Feature
When the pandemic took hold in 2020, Sage Publishing software company, Lean Library from The Netherlands, had around 100,000 users tapping into its browser plugin, Access. Come 2021, active users had doubled to 200,000 while library partners had mushroomed from around 40 to 150.
Under normal circumstances, Lean
Library managing director, Matthew Hayes, might have expected around 20 new partners from one year to the next, but as the world now knows, circumstances have been been anything but normal in the last 18 months or so. ‘The rise in users was partly new
libraries adopting our plugin but also increased uptake among patrons whose institution already had Lean Library,’ he says. ‘We also saw increased usage of the actual product, but you would expect this if people are off-campus.’ Lean Library’s experience is in line
with community-wide feedback on the use of digital and cloud-based materials. The 2020 Ithaka S+R US Library Survey revealed that library leaders believed the pandemic had accelerated trends in investments toward virtual services and
digital collections. Meanwhile, in its report ‘Covid-19 and the digital shift in action’, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) surveyed members and reported how the majority believed Covid-19 had encouraged projects that enabled the access and use of digital collections and the provision of online teaching content. The RLUK now recommends enhanced
investment in digital content and resources. And as executive director, David Prosser, says: ‘This is an ongoing process and some areas have gone further down the road than others, but Covid-19 really has accelerated this shift.’ Ebsco Information Services executives
agree. Vice president of communications, Kathleen McEvoy, is certain that the pandemic has ‘allowed’ libraries to help their institutions come online, and many are now looking to address questions such as ‘how do we improve access to information’, ‘how do we make our support to the researchers more seamless in an online environment’ and ‘how do we provide more opportunities for the student, research or faculty member to access the library?’. ‘For me, this has been the real change,’
she says. ‘Libraries have been able to say ‘we have these resources for you’, so Covid has sped up the adoption of a more e-centric approach.’ McEvoy’s colleague, Harry Kaplanian,
vice president of product management, Folio services, also asserts Ebsco has seen a rise in demand for the open source library services platform, throughout the pandemic. In late July, and following planning long before the pandemic, founding Folio member, Cornell University Library, implemented the platform with Ebsco providing hosting and service support. Meanwhile in early August, Durban University of Technology (DUT) became the first library in South Africa to adopt Folio, followed by the US University of Missouri Systems Libraries later that month. ‘Around 40 libraries are now live on
Folio, and this number just seems to keep rapidly expanding,’ says Kaplanian. ‘This open source option for academic libraries really hasn’t existed before, and we expect to see more libraries adopt the platform as they look at where they want to be and what services they want to provide in five, even ten, years from now.’
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“Library leaders believed the pandemic had accelerated trends in
toward virtual services and digital
investments collections”
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October/November 2021 Research Information
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