The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Digital Library Usage: A Public Library Case Study

Abstract The COVID-19 infectious disease in 2020 caused a global and subsequent lockdown policies imposed by various governments. Public libraries were affected as well. For many public libraries, the only one that remained active and available to users was access to their digital content. The Njegoš public library in Knjaževac, Serbia, responded by improving access to, and promoting, its vast digital content. The library also monitored access to the digital library, hypothesizing that the conclusions from the statistical data would bring insights and future improvements. The statistical data from the website of the public library revealed users’ most popular times of day and days of the week during the pandemic and in normal times. Regarding the devices used for access, there was a trend toward more up-to-date operating systems and also toward mobile devices. The average time reading increased by approximately 130%, with the highest peak during the most restrictive lockdown in March 2020. Thus, digital library servers should have the capacity to handle such increases in network traffic, at increased download speeds. Library posts on social media, specifically Facebook, were viewed an order of magnitude times during the pandemic when compared with posts from the previous year. Thus, social media posts were an effective pathway for promoting the digital library during the pandemic-induced lockdown.