J Med Libr Assoc. 2022 Jan 1;110(1):56-62. doi: 10.5195/jmla.2022.1322.
The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the scope and adaptive nature of reference services provided by academic health sciences librarians over a one-year period (between March 2020 and March 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, academic health sciences librarians in the United States were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their experiences providing reference services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey was developed, pretested, and distributed to various listservs.
A total of 205 academic health sciences librarians and other information professionals with health sciences liaison responsibilities in the US (N=205) responded to the online survey. The scope of reference services provided during the COVID-19 pandemic included email-based reference services (97%), virtual reference (89%), telephone (80%), text-based (33%), and in-person (31%). The most common types of COVID-related reference questions included COVID-19 treatments (53%), safety precautions (46%), vaccines (41%), and prevalence (38%). Additionally, the identification of challenging reference questions and examples of misinformation were provided by respondents.
The results of the survey characterize the evolving nature and scope of academic health sciences reference work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians reported an increase in reference questions during the pandemic and are answering them in creative ways despite barriers (e.g., limited time and reduction in resources). There is an opportunity for librarians to continue to address COVID-related misinformation. Overall, these findings provide useful insight for library practitioners and administrators planning reference services during public health crises.
本研究旨在更好地了解学术健康科学图书馆员在 COVID-19 大流行期间（2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 3 月）一年内提供参考服务的范围和适应性。
2021 年 3 月，邀请美国学术健康科学图书馆员参加一项关于他们在 COVID-19 大流行期间提供参考服务经验的匿名在线调查。在线调查是开发、预测试和分发给各种列表服务的。
共有 205 名美国学术健康科学图书馆员和其他具有健康科学联络职责的信息专业人员（N=205）对在线调查做出了回应。在 COVID-19 大流行期间提供的参考服务范围包括基于电子邮件的参考服务（97%）、虚拟参考（89%）、电话（80%）、基于文本的（33%）和面对面的（31%）。最常见的 COVID 相关参考问题包括 COVID-19 治疗方法（53%）、预防措施（46%）、疫苗接种（41%）和流行率（38%）。此外，受访者还提供了有挑战性的参考问题的识别和错误信息的示例。
调查结果描述了 COVID-19 大流行期间学术健康科学参考工作的不断发展的性质和范围。图书馆员报告称，大流行期间参考问题有所增加，尽管存在障碍（例如，时间有限和资源减少），但他们仍以创造性的方式回答这些问题。图书馆员有机会继续解决与 COVID 相关的错误信息。总体而言，这些发现为在公共卫生危机期间规划参考服务的图书馆员和管理人员提供了有用的见解。
