Risk and ARL Academic Library Policies in Response to COVID-19. Issue 7 (3rd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Heady, Christina; Vossler, Joshua; Weber, Millicent
• Is Part Of: Journal of library administration. Volume 61:Issue 7(2021)
• Page Start: 735
• Page End: 757
• Publication Date: 2021-10-03
• Subjects: Academic Libraries -- COVID-19 -- pandemic -- disaster planning -- pandemic and library services -- leadership; Library administration -- Periodicals; 025.1
• DOI: 10.1080/01930826.2021.1972725
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0193-0826

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine changes in services offered by academic libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020–2021 academic year. The study reports on aggregate safety precautions libraries took, based on a corpus of public-facing policies from 112 institutions, but also provides insight into whether political affiliation, library expenditures, and public or private institution status had any bearing on library safety precautions. Findings of interest include (1) library expenditures and public or private institutional status were unrelated to the extent of precautions libraries took to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and (2) academic libraries in states with Republican governors were significantly more likely to employ fewer COVID-19 safety precautions than academic libraries in states with Democratic governors. The article concludes with a discussion of the partisan response to the COVID-19 crisis and provides recommendations for libraries based on the findings.