Information Literacy Commons^™

Researcher And Academic Library Roles And User Beliefs In The Pandemic: Designing The Open-Access And Library Usage Scale (Oalu), Elizabeth Dezouche, Angelique Blackburn

Killam Library Faculty Publications

We investigated whether individuals believe they have a right to information during a crisis, and whether attitudes about crisis-related information sharing differ by age and one’s role in providing or consuming information. We measured attitudes about aspects of data sharing related to COVID-19: researchers’ obligation to share data, publishers’ obligation to share information, and libraries’ responsibility to provide them. We predicted younger individuals, especially students as consumers of information, would report stronger preference for open access to pandemic-related information. A principal components analysis was performed, and two predicted factors emerged: information-sharing obligations and libraries’ responsibility to provide resources. Age was …