ERM Ideas & Innovations: 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

Abstract

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.