2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa
Asania Reneilwe Maphoto, Mpubane Emanuel Matlala · 2023
Academic libraries are the backbone of universities, enabling and supporting institutions of higher learning. The libraries fulfil the essential roles of providing information and related services and making them accessible to academic communities. The current rapid technological developments of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) pose challenges for academic libraries. They must reinvent themselves and come up with new ways of rendering services. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many universities to completely shut down or consider using 4IR tools and present their activities online. This chapter investigates the strategies that can be deployed to upgrade and reshape academic libraries’ structure and operational procedures in South Africa and potentially elsewhere. It considers the degree to which the functioning of academic libraries has altered because of the combined effects of the 4IR and the COVID-19 crisis. The response of academic libraries to the radically changed circumstances is examined. A qualitative case study and content analysis were used to collect data from the library websites of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Limpopo. The findings indicated that the situation had forced both libraries to operate in entirely new ways. The libraries have positively responded to the challenge by adapting their operations. Academic libraries must embrace the use of new technological tools to complement existing traditional approaches. A syncretic combination of traditional and online collections and operations will meet the challenges of providing access to academic library collections and services during COVID-19 and beyond.