Adkins, D., Bossaller, J., Butler, E., Castaño, W., Cho, H. and Kohlburn, J. (2024), “Commitment to Justice, Empathy, and Community During COVID-19: Results from a Three-Phase Study of Public Libraries”, Irvin, V. and Mehra, B. (Ed.) Reading Workplace Dynamics: A Post-Pandemic Professional Ethos in Public Libraries (Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 55), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0065-283020240000055006
This chapter concludes our three-phase study of institutional responses to COVID-19 from January- November 2022. We are looking specifically at the socioeconomic context across the US for individual institutions in terms of rural and urban divides in phase one, reporting on overall interview results of 29 library administrators in phase two, and reporting on our environmental scan of 13 communities and how external political and environmental factors influenced library response to the pandemic. Overall, our work has implications for institutional leadership, worker persistence, and community engagement, as well as institutional responsibility in the face of political opposition and epidemiological uncertainty. Results indicate a need to emphasize and advocate for information justice for users and workers within libraries, as well as basic workplace considerations to ensure the well-being of workers and populations who use the library.
Joe Kohlburn 