The IHS Library and Its Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

There are two points of departure for this chapter. At one level, the chapter explores how the Institute for Housing and Urban Development (IHS) library responded by adjusting the services it provides to its immediate constituency, together the with Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) University Library, with a rapid shift to e-books. At another level, the IHS library has also responded to the COVID-19 situation, by providing information to a much wider audience, targeting particularly Africa, Asia, and Latin America by collating information on the social, economic, and environmental impact of COVID-19 in the urban areas of emerging economies. The majority of the institute's participants come from such countries, where a lack of resources increases these countries' vulnerability to the onslaught of the pandemic. The IHS library's contribution the institute's COVID-19 Resource Hub (see https://www.ihs.nl/en/resources/covid-19-resource-hub) is briefly described in the second part of the chapter.