It’s safe to say that 2021 was a year of recovery after libraries were forced to adapt to the changes in the academic environment initiated by the global pandemic. Necessary changes were made which included increasing the digital collection and availability of online library services. Users also had to quickly adapt to the changes and have grown more comfortable in embracing the digital environment. To say the digital shift is new is not entirely true - for both the library and its users - but the pandemic accelerated this trend. This is evident in the significant shift in the library collections; by the end of 2021, e-books accounted for 54% of the entire library collection compared to 36% in 2019. Moreover, the library has since increased its e-journal collection by 16% from 2019. As a result, articles downloaded from e-journals increased by 85%, and sections downloaded from e-books by 22% between 2020 and 2021. The circulation of physical books continues to decline, which has been a consistent trend that was noted before the pandemic.
Our UP research hosted on the UPSpace institutional repository is among the services receiving significant attention. Both the abstract views and article downloads from UPSpace saw an increase of 7% and 9% respectively during the period under review. Additionally, the Figshare data repository that preserves UP research data saw great activity with over half a million item views and over 15 000 downloads in 2021. Also, the UP library successfully launched the OJS system in April 2021 and has since received over 700 000 abstract views with 54 755 article downloads by the end of 2021. Most of the users access library resources using direct links; this is evident in the continuous decline in library website users while the library resources usage has increased. However, the library website's activity is improving as the users are declining at a much slower rate than in previous years; this trend is expected to improve significantly as the department launched its new library website at the end of 2021.
To ensure that the library's collection is correctly reflected on our library system, the cataloguing team has worked tirelessly to check records for quality; records checked for quality in 2021 are higher than in 2020 and 2019. The UP library also lent 22% more documents to other libraries through inter-lending and borrowed 19% more in 2021. Articles dominate the documents circulated through this service. Pages digitised by the Digitisation unit also increased significantly in 2021, most of which were the digitisation of thesis and dissertation projects. Pages digitised increased from 57 721 to 197 229 resulting in a whopping 242% increase.
Although most library services are still virtual, the library staff also provided in-person services as the COVID-19 regulations eased. Staff and postgraduate students made more short enquiries and fewer consultations that required subject knowledge in 2021 than in 2020 while undergraduate students enquired less and consulted more. Overall, both short enquiries and consultations increased in 2021 by 5% and 3% respectively. The library intensified training which resulted in an increased attendance from all user groups. To support research visibility, library staff also created 763 bibliometric reports in 2021.
To ensure that the UP community is aware of all the services and resources at their disposal, the Marketing unit used social media among other platforms to reach library users. By the end of 2021, the UP library Facebook page had over 6 000 followers and 1 600 followers on the Instagram page. The library reached 89% more people on Facebook and 362% more on Instagram in 2021 compared to 2020. Furthermore, the results from “Rate us” which allows students and staff to express their perceptions of the library service show that most library users are satisfied with the service provided by the library and most users who rated the library service were undergraduate students.
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