Public Libraries and Crisis Management: Offer a Pattern for Managing the COVID-19 Crisis (Coronavirus)

Today various indicators have been introduced to explain the status of a civilization, but the most important indicator is the ability to contain a crisis or manage a crisis. At different times, crises, natural disasters, and epidemics are an inevitable fact in the whole world. In addition to causing extensive and sometimes irreparable damages, crises hinder organizational goals and delay the achievement of organizational mission. As cultural and educational institutions, public libraries are not immune from the damage of crises, and various events such as floods, earthquakes, political unrest, epidemics, etc., with the negative impact of libraries, cause the stagnation of these centers. In the current research, only the crisis caused by the coronavirus or COVID-19 is considered and the consequences of the emergence of this disease on library services are investigated.

Literature Review:

Some researchers have investigated the role of groups, non-profit communities or institutions that cooperate with libraries in the COVID-19 crisis. Among these studies is the research of Kim, Choi & Jung (2020). Some studies have also been done focusing on the role of librarians in the COVID-19 crisis. Okike (2020) has examined the role of librarians in information dissemination during the COVID-19 crisis. In April 2020, the Royal Public Library Advisory Association of Georgia published an article entitled Recommendations for Library Services During the Covid-19 Pandemic, in which useful information regarding the requirements of the work environment and crisis management in libraries has been explained. Some researchers also studied the measures and services of libraries and information centers. Erich (2020) by examining 41 public, academic, and specialized libraries in Romania, measured the condition of these libraries, and how they reacted and adapted to the COVID-19 crisis. The review of previous studies shows that overcoming the crisis and its management has always been the concern of researchers and organizations, and this issue has been much more important in the case of the emerging, sudden, and surprising crisis of COVID-19 because there is little experience about this disease.

The present research was carried out in an exploratory way and with the method of observation and narrative review of researchers' works, search and observation of the performance, activities, and actions of public libraries in Iran and the world in facing the Corona crisis, and because this method emphasizes non-experientiality, therefore the researcher only searched and observed the environment and conditions without manipulating the variables. In order to obtain information and collect data required for research, two citation databases, Web of Science and Scopus, Google Scholar and Google databases, and three internal databases, Maghiran, Noormags, and comprehensive humanities portal with the keywords "crisis", "Crisis Management", "COVID-19", "Coronavirus", "Public Libraries" and their English equivalents were searched by the researcher. In addition, more than 15 websites or library portals were also checked. In terms of the time frame of the publications of the last year (late 2019 to 2020) when the coronavirus appeared in this time frame, the content was studied and reviewed.

Since the types of crises and the effects they have on societies are different, therefore, it is not possible to propose the same strategic measures to manage or deal with them. The measures used for floods, fires, or earthquakes are not the answer to the problems caused by the Corona crisis. Some experts have presented a general model for crisis management, and some have presented special models for a specific crisis due to the differences between crises. The Shobari model (2015), the Leechat model, the model of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the model provided by the National Defense Organization were examined in this research. The cycle of crisis management includes the four stages of preparation, prevention, confrontation, and reconstruction. These steps are present in all models of crisis management. Therefore, the researcher has also used these basic steps to design the crisis management model of COVID-19. Also, this model is defined and designed in three phases before the crisis, during the crisis, and after the crisis.

The basic benefits and values in the management of the COVID-19 crisis and its goal and purpose for libraries and information centers are to meet the information needs and satisfaction of users. Therefore, in this research, an attempt was made to present a complete model in accordance with the current state of public libraries by examining the dimensions of this problem. This model was designed and presented in three phases before the crisis, at the beginning of the crisis, and after the crisis. In all three stages of the COVID-19 crisis management model presented in this research, the element of information plays the first and very important role. With sufficient information and its proper management by information science specialists and librarians, the critical situation can be controlled to a large extent. Regarding the model presented in the current research, it can be said that this model is a conceptual model because it symbolically presents a mental image of a series of concepts related to the disease of COVID-19 in public libraries. This model has organized almost all the information of the past researches and while reflecting the fundamental aspects of crisis management, it has summarized the differentiating activities and measures regarding the COVID-19 disease, and in the form of a fully functional template that is in line with the current conditions of the library, has provided the public services of our country.