New Directions for Libraries and Library Professionals during COVID-19 Lockdown Period

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic made a dangerous impact on the whole world. Due to this pandemic and to minimise the losses, most of the educational institutions including their libraries switched to the virtual and offered online services with help of information and communication technology. Academic libraries were directly affected by the corona virus not only in physical space but also in the library resources and services they provide to their library users. In this context, the use of digital resources and services permits the library not only to save space of library and time of the users in Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period. Everyone can access digital resources and digital information remotely anywhere at any time without human contact. Now web-based digital resources have become the most popular tools in the pandemic environment. The main objective of this paper is to make an attempt to create awareness among library professionals and library users about the impact of Covid-19 lockdown on libraries, strategies for library reopening and various library digital and online services during pandemic period. The author presents his opinion on how to save the library users, library staff and library resources in the present lockdown period and specifies the role of library professionals during this pandemic situation.