The Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Academic Library Resources

Authors

Ruth S. Connell, Valparaiso UniversityFollow
Lisa C. Wallis, Northeastern Illinois UniversityFollow
David Comeaux, Louisiana State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Journal Title

Information Technology & Libraries

Volume

Forthcoming

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted higher education, including academic libraries. This paper compares the use of library resources (including interlibrary loan, website and discovery tool pageviews, database use, patron interactions, etc.) at three university libraries before and after the pandemic. The latter part of the 2019 and 2020 spring semesters are the timeframes of focus, although two control timeframes from earlier in those semesters are used to determine how the semesters differed when the coronavirus was not a factor. The institutions experienced similar patterns of use across many metrics.

Comments

This is an accepted author manuscript. The version of record will be freely available on the Information Technology & Libraries (ITAL) journal platform in summer 2021 (tentatively scheduled for June 2021).

Recommended Citation

Connell, Ruth S.; Wallis, Lisa C.; and Comeaux, David, "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Academic Library Resources" (2021). Library Faculty Publications. 128.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/ccls_fac_pub/128