Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning for 2022. I hope the articles we have for you in this issue will be of interest.
All of the articles in this issue relate to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in some way. Whether a library shut down completely or had to “pivot” to a new way of providing services, we have all learned lessons from the experience. We have created new programs or services to offer our users and to ensure that we can provide the services and resources our users need.
In our lead article, “Librarians’ Competencies in Teaching Information Literacy in the Online Environment,” Marian Ramos-Eclevia studies not only how competent academic and school librarians in the Philippines are with teaching information literacy, but also how they feel their face-to-face experiences aided them with the transition to online teaching.
Samantha Harlow provides insight into how the changing demographics of university students will help libraries improve their services. In her article, “Assessing Demographics and Needs of Online Students Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Academic Libraries,” Harlow uses an assessment of the needs of the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s online students before and during the pandemic to determine how they can address the research needs of the students and assist with their success.
In our next article, “Virtual Learning and Library Usage During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Adeleke University Experience,” Adebowale Jeremy Adetayo, Ranmilowo Saidat Komolafe, Julie Owansuan Olalere discuss their research into the relationship between virtual learning and library usage and determined that use of the library is essential for the students at Adeleke University to succeed in their online learning.
Vusi Tsabedze and Nokuphila Saulus Christian Mubofu and Andrew Malekani detail how the LIS education system in Eswatini has not adopted MOOCS. Their article, “Efficiency of MOOCs in Leveraging Access and Quality Library and Information Science Education in the Era of COVID-19 in Eswatini,” provides some strategies that can be used to incorporate MOOCs into LIS programs.
We conclude this issue with an article by Jessica Szempruch and Katrina Hinds, “Virtual Book Club: Impactful Library Programming at a Distance Through Co-Curricular Collaboration.” In their article, Szempruch and Hinds discuss how, after a student pitched the idea of creating a reading group to the two units at the University of South Florida, collaborated to create a temporary virtual book club. Interestingly, what was meant to just be a temporary avenue to keep the students engaged and connect has become a very successful program that has continued even now.
Do any of these topics appeal to you? Do you want to know more? If so, this issue is for you!
Editor-in-Chief
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