Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Main Authors: Jenny Pierce, Caitlin Bakker, Phill Jo, Jeannine Creazzo, Holly Thompson, Kristine M. Alpi
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2025
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author Jenny Pierce
Caitlin Bakker
Phill Jo
Jeannine Creazzo
Holly Thompson
Kristine M. Alpi
author_facet Jenny Pierce
Caitlin Bakker
Phill Jo
Jeannine Creazzo
Holly Thompson
Kristine M. Alpi
Jenny Pierce
Caitlin Bakker
Phill Jo
Jeannine Creazzo
Holly Thompson
Kristine M. Alpi
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries Jenny Pierce Caitlin Bakker Phill Jo Jeannine Creazzo Holly Thompson Kristine M. Alpi COVID-19 Pandemics Library Services Access to Information Medical Libraries Health Sciences Library Networks Information Dissemination Journal Articles Publications Objective: COVID-19 challenged information exchanged globally, including interlibrary loan (ILL) procedures and processes. This research focused on resource-sharing networks used by Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify changes in ILL and Document Delivery (DD) processes both in lending and borrowing. Methods: From nine academic and association HSL who had participated in a prior study of DOCLINE usage, researchers requested institutional-level de-identified data on ILL and DD during the early pandemic period March-August 2020 and the comparison period of March-August 2019. We compared the journal article request data with previously reported findings from DOCLINE aggregated data. Results: Regarding the number of requests from the nine institutions, five saw a decrease, while four saw an increase. The average rate of journal borrowing decreased by 67.1% (standard deviation (SD) 31.7%) per library, and lending decreased on average by 44.7% (SD 68.2%) per library. Document delivery, on average, decreased by only 1.9%, though this varied widely (SD 45.5%). ??For the data on monographs loaned during the pandemic, there was a predominance of single request titles unfilled across 2019 and 2020 (n = 1631; 93.5%). Conclusion: The predominance of single request titles unfilled during the pandemic when libraries limited their sharing of physical materials argues for a deeper exploration of controlled digital lending of materials held in print. The findings across this study and its related investigations (Lloyd et al., 2022; Bakker et al., 2023) on the impact of the pandemic on resource sharing can inform and enhance preparedness planning, future resource sharing workflows and messaging, budgeting, evidence-based collection development, and dialog with content copyright holders about digitization priorities.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ1492318
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2025
record_format eric
spellingShingle Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries
Jenny Pierce
Caitlin Bakker
Phill Jo
Jeannine Creazzo
Holly Thompson
Kristine M. Alpi
COVID-19
Pandemics
Library Services
Access to Information
Medical Libraries
Health Sciences
Library Networks
Information Dissemination
Journal Articles
Publications
Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries Jenny Pierce Caitlin Bakker Phill Jo Jeannine Creazzo Holly Thompson Kristine M. Alpi COVID-19 Pandemics Library Services Access to Information Medical Libraries Health Sciences Library Networks Information Dissemination Journal Articles Publications Objective: COVID-19 challenged information exchanged globally, including interlibrary loan (ILL) procedures and processes. This research focused on resource-sharing networks used by Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify changes in ILL and Document Delivery (DD) processes both in lending and borrowing. Methods: From nine academic and association HSL who had participated in a prior study of DOCLINE usage, researchers requested institutional-level de-identified data on ILL and DD during the early pandemic period March-August 2020 and the comparison period of March-August 2019. We compared the journal article request data with previously reported findings from DOCLINE aggregated data. Results: Regarding the number of requests from the nine institutions, five saw a decrease, while four saw an increase. The average rate of journal borrowing decreased by 67.1% (standard deviation (SD) 31.7%) per library, and lending decreased on average by 44.7% (SD 68.2%) per library. Document delivery, on average, decreased by only 1.9%, though this varied widely (SD 45.5%). ??For the data on monographs loaned during the pandemic, there was a predominance of single request titles unfilled across 2019 and 2020 (n = 1631; 93.5%). Conclusion: The predominance of single request titles unfilled during the pandemic when libraries limited their sharing of physical materials argues for a deeper exploration of controlled digital lending of materials held in print. The findings across this study and its related investigations (Lloyd et al., 2022; Bakker et al., 2023) on the impact of the pandemic on resource sharing can inform and enhance preparedness planning, future resource sharing workflows and messaging, budgeting, evidence-based collection development, and dialog with content copyright holders about digitization priorities.
title Content Access via Resource Sharing Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Nine Health Science Libraries
topic COVID-19
Pandemics
Library Services
Access to Information
Medical Libraries
Health Sciences
Library Networks
Information Dissemination
Journal Articles
Publications
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1492318