Third places and educational justice: public libraries in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

Public libraries play an important role in supporting and safeguarding educational justice and societal participation. The so-called third place – with the home as the first place and the school or workplace as the second place – forms a central support structure beyond formal educational institutions. The corona crisis forced public libraries to close temporarily, adapt their services, and develop new formats. This article analyzes these latest developments in Germany and Europe, illustrating the challenges public libraries are facing as a result of the corona crisis. The main research focus is on public libraries’ recent transformation – not only during the corona crisis – and its implications for safeguarding educational justice. This study will discuss the challenges posed by these developments based on the case of the German city of Bonn, thereby illustrating the importance of public libraries’ geography in strengthening educational justice.

Libraries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: drawing a science map of published articles

“…, 2020); collaboration between librarians and physicians on information reports (Sullo and Brody, 2021); providing electronic information resources that play a key role in supporting research studies (Fasae et al. , 2021), learning and education in order to support students’ e-learning programs (Tsekea and Chigwada, 2021; Zareef and Ahmad, 2021; Zhou, 2021; Mehta and Wang, 2020); supporting and protecting educational justice and social participation (Thiele and Klagge, 2021) and discovering the health information needs of users in university after COVID-19 pandemic (Meng et al. , 2021).…”

“…In addition, according to the studies, libraries have taken on a wide range of roles in this pandemic: literature search and systematic reviews (Ali and Gatiti, 2020); holding webinars and online meetings with users (Ali and Gatiti, 2020;Ishtiaq et al, 2020); collaboration between librarians and physicians on information reports (Sullo and Brody, 2021); providing electronic information resources that play a key role in supporting research studies (Fasae et al, 2021), learning and education in order to support students' e-learning programs (Tsekea and Chigwada, 2021;Zareef and Ahmad, 2021;Zhou, 2021;Mehta and Wang, 2020); supporting and protecting educational justice and social participation (Thiele and Klagge, 2021) and discovering the health information needs of users in university after COVID-19 pandemic (Meng et al, 2021). All these studies confirm that due to the lockdown caused by the pandemic, the duties of librarians are mostly focused on electronic services in providing resources and distance learning.…”

Creación de capital social en la biblioteca pública

“…Juega un importante papel en la creación de CS a pesar (o, quizás, a consecuencia) del aumento de la virtualización (Johnson, 2012;Audunson et al, 2018). La BP sirve de lugar de encuentro e interacción entre todo tipo de personas, primando el respeto y la aceptación de la diversidad (Caidi, 2006;Vårheim, 2007;Houghton et al, 2013;Wood, 2020;Thiele y Klagge, 2021), al constituirse como un lugar acogedor, calmante, reconfortante y fortalecedor (Brewster, 2014).…”

An Intelligent Service Model of Medical Library for Public Health Emergencies

“…[1]. Thiele et al elaborated the challenges brought by COVID-19 to public libraries and pointed out that public libraries need to develop new service models to effectively cope with the challenges [2].…”