From Ithaka S+R: “A Look at 10-Day Trends in Academic Library Response to COVID-19”

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe and Christine Wolff-Eisenberg:

Today we present an analysis of changes in responses from first submission to the most recent update for the 253 institutions that have returned to the survey to log an update.  In contrast to the first two analyses, which presented aggregated data across institutions, this analysis is longitudinal and reports on changes within institutions.

The data here were extracted at the end of the day on March 21 and thus represent data from the first 10 days of data collection. In that time, of the 721 that had responded to the survey, 253 institutions submitted at least one update and, of those, 60 submitted more than one. Please note that we have not yet analyzed the open-ended text entered with “other” responses.

Summary of Findings

Institutions continue to move classes online. There is a clear relationship between online class delivery and libraries closing or limiting their hours; however, these changes in library hours and services are often time-delayed. Libraries have pivoted reference services to online/phone delivery. Access to print collections, whether onsite or via delivery, has declined significantly. Given these shifts, it is understandable that libraries are expanding who is allowed to work remotely and, in some cases, have mandated remote work.

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