Health Information Needs of Public Library Leaders during COVID‐19

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic of 2020–2021, public library leaders across the United States were forced to make decisions quickly that affected the services and resources they were able to provide. However, the health information they had to make decisions on was imperfect and constantly changing. Interviews with 23 public library managers and directors revealed that more authoritative local data was needed for decision‐making and to share with their service populations. Overwhelmed public health system and/or suspicious or skeptical political environments hindered access to locally‐specific health information. Several respondents were uncomfortable creating information or making decisions without the guidance of health officials. Additionally, the library managers and directors described working as crisis managers, making decisions that impacted the health of their staff and their communities. In capturing and analyzing these “pandemic decision‐making stories,” this research informs future library information responses to community needs during times of crisis.

Australian public libraries during the COVID-19 crisis: operations, management and service provision

“…Without formal documentation to use as guidance, managers were left with only the short period between the emergence of the virus elsewhere in the world and its hitting Australia in which to develop an organisationwide response. Related to this, and mirroring library managers' experiences in the United States and elsewhere (Bossaller et al, 2022;Kostagiolas and Katsani, 2021), the rapidly changing federal and state public health policies in Australia over the course of the crisis continued to constrain librarians' capacity to plan. Furthermore, not only were libraries required to adapt to this ever-changing landscape, but they were required to do so while constrained by their parent bodies' (i.e.…”

“…Communication was seen by staff as generally effective in supporting them adapt to and understand changes to their roles and working arrangements. While there were some communication issues identified, particularly early in the crisis, it appears these were understood by staff to be a natural consequence of the fact that libraries and their parent bodies were having to adapt rapidly to shifting circumstances (Bossaller et al. , 2022).…”

“…With respect to the application of the relevant health regulations and policies, Bossaller et al (2022) highlight the difficulties library managers in the USA faced, given their continually changing status, and the way in which some community elements looked upon their imposition through a political lens. The need to quickly move services and programs online also brought a host of managerial challenges, including the need to obtain the relevant e-publisher agreements, as well as the need to redeploy staff as the emphases on particular activities changed (Haasio and Kannasto, 2020); it also required a considerable amount of innovation and agility (Kretz et al, 2021;Wakeling et al, 2022).…”

“…Communication was seen by staff as generally effective in supporting them adapt to and understand changes to their roles and working arrangements. While there were some communication issues identified, particularly early in the crisis, it appears these were understood by staff to be a natural consequence of the fact that libraries and their parent bodies were having to adapt rapidly to shifting circumstances (Bossaller et al, 2022). Communication from library managers to staff was perceived to have improved significantly after these early issues, however, and managers were viewed as having worked hard to ensure clear and timely delivery of information to staff.…”

“…With respect to the application of the relevant health regulations and policies, Bossaller et al. (2022) highlight the difficulties library managers in the USA faced, given their continually changing status, and the way in which some community elements looked upon their imposition through a political lens.…”