platform has been done originally by the author with a sacrosanct aim to help serious academia and has a high referral value for the scientific, technocratic and realistic researchers with deep thrust on availability of all materials under one roof, i.e. NDLI.

Use of Open Access Resources during the Covid-19 Lockdown by the Research Students of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (India)

During the Covid-19 period electronic resources particularly open access resources were the only source of information for the research students in order to complete their work timely. This present study enquires awareness and use of open access resources during the Covid-19 lockdown period in the years 2020 and 2021. Questionnaire method was adopted to collect the desired data. A total of 180 valid samples were collected and used for data analysis. The result of the study indicates that majority of the respondents were aware and used open access journals, Institutional repositories, consortium based resources, etc. during the lockdown period. Majority of them accepted that open access would lead to easier accessibility of electronic documents. The research students were availed and used all the academic resources, which were within their reach and they suggested to enhancing library services for them to avoid such crisis in future. © 2021

The Use of ICT Tools to Organize Distance Learning of Mathematics for Primary School Students under COVID-19 Pandemic Conditions

The research substantiates the pedagogical expediency and didactic value of the use of E-resources and modern IR technologies in the organization of distance learning in mathematics in primary school. A survey of primary school teachers and students was conducted in order to study the problem of forming an E-environment in mathematics in primary school. The authors identify the information resources of the e-environment and describe the method of their application in mathematics lessons. The study substantiates that in the organization of distance learning in primary school it is advisable to use gamified children's educational portal Vchy.ua, interactive learning platform to create educational material Classtime, designer of interactive worksheets Liveworksheets, create mental maps of mathematics lessons (FreeMind, Bubbl.us, MindMeister), virtual interactive whiteboards for group work with a variety of content with the ability to edit it together (Educreations, Padlet, Popplet, etc.), use a mathematical interactive constructor to illustrate Mathdisk, digital mathematical platform for independent, personalized learning (Matifik), digital textbooks with using interactive 3D-animations, educational videos and tasks (Mozaik education), to test knowledge with the help of test tasks (resource Liveworksheets, Kahoot!), etc. © 2020 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Perception of E-Resources on the Learning Process among Students in the College of Health Sciences in King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, during the (COVID-19) Outbreak.

AIM: to assess the impact of e-learning through different e-resources among health sciences students. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional design was conducted among health science students (n = 211; 134 female and 77 male) at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. The data was collected using a previously used structured questionnaire to assess the impact of e-resources on learning. RESULTS: The four most frequently used e-resources were: Zoom (38%), YouTube (31%), Google applications (29%), and Blackboard (27%). More than one-third of the students (35%) reportedly used e-resources for three or more hours daily. The majority of the students (55.9%) recognized a gender-related and age-related difference among faculty members in terms of e-resources usage. The majority of the students (58.2%) believe that online resources recommended by faculty members were credible. The majority of students believed that their academic performance was primarily influenced by these features of the e-resources: organization/logic of the content (64.5%), the credibility of the video (64.5%), and up to date "look and feel" of the video (60.6%). The study identified the most frequently used e-resources, gender, and age-related differences in faculty members' use of e-resources, students' overwhelming reliance on faculty feedback regarding the credibility of e-resources, and three most important characteristics (organization, credibility, and updated status) of e-resources. CONCLUSION: e-learning resources had a significant impact on participating students' education as they were used very frequently during their health sciences' courses.