The experiences of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina’s Library Working Group on COVID-19 Prevention

Introduction

On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the outbreak caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) constituted a public health emergency of international importance. On 11 March 2020, through the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-20511), the coronavirus – popularly known as COVID-19 – outbreak was considered a pandemic due to its geographical distribution over several continents (Pan American Health Organization, 2020).

The contemporary world has never experienced anything as unique and impactful as the COVID-19 pandemic, which represents one of the greatest sanitary, social and economic crises in the history of humanity and is still being experienced today. Faced with this scenario, which has been challenging us to rethink values, principles, behaviors – in short, the entire logical order of actions, structures and social organizations – many people, institutions and areas are taken by a paralyzing feeling of helplessness that has been putting part of the societies waiting, almost statically, for what will come.

With the exponential spread of COVID-19, inequalities have been exposed, which has led us to rethink the ‘sociology of absences’ (Santos, 2020), since some social groups suffer from both the burden of the disease and the exclusion of public policies (such as quarantining or social distancing). The pandemic has also exposed the fragility of reason in times of ‘post-truth’, with an increase in misinformation (messages deliberately produced to deceive, manipulate and cause damage for political, financial or socio-psychological reasons) related, for example, to the origin of the virus, COVID-19 treatments and control measures (Lima et al., 2020).

Following Santos’s (2020) thinking, attention to measures to contain the spread of the virus and the search for a more definitive solution – that is, a vaccine to allow a faster return to the ‘normal’ experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic – has occurred in the global sphere precisely because the rich countries of the North have also been affected. Furthermore, Santos (2020: 27; author’s translation) points out that ‘in emergencies, prevention or containment policies are never universally applicable. They are, on the contrary, selective. Sometimes, they are openly and intentionally adept at social Darwinism’. In other words, they propose to guarantee the survival of the most socially valued bodies, the fittest and the most necessary for the economy. As for the others, these policies limit themselves to forgetting or neglecting bodies that are considered of little value.

Located within the so-called ‘epistemologies of the South’ (Santos and Meneses, 2010) there is Brazil, a country marked by slavery and a colonial heritage, by capitalist exploitation, and by various forms of inequality, discrimination, intolerance and prejudice, especially of ethnic racial origin, and misogynistic and heteronormative in nature. Given the complex situation in which we live in Brazil, the federal government has shown its unpreparedness in confronting COVID-19. This has been evidenced by the various speeches and silences of the president of the republic, minimizing the importance of the disease and its real impact on the number of lives lost, and fiercely defending drugs without scientifically proven efficacy. The replacement of health ministers over a short period amid the pandemic crisis, and clashes with health authorities and governors who have defended the adoption of social-distancing measures, accentuates the lack of an effective strategy within the federal government (Garcia et al., 2020).

In this context, two notable institutions – which have been constantly attacked in recent times by the governments of the right and ultra-right have been essentials in confronting the COVID-19 crisis: the Unified Health System (SUS) and the public teaching and research institutions, such as the public universities and the federal institutes. In Brazil, despite being recently established, the public universities have consolidated as a cornerstone of national scientific production and the training of specialized human resources, being responsible for more than 95% of the current national scientific production.

Given this scenario, this article, which is qualitative and exploratory in nature, aims to report the experiences of the University Library Working Group on COVID-19 Prevention (hereafter, COVID-19 Working Group) at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), with an emphasis on the strategies and planning adopted during the pandemic period. It should be noted that the University Library (Biblioteca Universitária; hereafter BU) is located in the state of Santa Catarina in the southern region of Brazil, and is directly linked to the University Rectory; it consists of the Central Library, 2 reading rooms and 10 sectoral libraries located in the following cities: Araranguá, Blumenau, Curitibanos, Florianópolis and Joinville (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021c).

A brief outline of university libraries and their roles in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is presented. The BU is then described in this context, which is followed by a discussion of the UFSC’s directions; the directives established by the COVID-19 Working Group that have guided the actions so far; and the perspectives on a safe face-to-face return based on the phases of the pandemic characterized by the UFSC and local contexts of each university campus.

Background

The scope of universities goes beyond research and teaching. It also covers extension. Universities are not only oriented towards the academic community, but also have a mission to transfer knowledge and services for the whole society. To get an idea of the scale of universities’ efforts towards tackling COVID-19, a survey released by the National Association of Directors of Federal Institutions of Higher Education (Andifes) in July 2020 pointed out that Brazilian federal universities are developing 1260 research projects about COVID-19 – highlighting that science has gained greater social recognition and strength during the new coronavirus pandemic (Bond, 2020).

Researchers’ efforts have also resulted in other action, such as testing to detect the coronavirus itself. By the end of 2020, there were 71 such projects, totalling 56,956 tests. Another contribution of public universities is related to the treatment of patients. The number of beds in federal university hospitals added to the beds available in partnerships for the construction and operation of field hospitals is expressive, with 2,502 of these made available in total and 656 in intensive care units (Bond, 2020).

In addition, academic communities dedicated time to the production of personal protective equipment (PPE). According to Andifes, in 2020, production totalled 251,034 face shields; 103,848 cloth masks; 12,500 protection visors; 29,000 pairs of gloves; 20,200 different units; 6600 aprons; 2000 hoods; and 10,000 caps. On top of this, there were 300 garbage bags with a capacity of 100 litres; 227 nasotracheal tubes; 1,028,108 litres of alcohol gel; and 915,000 litres of liquid alcohol (Bond, 2020).

In universities, libraries are the bodies that are capable of articulating the information exchange network in the service of the university community and society. They are a reflection of the higher education institutions to which they are linked, and their essential objective is to support teaching, research and extension activities through their collections and services. In addition to supporting the university community, internal actions are being taken to promote and develop new services, accessibility, knowledge management, purchase planning and lifelong learning. It is in this context that the COVID-19 Working Group at UFSC is situated.

University libraries in the context of COVID-19

Throughout the history of society, university libraries have been adapting to social, political, economic and technological changes. From the custodians of classical texts restricted to clerics and members of the aristocracy, university libraries have become centres of democratic coexistence, inclusion, interaction and exchange of information, whether in their physical or virtual spaces (Nunes and Carvalho, 2016).

Currently, these information units are necessary and able to play a very important role in the development of autonomous learning capabilities and information literacy, including critical and ethical literacies, and political and citizen awareness. All these actions, however, are directly associated with the university library’s role in supporting specialized teaching and research through information resources and services aimed at complex problems in different areas of science and technology (Lutz and Schonfeld, 2020).

In addition, libraries fulfil important missions in circumstances of health crises and global emergencies, as shown by the evidence provided by the healthcare information for all (HIFA) Project on Library and Information Services, developed between 2017 and 2018. The project identified alternative functions for libraries – in addition to the dissemination of information – where such institutions would serve as shelters or reception centres, and offer free Internet access or rooms for spiritual or psychological assistance. Moreover, new librarian positions have been identified, such as being experts in disaster information or global health, supporting emergency response teams with timely, concise and quality information (Tanus and Sánchez-Tarragó, 2020).

The evidence raised by the project also pointed to the use of social networks as instruments for disseminating and monitoring information, as well as public communication. Given this, the project pointed to the importance of considering inequities concerning the availability of technologies and the full development of literacy information among members of affected communities (Tanus and Sánchez-Tarragó, 2020).

Other discussions related to how libraries can take action in relation to disasters and emergency issues have been led by the Evidence for Global and Disaster Health Special Interest Group of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA, 2020b), as well as the National Library of Medicine in the USA, which provides training programmes for librarians focused on disaster information, as well as a bibliography on the subject National library of medicine (NLM) (2021).

The unique characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its unprecedented clinical and epidemiological aspects, have been affecting all areas of daily life in a complex way, in addition to challenging the areas of activity of institutions in general - such as libraries. The social distancing needed to contain the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in the closure of schools, universities, businesses, stores and a wide range of other entities that are considered non-essential (Tanus and Sánchez-Tarragó, 2020). Remote working was introduced in a range of organizations in order to maintain some services and activities. Most libraries in Brazil and around the world – as shown on the IFLA’s (2020a) web page ‘COVID-19 and the global library field’ – also suspended their face-to-face services indefinitely, and began to adopt mechanisms to continue offering some services remotely or in other variations without personal contact.

However, it is important to emphasize that Brazil has not had any unified systematization of services to deal with and define the procedures for pandemic circumstances for libraries. It is noteworthy that no information unit had been previously prepared to deal with such an extreme situation. Because of this, throughout 2020 and 2021, there was a remarkable race to acquire knowledge, carry out tests and verify what measures would be necessary to resume in-person activities safely.

The BU in the COVID-19 pandemic

Until 16 March 2020, the UFSC’s library system, as well as the entire university, had been carrying out its activities normally. On that day, the University Rectory published its first Normative Ordinance (No. 352), which had a temporary, exceptional and emergency basis, and allowed for daily work to be performed remotely or on work schedules. However, on the same day, as a result of the increasing public health emergency, a new Ordinance (No. 353) was issued, suspending in-classroom lessons, the university restaurant and UFSC libraries’ face-to-face services (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021f).

On 18 March 2020, the UFSC had its on-site working hours suspended for seven days, except for the health and safety care sectors and any urgent situations or activities of a non-postponable nature. Considering that there has been no forecast of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic or even an improvement in the situation, other ordinances have been issued in the intervening time (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021f).

The BU suspended its external activities on 17 March 2020 and, on the following day, it began with remote working, serving in person only cases of a non-postponable. A work plan was prepared and all of the activities that were to be developed were published on the library system’s website and social network site. Remote services were maintained and others were adopted, such as individual assistance via videoconferences, training through YouTube and synchronous assistance via chat (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021g).

The BU already used computerized systems for internal institutional communications (Rocket.Chat), electronic mail, videoconferencing (MConf) and file sharing folders, among other systems on the administrative side (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021b). It also had a library collection management system (Pergamum), which ranges from requests for material acquisition to technical processing, user registration, collection research and circulation processes (reservations, renewals, loans, returns), as well as administrative management (reports, statistics, inventories). Access to subscription electronic databases and made available by the Ministry of Education and Culture, such as the CAPES journal portal, was made possible through the virtual private network, in addition to open-access databases. During this period, publications about COVID-19 were also compiled (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021a).

Also, in the first week of remote working, a civil servant proposed to the library director that a study should be made of COVID-19 to help with proposals for preventive action and orientation for staff and the workplace. Considering the BU’s distributed leadership management, the director promptly indicated that a working group should be formed. First, the members of the group who had worked on the BU’s Contingency and Emergency Plan were invited to join; the invitation was then extended to all library BU/UFSC staff (or employees), which added two more workers and resulted in a team of five members and the director.

The team decided to incorporate the instructions as an appendix to the existing Contingency and Emergency Plan due to the need for guidance on crisis management issues in the context of BU/UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2020b). In addition, other guidelines were drawn up through specific training and instructions both for the employees and for the management of the BU/UFSC, such as an experience report, an experience report published by the COVID-19 Working Group, and a livestream presentation about the possible return to face-to-face activities (Rossi, 2020; Soares et al., 2020).

At the beginning, because of the limited availability of national guidelines, it is important to emphasize that most of the COVID-19 Working Group’s first orientations were based on international publications. From Brazil, the main references were the university guidelines, which issued a specific normative on March 17, 2021, with its update republished on June 18, 2021. This might have occurred because UFSC researchers, who supported the University Rectory’s actions and referrals, had based their work on a much more solid scientific referential. Their studies had been seeking a solution to the COVID-19 crisis at the UFSC, while the COVID-19 Working Group was making efforts towards preventive and protective measures for library workers.

The COVID-19 Working Group, which is subordinate to the BU Board, which in turn answers to the University Rectory, always observed all the ordinances, resolutions and guidelines that were published by the university’s central administration. Throughout the period, there was a constant consultation of institutional websites; it is important to mention one that has been used to centralize the UFSC’s guidelines for the university community – ‘With science, for the life’ (available at https://coronavirus.ufsc.br/) – as well as others with equal relevance, including the Pro-Rectory of Development and People Management (Prodegesp), the Department of Health Care and the Multiprofessional Team for Monitoring Servers with Disabilities (EMAPCD).

Guidelines from the COVID-19 Working Group regarding the phases established by the UFSC: general context

Since the conception of the COVID-19 Working Group, it has been providing protective and preventive measures for face-to-face emergency services and guidance for social coexistence in workspaces in the COVID-19 pandemic context; established actions by the BU/UFSC and by other departments of UFSC; expanded face-to-face services; and made management recommendations, taking into account the changes in the epidemiological scenario corroborated by the three phases of university life at the UFSC (at the time of writing, in December 2021, we are in Pre Phase 2; see Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

Three phases of university life. Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2020a).

According to institutional documents, the UFSC (2020a) has three possible activity scenarios in the pandemic context, and with each there is a gradation of face-to-face services and remote activities. In Phase 1 (red), the virus is not under control in Brazil or in Santa Catarina, with the number of cases and deaths increasing and a high rate of contagion; in this scenario, only essential face-to-face activities or activities with an impact on COVID-19 are approved by the upper management. In the other restriction scenario, there is Pre Phase 2, which authorizes face-to-face activities, and essential services to prepare face-to-face activities for the less restrictive phases. Pre Phase 2 began on 20 September 2021 according to the university’s ordinances and improvements in local health indicators.

For Phase 2 (yellow), the UFSC has drafted a scenario with a decreasing number of daily cases and deaths in the macro-regions of each university campus for two consecutive weeks. Also, for phase 2, the prerequisite of lower occupancy was established in the criteria for hospital beds in an intensive care unit of the Unified Health System, which must be less than 60%. In this phase, the circulation of people on campuses has been expanded, enabling general semi-presential administrative and pedagogical activities. This is a scenario in which remote working and face-to-face class activities coexist.

Finally, Phase 3 (green) corresponds to the end of the health emergency scenario, and is characterized by the availability of a vaccine, a decreasing number of new cases for 60 consecutive days, and weekly deaths equal to or less than 1 for at least 30 consecutive days. Only under these conditions is the resumption of all face-to-face activities at the university foreseen.

After observing the institutional criteria for pandemic management, the BU provided guidance on face-to-face activities related to each of these scenarios, highlighting relevant preventive measures in the libraries’ activities, in particular about the attendance service.

Guidelines and actions carried out by the COVID-19 Working Group in Phase 1

During Phase 1, which comprised the period from 16 March 2020 to 19 September 2021, the guidelines shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4 were given via the Contingency and Emergency Plan, with updates to Appendix C in the 2nd edition and Appendix D in the 3rd edition, and the COVID-19 Working Group recommendations for the BU system: ‘Actions to confront COVID-19 in face-to-face work’ (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021e).

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Figure 2.

Guidelines from the COVID-19 Working Group in Phase 1 (Remote working). Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021d and 2021e).

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Figure 3.

Guidelines from the COVID-19 Working Group in Phase 1 (Face-to-face work I). Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021d and 2021e).

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Figure 4.

Guidelines from the COVID-19 Working Group in Phase 1 (Face-to-face work II). Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021d and 2021e).

In the case of the Central Library, which is a larger library covering more than 9000 square metres, the services, as of August 2020, were moved to the library’s entrance hall and the quarantining to the periodicals reading room, according to graphic models included in the COVID-19 Working Group’s recommendations for the UFSC’s library system: ‘Actions to confront COVID-19 in face-to-face work’ (see Figures 5 and 6).

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Figure 5.

Illustration of the service and quarantine areas at the UFSC Central Library. Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021e).

Figure 5 presents the entrance to the Central Library from the sidewalk, with the left door for entry only and the right door for exit only. The reception desk near the entrance is for temperature checks and entry and information registration. There is a sign directing customers to wait in a queue for services and a sign to the users’ access area, where there is a distance of 2 metres between the service desks (one for returns and three for loans). There is a support table for books that will be borrowed on the day and a printer located on a table near the turnstile. At the bottom of the access ramp, there is a sign indicating that only materials that have passed through quarantine will be able to be returned to the shelves. Also, the periodicals sector involves most of the quarantine area on this scheme. There are three sanitation stations at strategic locations (indicated by the blue squares in Figure 5) with covered rubbish bins, alcohol gel, masks and gloves – one near to the attendance desk services, one near to the quarantine area, and the third near to the bathrooms. Furthermore, in the quarantine area there is a sign that advises the employees on quarantined materials, with seven available to allocate returned items.

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Figure 6.

Illustration of the UFSC Central Library’s entrance hall prepared for face-to-face services. Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021e).

Figure 6 shows the Central Library’s entrance hall, highlighting the division made by the service desks: on the right-hand side, there is the customer area and, on the left-hand side, the restricted access area, where only staff, security, receptionists and maintenance workers are allowed.

There were also guidelines for general conduct (Soares et al., 2020: 11), which involved avoiding the use of accessories; wearing closed-toed shoes; keeping long hair tied up; being close-shaven or having a trimmed beard; having clean and short nails; frequently sanitizing one’s hands with alcohol gel or, preferably, washing hands with soap and water whenever possible; covering one’s nose and mouth with a disposable handkerchief or directing one’s face into one’s forearm, even when using a mask, when sneezing or coughing, and washing one’s hands with soap and water immediately afterwards; blowing one’s nose in the bathroom and washing one’s hands with soap and water before and after the procedure; avoiding greeting people with handshakes, kisses or hugs; and not sharing personal items such as pens, pencils, cups or mobile phones.

In addition, the BU’s director and leaders were responsible for drawing up the face-to-face service schedule, taking into account reductions in staff numbers due to absences, being deemed a member of an ‘at risk’ group and vacations; instructing about the staff and the outsourced workers permanence during cleaning, surveillance, reception, maintenance, and other activities at the UFSC's libraries during quarantine; not allowing users access to tables, chairs, collections or restrooms; enabling the acquisition of PPE and collective protective equipment (CPE); requesting the UFSC’s central administration to reinforce the surveillance and security team; prioritizing remote services; and recognizing the stress and challenges that the context of the pandemic was causing, directing staff to the UFSC’s support teams.

The BU’s Commission of Planning and Execution of Acquisition Processes also played an important role during this process, working directly with the UFSC’s Emergency Purchasing Committee to purchase all feasible PPE and CPE. The BU’s Communication and Marketing Commission carried out the standardization of the visual identity of the library system’s instructional material, the content of which was prepared by the COVID-19 Working Group. These signs were made to be fixed up in physical environments, reinforcing good practice and social distancing. Also, digital versions of these signs were used to publicize the services that were being offered to the community on websites and social networks. The was supported by BiblioCenters, a team that promotes the BU’s services to the university community through other communication channels.

Work safety assistance and guidance was requested due to the adoption of new protocols that increased risk and were unusual in the exercising of the BU’s activities, such as the storage of large amounts of alcohol. For this,

it was recommended that alcohol should be kept in its original packaging; in tightly closed bottles to prevent evaporation and leakage; in an airy place, protected from heat sources, direct sunlight and sparks; and also the alcohol should not be kept in personal lockers (author’s translation). (Soares et al., 2020: 13)

The proper use of alcohol was reinforced by library management, such as labelling bottles and not carrying them in one’s lab coat pockets next to the body. In the same vein, people were warned that smokers should preferably wash their hands with soap and water rather than 70% alcohol or even gel because they are flammable, and ‘in general, hands should be washed with soap and water after handling chemicals due to the risk of intoxication’ (Soares et al., 2020: 13; author's translation).

In 2020, the COVID-19 Working Group held a training course for staff on ‘Coping actions for COVID-19’. Since May 2021, a weekly article in the internal bulletin – ‘What’s news?’ – has informed staff about the potential risks in the regions where the UFSC has campuses. Fortnightly, articles are published on exercising caution when providing services; good habits and daily care; collections management; sharing and cleaning objects and equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic; the use of masks and other types of protective equipment; and the transmission and prevention of, and vaccination against, COVID-19.

Also in Phase 1, several training sessions were offered on the use of systems and attendance guidelines, among other subjects, based on the BU team’s own knowledge. The library management team strengthened staff participation through online courses and lectures. It also entered into partnership with the Department of Health Care and made possible a collective talk about mental health issues in the workplace with an invited specialist.

Guidelines and actions carried out by the COVID-19 Working Group in Pre Phase 2

At the time of writing (December 2021), the library system is in Pre Phase 2 according to Normative Ordinance No. 405/2021/GR of the UFSC, where it resolves to

Authorize the gradual and full-time resumption, from September 20th, 2021, of on-site activities in all administrative and academic units of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) with the character of preparation of environments and identification of needs for adjustments in routines and procedures…associated with meeting the sanitary conditions of the environment in the units. (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021f; author's translation)

Based on this ordinance, the BU has been carrying out the following guidelines and actions in Pre Phase 2 for the continuation and expansion of the guidelines stipulated by the COVID-19 Working Group in Phase 1 regarding face-to-face care, the measures necessary for this, and the management’s recommendations:

The reorganization of activities for remote working conditions and redistribution of tasks – mainly for people deemed members of an ‘at risk’ group;

Expanded work schedules with the shift schedule adjusted to maintain the face-to-face services that were resumed, and extending loan services to other categories of library users;

Planning for the rearrangement of the BU libraries’ furniture and workstations to ensure a minimum distance of 2 metres between people;

Elaboration of other signage about good practice for staff and customer safety at the BU;

Distribution of PPE to staff who have starting to work on-site and CPE on support tables close to other workstations;

Planning the expansion of library cleaning and material collection;

Improvement in communication and interaction with the internal and external community through courses and dissemination (continuous learning) of concise information on social media about COVID-19 at the BU and in the general context of the pandemic;

Promoting the accessibility of information resources by thinking about people with disabilities in the university community, with the support of the Commission for an Accessible BU (CABU), it being the main body that is in charge of implementing accessible practices and an inclusive institutional culture at the BU;

Providing a place where meals may be eaten safely;

A maximum capacity demarcation for each indoor environment;

Demarcation on the floor of 2 metre distancing between users and attendants, as well as waiting lines for services;

Reflecting on the environments that can be made available for access and the permanence of customers at UFSC libraries;

The feasibility of training courses and the selection of reliable information sources about COVID-19 to deepen the knowledge of BU staff;

Monitoring the risk indicators published by the State Health Department (controlled, low, moderate, high, very high) and established by each region, and taking appropriate measures.

The COVID-19 Working Group held a training course on ‘Biosafety measures for Pre Phase 2’, and an internal course is being constructed to expand staff knowledge, with concise general information about COVID-19 at BU, such as lifelong education. To illustrate this discussion, Figure 7 presents the infographic created by the COVID-19 Working Group, entitled ‘Ten steps to promote a safe workplace for all’ (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2021e). The steps are as follows:

Wear PPE;

Check the humidity of the sanitizing mat and the availability of the alcohol gel;

Sanitize surfaces and objects (70% ethyl alcohol and paper towels) and equipment (isopropyl alcohol and paper towels);

Keep a minimum distance of 2 metres between workstations;

Reduce objects on surfaces and do not share personal effects;

Use different workstations for loans and returns;

Sanitize surfaces, objects, and equipment with which users have had contact, after each visit/attendance;

Perform a three-day quarantine of all materials received (return, purchase, and donation);

Do not stack materials in quarantine – choose locations with good ventilation and away from workstations;

Use different support surfaces for different functions: one for the library users to scan the barcode of the returning material and another to deposit it, 2 metres away from you.

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Figure 7.

Ten steps to promote a safe workplace for all. Source: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2021e).

Some thoughts

It should be noted that, throughout 2020 and 2021, BU workers could stay in touch with the COVID-19 Working Group members and were also invited to meetings and to join the Working Group. Over this period, workers participated who brought local demands and had their questions answered. After 11 months of activities, the Working Group doubled its membership. The training courses were also very important, where 75% of the staff participated and 90% of leaders and managers.

Although users were physically absent from the UFSC because they had remote classes, they were able to obtain information from the BU through its website and social networks. In addition, users could ask for library services by email, via the Institutional Service Portal or even through a synchronous chat service. This helped to respond to demands, and the BU could adjust its direction, respecting the restrictions imposed by the UFSC and COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, at sensitive moments like these – especially in a country like Brazil – and aiming at the effectiveness and continuity of the COVID-19 Working Group’s guidelines and actions, we support the precepts of information literacy and lifelong learning, which go beyond and enable the individual to deal with the diversity of information resources available. They incorporate active and permanent learning, critical thinking, and the ability to reflect and have a critical attitude towards the information universe that is available to people in a globalized world and they also emphasize the creative or even solidary capacity of the human being (Spudeit et al., 2020).

When experiencing the drawbacks of the current social conjecture, it could be inferred that it demands and sustains the need to create or optimize the information processes necessary for an information society, especially regarding groups and individuals in situations of vulnerability. At this time, we are all weakened, whether by the physical risks of infection or the misinformation disseminated by media outlets.

Over time, libraries and their professionals have been put to the test, facing political, cultural, social and technological changes, and reaffirming their role in preserving knowledge and transferring scientific-cultural information to society, regardless of any external support. In times of crisis or social conflicts, libraries and information units tend to reinvent their services and adopt new postures quickly and effectively to meet contemporary needs, consolidating themselves as a support base for their community (Sala and Moura, 2020).

It is worth highlighting that, to meet this new reality, libraries, as drivers of social transformation, must view themselves as increasingly virtual spaces, creating spaces for reconnection and connection after COVID-19, being aware of agile decision-making needs, being flexible and adaptable in the face of the sudden changes that are so prevalent today, and modifying their services according to demand (Sala and Moura, 2020). It is therefore necessary to redemocratize information and knowledge in media outlets, which implies a greater appreciation of official and scientific channels in response to the movement to combat misinformation, while fostering critical thinking and involvement with different sectors of society.

Conclusions

The actions of the COVID-19 Working Group within the scope of the BU/UFSC’s library system have been focused on the preservation of lives and, faced with the pandemic scenario, the group has been making efforts to provide what is necessary to promote initiatives and studies on security in the context discussed. Certainly, the guidelines are not a guarantee of the complete prevention of COVID-19. Nor, by themselves, are they capable of controlling transmission in the library environment. This virus brought an opportunity to learn how people are interdependent and jointly responsible for each other’s lives and well-being.

Although in a complex and problematic way, the COVID-19 pandemic has been created opportunities to build new services and for libraries to seek a leading role in the dissemination of and access to scientific information, intensifying the fight against fake news and misinformation, as well as highlighting their role in the development of information skills. It is undeniable that the pandemic has marked the history of humanity deeply, and the consequences of this pandemic are (and will be) reflected in everyday life.

Without the support of Brazil’s federal government and being obligated to fight to overcome the dissemination of misinformation, with an academic nature, the UFSC has been cautious in forwarding actions during the pandemic, based on the guidelines from researchers and on scenarios that have taken into account the new daily case figures, the number of beds occupied in the Unified Health System’s intensive care units, and the number of deaths in the macro-regions that have a UFSC campus.

Through the COVID-19 Working Group, the library system, fulfilling its role of supporting education, has made possible the articulation of a network for exchanging information about COVID-19 with public servants. Moreover, the group has conducted research and guided the BU’s management team in offering face-to-face and remote services securely, both for users and workers.

The COVID-19 Working Group is continuing with its research and preparing the UFSC’s libraries for customers to access and use individual and group study rooms, and for the greater circulation of people. It is also studying shorter deadlines for quarantine based on OCLC’s (2021) Reopening Archives, Libraries and Museums Project, and intends to establish an automated way of controlling the number of users inside each library to respect the capacity limit foreseen according to carbon dioxide measurements.