Investigating teleworking in Public Libraries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to investigate the teleworking in public libraries from March 2018 onwards, simultaneously with the official announcement of the arrival of COVID-19 to identify the types of services regarding their strengths & weaknesses.

This research has a qualitative approach using content analysis. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview conducted through Whats App. The population of this research is composed of heads and experts of library development, headquarters and general departments of public libraries, and has continued with the purposeful method and snowball sampling with 15 experts.

The findings of this study showed that although initially public libraries did not play a significant role in providing acceptable services to members, but over time and training librarians through cyberspace and the creation of a virtual network of librarians, could meet the information needs of the target community. Among teleworking services, the highest selection was related to cultural services with 32.8%. Among the strengths of teleworking, the creation of a virtual network had the highest selection with 39.1%, and among the weaknesses, unfamiliarity with teleworking with 24.5%. Among the solutions, the highest selection was related to planning to utilize the capacity and capability of employees during working hours with 23.3%.

Public libraries have provided acceptable measures for members through a reorganization of the workforce, as well as the training of librarians and the issuance of some directives with a delay of several months.