The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Use of Library-Licensed Electronic Resources: Using Data to Challenge Core Assumptions and Leveraging Disruption to Initiate Meaningful Strategic Change

Academic libraries are engaged in the process of assessing the impacts the COVID-19 health pandemic has had on the use of the electronic resources their institutions provide. Trends related to e-resource use prior to and during the pandemic at a small academic library and within its consortium are discussed. The results of this assessment dispel the assumptions behind a hypothesis that licensed online resources would see greater use in supporting instruction and research as institutions pivoted to online-only course delivery in the early months of the pandemic. Some potential underlying factors that may be leveraged to inform strategic collection development, information literacy, and service changes are explored. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Learning to Think Like a Patron: Improving User Experience, E-Resources Management, and Departmental Outcomes Beyond COVID-19

Two years after the onset of the COVID-19 health pandemic, electronic resources librarians are assessing how the work in their libraries has changed and determining if certain modifications made to services and workflow processes are, in fact, transformational. The authors detail how service changes and telework during the pandemic affected e-resources workflows and interdepartmental collaboration in two academic libraries, and how these experiences will have an effect in improving their organizational cultures and the patron experience moving forward.