OPENING OF E-LIBRARIES DURING PANDEMIC IN COMBAT OF INFODEMIC
By Rehman Asif
DuringCOVID-19 pandemic situation, when information outbreak is enormous, it is the high time to make society and government remind the importance of e-libraries and the role of librarians in organizing and disseminating the information. Exchange of false information seems to be on the rise. It has been created a situation of “infodemic” as stated by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO). This has not only affected research work severely but also has created a chaos among laymen.As far as research is concerned, authentic information from multidisciplinary sources is crucial for the development of vaccines, handling social issues and to frame rules and regulations. Researchers are highly dependent on libraries and librarians in order to find out the reliable and authentic information.
With the approaching roar of COVID-19 pandemic, government has temporarily closed all educational institutions across the world. These nationwide closures have impacted ninety percent of the world’s student population. Localized closures in other countries have affected millions of additional learners too.Consequently, there is a transition and shift from traditional learning to distance learning on an unprecedented scale. Educational Institutions are constantly in battling race to shift their courses online mode; students are engagingsimultaneously with e-books and e-learning; and researchers are drawing information chiefly on electronic journals. As an emergency response, UNESCO has also launched the Global Education Coalition to help countries to scale up their best distance learning practices.Indeed, as the demand for credible e-resources surges, digital libraries have emerged as vital pathway to high-quality e-books, journals and educational content.
UNESCO and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) pointed out in their ‘Manifesto for Digital Libraries’ that the mission of the digital library is to give direct access to information resources in a structured and authoritative manner; thus to link information technology, education and culture in contemporary library service. Statistics from the world’s leading e-libraries testify their cultural significance; for instance, Europeana, a pan-European-Union virtual library, grants its half-a-million users access to almost 58 million digital contents every year. In the Indian context, National Digital Library of India (NDLI) has established itself as a country’s largest online learning platform. A premier gateway to over 48 million e-books and knowledge products across disciplines, it has nearly 3 million regular users today.
I believe, though, the role of e-libraries extends beyond providing access to content. As the UNESCO–IFLA Manifesto recommends, they should also raise awareness about intellectual property rights, support the preservation of cultural heritage, and ensure that disadvantaged groups enjoy equity of access.
E-libraries are services that have been established and developed for the last two years across the province of Punjab, but the recent COVID-19 pandemicsituation has made many users aware of the service for the first time. Especially because of the closure of public libraries, during the pandemic, additional efforts have been made to promote e-libraries and their services by librarians and staff. Moreover, traditional libraries or those without many digital services are having the challenge to keep their services active for their users virtually during this emergency, and librarians have been engaging in new work practices in order to achieve such objectives from their home offices. It is worth mentioning here that there is no infrastructure developed across the country except in the province of Punjab by establishing twenty e-libraries at divisional levels.As a precedent of successful initiative, the establishment of e-librariesmust have to be implemented and extended for the rest of provinces but abruptly all are closed and the staff was terminated.The present period of Social Distancingis an era of online activities,and without operational e-libraries, country will never be able to cope with any pandemic in future to keep up with the pace of this digital global world.
Therefore, government must open e-libraries in Punjab. With every passing day, it is getting clearer that COVID-19 pandemic follows any time scale and how long it will take to expirebut Pakistan cannot afford the closure of libraries anymore on the stake of future generation.Although, libraries and librarians would answer the call of emergency situations, as libraries around the world assist when a disaster occurs in their community. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, libraries may continue to offer research and resources to assist the community in healing and combating the virus.
