Citizens' trust in government as a function of good governance and government agency's provision of quality information on social media during COVID-19

Evidence from literature reveals that good governance practices influence citizens' attitudes and behaviours towards the government. Therefore, grounded on the good governance theory, the current study aimed to empirically examine how good governance practices promote public trust with the underlying mechanism of perceived government response on COVID-19 (PGRC) and moderating role of government agency's provision of quality information on social media (GQS). The data was collected from 491 followers of the Facebook account, Instagram, and Twitter pages of a government news agency, i.e., Associated Press of Pakistan and were analyzed using measurement and structural model by employing SmartPls 3.3.0. The results revealed a direct and indirect association of good governance practices with the public's trust in government via PGRC as mediator. Likewise, results showed that GQS interacts with PGRC and augments public trust in government. This study tried to contribute to the body of knowledge while addressing the gap related to the dearth of literature regarding government use of ICT during the COVID-19 pandemic to harvest benefits from social media while communicating with citizens on a larger scale. Moreover, the current study offers valuable practical and strategical recommendations to agencies and policymakers.     

Academic library spaces and student activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

A library in higher education plays a primary role in students' learning on campus. In addition to individually-focused studying, students come to a library for various purposes, such as group learning, collaborating, and socializing. To support students' different types of learning, appropriate physical and functional environments of the spaces must be provided. However, the environmental effects of learning spaces have not been explored extensively. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced students to remain and study at home for extended periods, and it is expected that the pandemic experience has affected students' space use patterns. This study aims to examine the effect of the pandemic on students' library usage and to investigate the necessary environments to effectively support students' learning activities. Data was collected via interviews with 12 students. One of the main findings is that, even though students used the library less during the pandemic, they expected to use it as much as pre-pandemic or even more after the pandemic. Furthermore, both physical and functional environments were associated with the study performance and wellbeing of the students. Therefore, understanding students' learning activities and preferred environments in a library is critical to providing appropriate spaces supporting students' learning performance and wellbeing.     

Local governments' use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Portugal

While the use of social media by local governments has gained relevance in recent years, crises are critical situations that reinforce the need to reach citizens to disclose information, demonstrate the government's commitment, and increase the citizens' level of preparedness and awareness of resources. This paper examines the factors that influenced local governments' e-disclosure during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. To accomplish this objective, we systematically tracked every post published by the official Facebook page of 304 Portuguese municipalities between March 2 and July 5, 2020. The findings show that financial autonomy is the main predictor of e-disclosure, factors varied on the different phases of the pandemic's first wave, and sociodemographic factors became more prevalent as explanatory factors when the crisis worsened. Our study may help increase the level of preparedness during possible future crises. In particular, establishing communication strategies for prolonged public health crises, making financial resources available for the accomplishment of such strategies, and reducing the digital divide can contribute to more effective disclosure. Future research should explore the dynamics of disclosure during public health crises. This study also highlights the need to incorporate time in research that focuses on the determinants of e-disclosure that could also be tested in normal times.     

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情期间专题信息服务工作及引发的思考

介绍新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情防控期间中华医学会杂志社开展的专题信息服务工作,包括开放阅读专业学术期刊、搭建学术交流平台、开展新型冠状病毒肺炎相关研究的优先数字出版、推出人文内容、制作学术专辑等。结合国内外学术出版机构或信息平台的新型冠状病毒肺炎专题信息发布工作,讨论了专题信息服务及学术出版在出版效率、数据可视化、智慧出版、研究和伦理规范、科研评价、社会责任等方面的现状及存在的问题,进行了相关思考,提出了解决的路径。     

Further divided gender gaps in research productivity and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from coronavirus-related literature

Based on publication data on coronavirus-related fields, this study applies a difference in differences approach to explore the evolution of gender inequalities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing the differences in the numbers and shares of authorships, leadership in publications, gender composition of collaboration, and scientific impacts. We find that, during the pandemic: (1) females’ leadership in publications as the first author was negatively affected; (2) although both females and males published more papers relative to the pre-pandemic period, the gender gaps in the share of authorships have been strengthened due to the larger increase in males’ authorships; (3) the share of publications by mixed-gender collaboration declined; (4) papers by teams in which females play a key role were less cited in the pre-pandemic period, and this citation disadvantage was exacerbated during the pandemic; and (5) gender inequalities regarding authorships and collaboration were enhanced in the initial stage of COVID-19, widened with the increasing severity of COVID-19, and returned to the pre-pandemic level in September 2020. This study shows that females’ lower participation in teams as major contributors and less collaboration with their male colleagues also reflect their underrepresentation in science in the pandemic period. This investigation significantly deepens our understanding of how the pandemic influenced academia, based on which science policies and gender policy changes are proposed to mitigate the gender gaps.     

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on gendered research productivity and its correlates

Female researchers may have experienced more difficulties than their male counterparts since the COVID-19 outbreak because of gendered housework and childcare. To test it, we constructed a unique dataset that connects 15,280,382 scholarly publications and their 11,828,866 authors retrieved from Microsoft Academic Graph data between 2016 and 2020 to various national characteristics from LinkedIn, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, and Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports from Google. Using the dataset, this study estimated how much the proportion of female authors in academic journals on a global scale changed in 2020 (net of recent yearly trends). We observed a decrease in research productivity for female researchers in 2020, mostly as first authors, followed by last author position. We also identified various factors that amplified the gender gap by dividing the authors’ backgrounds into individual, organizational and national characteristics. Female researchers were more vulnerable when they were in their mid-career, affiliated to the least influential organizations, and more importantly from less gender-equal countries with higher mortality and restricted mobility as a result of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that female researchers were not necessarily excluded from but were marginalized in research since the COVID-19 outbreak and we discuss its policy implications.     

Interlibrary loan and document delivery in North American health sciences libraries during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective:The study purpose was to understand how early months of the COVID-19 pandemic altered interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery (DD) in North American health science libraries (HSLs), specifically the decision-making and workflow adjustments associated with accessing their own collections and obtaining content not available via ILL.Methods:Researchers distributed an online 26-question survey through 24 health science library email lists from January 6-February 7, 2021. Respondents reported their library''s ILL and DD activities from March-August 2020, including ILL/DD usage and policies, collection access, decision-making, and workflow adjustments. In addition to calculating frequencies, cross-tabulation and statistical tests were performed to test a priori potential associations. Two researchers independently and thematically analyzed responses to the 2 open-ended questions and reached consensus on themes.Results:Hospital libraries represented 52% (n=226/431) of respondents, along with 42% academic (n=179) and 6% (n=26) multi-type or other special. Only 1% (n=5) closed completely with no remote services, but many, 45% (n=194), ceased ILL of print materials. More than half (n=246/423; 58%) agreed that ILL requests likely to be filled from print remained unfilled more than is typical. Open-ended questions yielded 5 themes on ILL/DD staffing, setup, and systems; 6 on impacts for libraries and library users.Conclusion:Lack of communication regarding collection availability and staffing resulted in delayed or unfilled requests. Hospital and academic libraries made similar decisions about continuing services but reported different experiences in areas such as purchasing digital content. Hybrid ILL/DD workflows may continue for managing these services.     

Exploring open government data capacity of government agency: Based on the resource-based theory

Open government data (OGD) are valued by many countries and governments worldwide because of its important political, economic, and social benefits. Based on the resource-based theory, we construct a research model from the aspects of tangible, intangible, and human resources, as well as organizational culture to explore the factors that influence open government data capacity (OGDC). Results indicate that data variables, basic resources, organizational arrangement and technical capacity are directly related to the OGDC of government agencies; power distance negatively moderates the relationship between organizational structure and OGDC; uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship among basic resources, organizational arrangement and OGDC. On this basis, we put forward relevant suggestions for the following development of OGD.     

The COVID‐19 (Coronavirus) pandemic: reflections on the roles of librarians and information professionals

This Regular Feature explores the role of health science librarians in the coronavirus pandemic. COVID‐19 has spread rapidly all over the world. All major cities around the globe are in lockdown. In Pakistan, the first case was diagnosed on 26 February 2020, and currently, there are more than 2039 diagnosed cases and 26 deaths as on 31 March 2020. Across the country, there are further 12 000 suspected cases. This will undoubtedly increase if precautionary measures are not taken. Pakistani universities, colleges and schools were in lockdown. The role of university librarians in this emergency included raising awareness through public health education, providing support to medical staff, researchers and providing ongoing traditional services to regular library patrons in Pakistan. The Regular Feature also provides links to useful resources. JM.     

主题科学传播的选题与渠道分析 ——以COVID-19疫情情境下我国医学论文传播为例

主题科学传播在选题策略和传播渠道均存在其特点。选取我国新型冠状病毒肺炎学术成果交流平台2020年1月27日至7月19日网络载文作为典型案例,收集单篇论文的阅读量、题目、期刊、作者信息及网页访问量构成,定性分析论文学科属性与传播主题的关联,定量分析全球访问量的国别特征、构成及趋势。高阅读量论文的选题呈现以下3个特点:与中心事件强相关、与关键问题有结合点、研究对象较受关注,单篇阅读量较高的论文类型为论著、指南共识、述评专论。网络传播中以直接访问与外部链接引流为主要渠道,引流来源以自建网络平台、文献数据库、主流搜索产品(如百度学术)为主。随着疫情形势变化及观察时间窗延长,访问量增幅较大的渠道以微信公众平台及社交媒体为主,新增渠道包括不同出版平台资源中心外链及大众新闻媒介。除我国外,访问量较高的国家为美国、巴西、印度、日本、意大利。主题科学传播中传播迅速且较受关注的论文选题兼顾学科关联性及公众关切,传播渠道以网络为主。随着时间推移,即时通讯及社交媒体传播增速较高,更多境外网络访问、出版机构互链及国际学术组织数据库涉入,科学传播的受众角色更加丰富。中文论文的国际推广应注重传统平台及新兴渠道的均衡发力,凭借国际化资源中心及社交媒体平台主动传播。     

The impact of electronic access to government information: what users and documents specialists think

This article discusses the results of a survey designed to assess the current state of electronic access to government information from both the specialist and the user viewpoint. The first survey, designed to determine the government documents staffs' level of commitment to and opinions of electronic access to government information, was distributed in electronic format to subscribers of GOVDOC-L, a listserv for specialists dealing with government documents. The second survey, designed to provide insight into the user's point of view, was conducted at the University of Illinois Documents Library. This article synthesizes earlier studies and articles on the topic to show that while the consensus is that electronic access represents a positive, beneficial move toward providing access to government information to a wider audience, there is also an acknowledgment that there are many inherent problems that have not been addressed adequately.     

The public library as social infrastructure for older patrons: Exploring the implications of online library programming for older adults during COVID-19

Public library systems' websites were often the sole means for older patrons to access library services and programming during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study integrated Pauwels' (2012) framework to analyze 25 Ontario public library systems' websites for evidence of their available programming for older adults during the early months of COVID-19. The 640 identified programs for older adults revealed a number of patterns, including issues regarding visibility and representation of older patrons on library websites as well as assumptions surrounding older adults' access to technologies. Discussions consider three implications for public libraries as they reopen and create new virtual spaces “postpandemic”: questioning (re)distributions of resources that support both virtual and in-person services, questioning implicit assumptions that digital connection will foster social connection, and questioning the effects of the library as a virtual space on feelings of social connectedness.     

COVID-19 impact on the Chinese top academic libraries: Libraries' response to space,collection and services

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was a major public health emergency on a global scale. The literature regarding the pandemic and its impact on academic libraries is still rising. This article examines the two-year process of developing a flexible service scenario and the broader picture by analyzing data on Chinese top university libraries' programmes and outreach initiatives prior to, during, and the normal COVID-19 pandemic (Sept. 2019–Sept. 2021). COVID-19 is found to have a significant impact on the physical space, collection development, and service of the library, demonstrating the characteristics of space access restricted by security measures, collection digitization, and online service. This research also examines the previous year's initiatives and programmes and discusses the next phase of “new normal” procedures. Hopefully, this study will give insight on how Chinese libraries responded to the recent pandemic, informing libraries' outreach and efforts to be better prepared to take imperative, swift, and decisive action in the post-COVID-19 era and beyond.     

升维创新:后疫情时代中国图书出版产业发展进路

2020年的新冠肺炎疫情使中国图书出版业面临前所未有的突破和变局.某种意义上,这是一次图书出版产业的全面转场、升维创新之旅.以链接、赋能和跨界为核心,中国图书出版业态和整体思维方式出现颠覆式变革.后疫情时代,中国图书出版业的转型之旅不会止步,需从制度建构、内容策划、盈利模式、技术革新等方面入手,破解升维创新迷局,在数字化征程上不断迈进.     

The impact of COVID-19 on reference services: a national survey of academic health sciences librarians

Objectives:The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the scope and adaptive nature of reference services provided by academic health sciences librarians over a one-year period (between March 2020 and March 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:In March 2021, academic health sciences librarians in the United States were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their experiences providing reference services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey was developed, pretested, and distributed to various listservs.Results:A total of 205 academic health sciences librarians and other information professionals with health sciences liaison responsibilities in the US (N=205) responded to the online survey. The scope of reference services provided during the COVID-19 pandemic included email-based reference services (97%), virtual reference (89%), telephone (80%), text-based (33%), and in-person (31%). The most common types of COVID-related reference questions included COVID-19 treatments (53%), safety precautions (46%), vaccines (41%), and prevalence (38%). Additionally, the identification of challenging reference questions and examples of misinformation were provided by respondents.Conclusions:The results of the survey characterize the evolving nature and scope of academic health sciences reference work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Librarians reported an increase in reference questions during the pandemic and are answering them in creative ways despite barriers (e.g., limited time and reduction in resources). There is an opportunity for librarians to continue to address COVID-related misinformation. Overall, these findings provide useful insight for library practitioners and administrators planning reference services during public health crises.     

A cue or two and I'll trust you: Determinants of trust in government organizations in terms of their processing and usage of citizens' personal information disclosed online

This article discusses the results of a large-scale Internet survey (with 1156 respondents) that investigated the cues and factors that could positively influence Dutch Internet users' trust in government organizations in terms of their usage and processing of citizens' personal data. Confidence in online privacy statements, as indicated by the results of this study, significantly influences trust in government organizations among Dutch Internet users with and without previous e-government experience. Among those with e-government experience, the quality of their online government transaction experience and a positive government organizational reputation can also increase their trust in government organizations, specifically in terms of how they process and use citizens' personal data.     

College students' perceptions on sense of belonging and inclusion at the academic library during COVID-19

This paper demonstrates how university students experienced and perceived inclusion in a public research university library context during COVID-19. Both quantitative (n = 3379) and qualitative data (n = 575) from the 2021 student survey were examined to explore students' library experiences and their perceptions of inclusion. The quantitative data revealed that students using both the physical and online library had the greatest sense of belonging, whereas students who never used any library resources had the least sense of belonging. The qualitative data further revealed that when students used the in-person library space they felt a sense of belonging, as well as feeling accepted and valued; on the other hand, it was hard for them to judge inclusion when they had not been in the library due to COVID-19. This finding suggests how academic libraries need to prepare for the hybrid environment (in-person and online) so that students using online resources and services feel connected to the library.     

Librarian views of the ACRL Framework and the impact of covid-19 on information literacy instruction in community colleges

Community colleges offer a unique context in higher education and yet specific guidance on implementing the ACRL Framework in community colleges is lacking. Semi-structured interviews with 30 community college librarians who had instruction duties explored the state of the implementation of the Framework in community colleges and the effect of the recent pandemic on information literacy instruction (ILI). The Framework is most lauded for its effect on the design and delivery of instruction, but its components mainly underpin ILI rather than being explicitly taught. The pandemic limited one-shot information literacy instruction but opened up opportunities for embedding librarianship in online courses. The value of this study lies in the potential for identifying opportunities for improving ILI in community colleges, based on a better understanding of librarians' attitudes and experiences of their instructional roles. Community college librarians with responsibility for ILI can be more fully supported when their instructional challenges are better understood.