Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Universities librarians play vital and varied roles in the life of the university, guiding students and faculty at the reference desk, instructing library research sessions, and developing library collections. It is a truism to say that librarians in all sectors of an academic library wear many different hats and provide numerous services to patrons. This research paper seeks to investigate the role of university libraries in this outbreak situation. The novel virus COVID-19 discovered as a global pandemic. This contagious virus changed the working Style tradition to online because of the shutdown of all activities of life. The main objective of this study to find out those services, skills, instructional, and training programs being carried out during this period of the pandemic. Secondly, another aim of this study is to highlight how university libraries are contributing to their members for disseminating and mobilizing information during this emergency. In this study online survey research design used and covers 29 libraries from private sector universities of Sindh Province, Pakistan. The collected data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version23.0. Findings also revealed that the highest percentage (79.3%) of the university library providing the services during the lockdown in contrast to few libraries relying on traditional services not offered online services in this outbreak, lockdown period. The study concluded that in this new information era library staff, should always be ready to face a challenging situation. Mostly university libraries suggested in the future to adopt webinars services and focused on motivating, encouraging the librarians to enhance their digital skills to be in pace with the present digital age.