Samfunnsoppdrag under press Erfaringer og vurderinger i norske bibliotek under Covid-19

Abstract

Siden mars 2020 har Covid-19-pandemien rammet det norske samfunnet på ulike måter. Foruten de helsemessige ringvirkningene, har privat og offentlig sektor vært nødt til å tilpasse seg den pågående krisen. De første inngripende smitteverntiltakene i Norge ble innført 12. mars. Sentrale myndigheter ga beskjed om at skoler og barnehager skulle stenge –sammen med blant annet kultur-og idrettsarrangement, frisører og treningssentre. Universitet og høgskoler gikk samtidig over til digital undervisning. Dette førte til at også bibliotekene stengte sine lokaler. Selv om det umiddelbart hersket en gjengs oppfatning om at bibliotekene måtte stenge fantes det aldri et direkte pålegg om å lukke dørene (Rognerød, 2020). I ettertid har kritiske røster har hevdet at stengte lokalerførte til at bibliotekene sviktet sitt samfunnsoppdrag (Audunson, 2020). Vi har selv påpekt at norske bibliotek for eksempel kunne inntatt en mer fremtredende rolle i formidlingen av kvalitetssikret helseinformasjon (Bøyum et al., 2021).

As the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and Norway in 2020, libraries were among the institutions that were impacted. The social mission of libraries to stay open and offer services, cultural experiences and reliable information was put under pressure. In this article we depart from a survey of 843 library workers across public, academic, special, and school libraries in Norway. The survey was conducted in June-August 2020 and contains quantitative and qualitative data on how library workers experienced lockdown and the responses from libraries. The article addresses how the Covid-19 crisis impacted libraries’ social missions and what circumstances contribute to crisis management in Norwegian libraries. We use institutional theories on isomorphism and institutional pressures, as well as general theories on crisis management, to analyse the material. We conclude that the pandemic has shown the potential of digital library services, but also find that closed library premises strongly influenced how libraries were able to fulfil their social missions. Our findings also indicate the need for a sectorial leadership in times of crisis. In our discussion, we describe a situation where structures and plans to manage situations of crises are lacking. For libraries to be part of society’s democratic infrastructure, their roles and social missions need to be considered in crisis management plans.