Concurrent 5 Lightning Talk: Learning from a Distance: Assessing the impact of the Pandemic through a Virtual Reference Service
Session Format
Virtual Lightning Talk
Proposal Synopsis
With the onslaught of the global COVID19 pandemic, universities were forced to quickly pivot to exclusively remote and virtual service options. To further complicate the situation, a large number of the international student populations at these institutions were forced to study remotely in their home countries due to the pandemic and visa restrictions. In Canada and Ontario, International students make up a major revenue source for post-secondary institutions, making the need to find viable solutions to continue to serve these populations essential to their financial stability.
The Ontario Council of University Libraries’ (OCUL) runs a shared virtual reference service, called Ask a Librarian (Ask). This poster session will assess the impact of the global pandemic through a comparative study of the service previous to and during the pandemic. Using IP addresses, this study will evaluate the impact of geographical location on the user’s experience of and access to virtual library resources, as well as identify any barriers, shifts, or trends in the service.
The COVID19 pandemic has changed the face of education and remote learning indefinitely. The hope of this study is to assess the overall success and pitfalls of our current virtual reference services and suggest areas of improvement for the future.
Location
WALC 3122, a hybrid format for both virtual and on-site
Start Date
27-7-2022 4:30 PM
End Date
27-1-2022 5:29 PM
Concurrent 5 Lightning Talk: Learning from a Distance: Assessing the impact of the Pandemic through a Virtual Reference Service
WALC 3122, a hybrid format for both virtual and on-site