Innovations of Indian Libraries during COVID-19 Pandemic

Indian libraries implemented different types of innovations in their libraries to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to distinguish such innovations carried out during this pandemic by three organizing principles or innovation logics (i.e., horizontal, vertical, and diagonal). Out of 340 newspaper reports on libraries published in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, 26.47% of the newspaper reports were found to be describing innovations in libraries. The study found that 75.55 % of library innovations were horizontal in nature. The public (52.22 %) in general mostly benefited, followed by students, kids, and others from such innovations. Most of the innovations took place in public libraries (76.47 %), followed by academic libraries, special libraries, and national libraries. The study observed that peripheral constituent services to the core library services were mostly added or deleted, but the modification of existing services or the combination of services was relatively less during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.