Virtual Libraries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Since March 2020, following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, civilization has had to adapt to a new lifestyle. Restrictions imposed by the authorities have led to a digital approach, including in the field of education. With the advent of the Internet, traditional libraries have begun to lose ground to the online environment, so the new situation has hastened the process of digitizing them, for the most part. This meant, on the one hand, the abolition of many jobs, and on the other hand, access to a large amount of information, from several resources, with a single click and in a short time. On this occasion, social networks played an important role, with public library services in many countries being active on social networks. Using this method, the institutions were involved in making important information available in the online environment. Through this article, we wanted to show the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on libraries, as well as the reaction of the population to a new system of obtaining information and on the measures taken in the full pandemic process.By applying a closed-ended questionnaire, we were able to highlight the impact of the pandemic on the functioning of virtual libraries, the benefits of online study, and a forecast of their future use.The note of originality of this study is given by the news brought by the pandemic in the online environment and the dynamics of internet use in the cultural field.Digitizing the libraries offers many advantages to information seekers, from accessing data from anywhere and anytime to diversifying the information found. We believe that access to knowledge through virtual libraries can lead to the consolidation of inclusive knowledge societies only when everyone will be able to benefit equally from the content.