Fundamental Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper presents the outcome of a research that investigates fundamental lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of health sciences librarians in Zambia. This study used an online questionnaire to collect data from a sample size of 14 health sciences librarians. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis were used to analyse data. The specific objectives included: finding out the lessons learned from COVID-19 by health sciences librarians in Zambia, ascertaining the role of health sciences librarians in a pandemic and determining the challenges faced by health sciences librarians in the current Covid-19 pandemic.The results showed that 19% of the respondents have learned innovative ways of delivering and providing services to patrons remotely. Another 19% indicated the importance of continually adapting and adjusting to new technology. The main challenges health sciences librarians faced in the provision of information during the COVID-19 pandemic include lack of collaboration with health professionals; poor Information Communication Technology facilities and lack of adequate media platforms to inform the public on the pandemic.