Abstract
This article discusses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic at AAB College in Pristina, Kosovo and the steps taken by college librarians and library staff to ensure that students and faculty continued to succeed while the college was closed due to lockdown.
Keywords:
Kosovo is a small country in Europe with a large population of young people. Since the majority of the population is under 26 years old, most of them are enrolled in universities or private colleges.
When we talk about private colleges in Kosovo, we must say that AAB College is the largest nonpublic institution in Kosovo, with about 20,000 students in various fields of study. AAB College has also created a very modern infrastructure, offering very good conditions to all those who want to study. It has built within the campus 2 modern and unique libraries, which are open to all users. The collections of these libraries are from different fields and the building offer modern space and opportunities for group and individual studies.
Like other countries in the world, Kosovo has been affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, which is still among us. This pandemic caused many problems in the lives of citizens, including the Libraries in Kosovo, but also the Library of AAB College.
March 13, 2020 will be remembered for a long time, because it was the date when we had positive cases in Kosovo, so we had to take measures in order to protect the lives of students and others. It was not an easy decision to close the Institution and also the library, which was built a year ago. Like other institutions in Kosovo, our library was closed. AAB College had now made all the preparations to switch to the online lecture form. The IT staff made it possible for everyone, not losing any lectures, and they were organized online. AAB College was the first institution in Kosovo which successfully implemented the online form of teaching.
However, students needed to use hard copy books from the Library, which was impossible to serve. The Government of the Republic of Kosovo and the Ministry of Justice had taken the decision to close the institutions and also banned the free movement of people. The country and institutions were in lockdown. There were some exceptions here and mail was allowed to circulate.
As the director of the Library, I asked the law enforcement agencies to provide me with a special circulation permit and the request was approved. So I found it easier to get around and help students and users by sending materials by post-mail. The work was done with difficulty, but the goal was to serve each student. As we found it quite difficult to serve all the students, our focus was on electronic resources. Our library has various agreements on the use of electronic resources, but most of them can only be used from campus. However, the world opened full access to many scientific journals, and we provided students with online academic materials. Thankfully, we too, were able to access many academic Journals, and it was easy to spread to the end-users. Almost all of journals were in English, however they were useful for students and staff. The day was very long, emailing and working from home, in order to fulfill the needs of users/students. It felt like work from home had no schedule. Working from home was quite difficult and challenging, however we work to serve end-users and we responded to all their requests and sent the required materials by e-mail.
The importance of the library was clearly seen during campus closure by looking at inquiries to the campus informational email address. This email is available for all types of student questions about the College, and during the time of quarantine most of the questions received at this email address were about library services.
During this time, we also had various activities. Almost every day online lectures were organized by experts in various fields, and they were broadcast live on social networks and social media.
AAB College, respectively the Library awarded the prize for distinguished students of the library, on the International Book Day on April 23, and unfortunately, we were closed (in quarantine), so we organized a lecture by the Library. The guests were public faces in Kosovo, personalities, and the importance of the book in times of pandemic was discussed. Distinguished students were rewarded which was a hope that we would soon begin normal life.
Fortunately, Kosovo after 3 months of lockdown decided to release some measures, so the free movement of people was allowed. From the 1st of June we returned to the premises of AAB College, with rules that it made it obligatory to wear masks, distance, and to reduce the number of students and staff on campus.
The resumption of work in the Library was very good news for students and users, however we were forced to work with reduced staff and study in the Library premises was not allowed 100% but only at half capacity. The number of book borrowings increased. Since the public libraries were still closed and we started the services, the number of students from other Universities who used the materials of the AAB College Library increased. The services were opened for everyone.
Thankfully none of the Library staff has been infected with the virus.
The pandemic negatively affected the lives of each of us, so even for the students of AAB College it was quite difficult. Facing many obstacles made us well organized, with the sole purpose of assisting each other in the study materials.
The year 2020 will be remembered for many activities which failed to be organized. AAB College, in its modern facilities, every year organizes the Autumn Book Fair, which gathers publishers from many different countries, which is not just a Book Fair but it is a “Book Festival”. Therefore, with the recommendation of the Ministry of Health, we canceled the holding of the Book Fair, even though all the preparations had been made.
We have started the year 2021 as usual, respecting the recommendations against COVID-19, with the hope that we will meet all the expectations of students, to carry out all activities, etc.
The library has been, is and will be the best place to beat COVID-19, reading, studying and the book-filled environment will be hope for all.
AAB Library, Kosovo