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is about 40 per cent, which is one of the highest in the USA, so all of these issues affect the situation at my institution.’
Prosser: ‘One of the things that really surprised me when lockdown happened was just how many library staff did not have access at home to the internet – some through choice but others for financial reasons – and that scramble in the first couple of weeks to make sure that staff were able to contribute, even when the physical building was shut, was a major effort. ‘The other aspect of the digital divide
that I’d like to mention is one between disciplines. If you are experiencing the pandemic and your main research reading is scientific journal articles, then not too much will have changed for you – you’d still be able to access those articles. However, if your research was in minor, early 20th- century English novelists, then you would have had a lot more difficulty, as most of those texts have not been digitised and would therefore not be available.’
Mitigating the divide
Westbrooks: ‘The impact of the pandemic has been huge, particularly on those marginalised communities I mentioned earlier. We have a term in the United States called ‘the homework gap’, which refers to the gap that exists in primary schools when some students are unable to do their homework because they don’t have access to the internet. I believe that gap also exists in secondary education and for college and university students, where I know that access to the internet is crucial. ‘For these students it has really been a challenging time to get access to library resources, which are largely online. One of the things that we have been doing as a university is giving stipends to students, so they can purchase internet hotspots to give them access, and we have also been making efforts with the staff who work in libraries, to ensure they are able to work effectively. ‘We even kept the wifi running when the buildings were closed, and there were examples of staff and students working from our parking lots to take advantage of the broadband! ‘We actually started our semester a little early and opened the library for the first time in five and a half months; though it is still not possible for someone to come in and browse and use our collection in that way. There is a much smaller presence of students on campus but people are still coming for books and reading books. We
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are still trying to ease our way into working out what this semester will look like.
Prosser: ‘There was a very quick decision made to close university libraries, in the space of about a week. Probably the most significant focus has been on students and student resources, looking at text books and the possibility of additional and focused spending to ensure that the necessary resources were in place as far as possible. For students who were on the verge of taking exams there was a strong focus on making sure they were not disadvantaged as far as was possible. ‘The other thing to say is that libraries
are now beginning to open up again. Initially there was a system of click and collect services; now we are beginning to see more reading rooms opened up (with social distancing and new procedures in place, obviously) but we are now starting to see researchers getting access to archival and special collection materials for the first time in four months.’
The bigger picture – should the wider industry be doing more to close the divide?
Prosser: ‘We can all do more! It’s great that people have made resources available for free, but we are already seeing many of those resources going back behind subscription walls. In some quarters there might be a feeling that everything is now okay after the initial pandemic outbreak, but that’s not the case. ‘In the UK we are not entirely sure how much of the next term is going to be in person or virtual, and people still need to have access to these resources. You could argue that it’s not the publishers’ responsibility; we have fallen into some unfortunate business models and the library community has tolerated them for perhaps longer than we ought to have done. ‘Many people thought that the e-text book business model was unsustainable before, and that has been proven now. It is clearly not one that can work; if normally you would buy 20 copies of a physical text book you lose access to them as soon as the library shuts, but some of the costs of providing electronic access are so expensive that they might as well not be offered. Some ARE not offered at all, of course.’
Westbrooks: ‘Affordability is one of the key components of the digital divide and the bulk of research is not affordable. Some of the prices we are paying are
exorbitant. In many ways I’m jaded about the scholarly communications cycle that we have, because the publishers have held the keys to the kingdom for too long. We are fed up and unhappy about the way we’ve related to publishers. Things have to change as the process is filled with inequity. ‘If you don’t work at a wealthy university that’s able to pay, you don’t have access. If you don’t have the money to publish, you don’t get to publish. The industry has to revisit these models; this research should be open to the world; it’s for the common good, it saves lives, and it is being paid for by our taxpayers. This pandemic has highlighted how inequitable and unsustainable the current model is.’
Is the divide closing?
Prosser: ‘If there is a silver lining to all this mess, it’s that open access is being pushed to the fore. Certainly the UK funders are requiring open access and open research more and more. The divide has become more obvious following the pandemic and a powerful spotlight is being focused on the situation. Libraries have done a phenomenal job in responding to the situation, in providing continuity as much as possible. ‘The library cannot always be seen
as a physical thing now – it is a series of services that continued when the physical buildings were closed, so there is great credit to that.’
Westbrooks: ‘It’s crises like these that can produce opportunities. The rush to online in the spring was something that higher education should have been doing anyway, and the pandemic has accelerated some things that should have already been done. It is forcing us to consider every service that we deliver, and how we might do it better in the future. You don’t waste a crisis! ‘However, there is so much inequity and
I don’t see the divide getting smaller – it is still growing and that’s something we need to contend with going forward. There is a long haul ahead, given that we are putting more content online, digitising it, and that model depends entirely on people having access to the internet. We’ve been thinking this way for so long, and we have to work out what we can do to improve the situation. Ri
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October/November 2020 Research Information
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