COVID-19 has been a force that threatened to hinder access to school library learning resources. Interestingly, students, parents and teachers continued to demand access to books, and librarians with technology developers found innovative ways to provide safe services that resemble online shopping without a credit card! Deployment of Chromebooks, tablets and other devices, the Internet, hotspots and Zoom have also been catalysts that made it easier to integrate digital library resources in remote learning contexts. This presentation explores what has changed forever and paradoxically, what remains the same.
Harry Chan is the founder of library services companies located in the U.S. and Canada. Media Flex Inc. developed one of the earliest PC-based, integrated library systems in 1986 and in 2004, introduced OPALS, a Web-based, open source, integrated library system used in many Vermont school libraries and worldwide. OPALS technology consistently receives the highest survey ratings from school and small academic libraries in Library Technology Report’s annual “Perceptions” surveys. https://librarytechnology.org/perceptions/2019/#opals
