Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
This article identified the library promotion strategies that distance education academic library services can employ to improve the ability of remote clients to access information resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic libraries operating in a distance education environment in Gauteng Province, South Africa, are currently changing how library and information services are provided to remote clients. The traditional means of promoting library services through posters, banners, flyers, and pamphlets are now in the past. The emergence of COVID-19 facilitated information technologies. The study was anchored by the positivism research paradigm and used a quantitative approach. Microsoft Form was used to structure an online questionnaire sent to eighty-two (82) library staff, whereby 45 responses were received. The structured online questionnaire designed on Microsoft Form was used for data collection from the library staff working in academic libraries operating in a distance education environment in Gauteng Province of South Africa. The gathered data were downloaded, then exported from Microsoft Form to Microsoft Excel, then to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for data analysis using frequency, percentages, means and standard deviation. The pilot study was carried out to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Cluster sampling was adopted because it was impossible to determine the actual number of respondents from the four participating higher learning institutions. The study results revealed that social media, teleconferencing platforms, and e-mails were the most used channels to promote library services during COVID-19. It was recommended that since social media, teleconferencing, and e-mail are common amongst both the library staff and the remote clients, the promotion of library services during the COVID-19 era should be done using these three platforms.