Information transparency: How do Department of Library and Information Science students at South Valley University perceive the state’s dealing with the novel coronavirus outbreak?

Abstract

This study proposes to investigate the knowledge and perception of students in the Department of Library and Information Science at South Valley University in Upper Egypt about the state’s dealing with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 that has been detected in Egypt in February 2020. A quantitative research approach was adopted in the form of a survey. The target population of the study included students (N = 295) of the fourth year of Department of Library and Information Science at South Valley University, of which 253 responded to the study questionnaire, representing 85.8% of the total number. The study found that there is no significant relationship between the students’ gender and other variables of the study according to the statistics used. It also showed that the most popular information sources mentioned by Department of Library and Information Science students to get information related to the coronavirus were social media and the Internet/Web. The publication/dissemination of information and its availability were badly perceived by the students. About one-third of them questioned the government’s ability to deal with the novel coronavirus. They highly believe in the role of information transparency in fighting both administrative and human corruption. The students emphasized the citizens’ right to criticize the government when it does not comply with the transparency, as well as the right to access any information owned by it in any formats at any time. They were dissatisfied with the government’s ability to retrieve information, organize, store, have legislations, and own a good database of citizens, as well as its capabilities, in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence, in relation to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Finally, the study indicated that barriers, such as the spread of administrative and human corruption, security restrictions, and the fragility of the freedom to disclose government information, were highly significant by the surveyed students.

Keywords

Information transparency coronavirus COVID-19 survey students library and information science Egypt

Being transparent and putting out clear, accurate information are important to allay people’s fears amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

—Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat of Singapore (2020)

Introduction

In December 2019, the entire world woke up to one of the most dangerous viruses that mankind has not seen in hundreds of years, known as COrona VIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which originated in Wuhan, China. and rapidly spread throughout the world. This spread, which amounted to 27,486,960 total confirmed cases and 894,983 total deaths, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) (as of 9 September 2020), could have been understood and acknowledged and then dealt with well, but the absence of impartial disclosure and the transparency of relevant information, as reported by Woody Johnson (Ruters, 2020), the US ambassador to London, played a role to exacerbate this proliferation and reach a stage of non-control the world is currently experiencing at present. Some researchers believe that such transparency, especially by the official, specific, and specialized authorities, is capable of well containing and controlling the growth of problems. Menon and Goh (2004), for example, mentioned that the tightening of State control when severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread across the country in 2003 and its commitment to transparency have helped handle the situation well. “A key factor accounting for Singapore’s success in managing SARS was that the highest levels of government came into the picture very early in the crisis and took the lead” (Menon and Goh, 2004: 378). To ensure transparency effectively, the information should be available by the population (Social Protection and Human Rights, 2015). Believing in the role of information transparency and its role in judicious, reliable, true, and equal understanding of the problems, as well as challenges facing countries and peoples, this study revealed the attitude of a specific class of society toward the state’s handling of this virus through the perspective of its academic discipline that is closely linked to this transparency. This class is university students studying information science. Like all members of society, university students are affected by what happens in community events, especially when this impact is closely related to their academic specialization. Students may see a relationship between their specialization and these events. Such a relationship urges students to participate and express a reasonable understanding of these influencing events, and it may be a good opportunity to apply what students have learned and interacted with the community issues that they have experienced.

Problem statement

The problem with this study is limited to coping with the state’s dealing with the coronavirus epidemic and its impact on the health of people. It seeks to approach this virus from a strictly informational perspective through the understanding of the students specializing in information science in one of the Egyptian universities, namely, South Valley University (SVU), in terms of the information’s origination, design, organization, and preservation, retrieval, as well as ways of its access. The philosophy is to focus on these students as they are the most capable ones to understand the role the information plays in building awareness to understand the effects of this virus.

Significance and importance of the study

The significance of this study derives from its important topic, which has occupied mankind over the past months amid uncertainty, apprehension, and anticipation, which can continue for a longer period of time in the absence of any successful treatment. In this study, this topic is addressed and handled in terms of the transparency of information that the government is following in its dealings with specialists in the study of information to expose their role in the dissemination of this virus in terms of origin, availability, distribution, transparency, organization, preservation, retrieval, as well as accessibility.

Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of fourth-year students of the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at SVU in Upper Egypt regarding the state’s dealings with the novel coronavirus (nCoV), which has been detected in Egypt in February 2020.

Research questions

Based on its goals, the study focuses on the five following research questions:

RQ1. What are the sources of information followed by DLIS fourth-year students at SVU regarding the coronavirus outbreak?

RQ2. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the availability of government-owned information about the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the right to access this information?

RQ3. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the government’s capabilities in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and trust?

RQ4. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the government’s capabilities in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information related to this virus?

RQ5. What are the barriers, if any, that may affect the transparency of information provided by the Egyptian government regarding the coronavirus outbreak?

Definitions of terms

COVID-19

According to the WHO (2020a), coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from common cold to more severe diseases, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV. An nCoV is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.

Transparency

As defined by Forest Transparency (2020), transparency relates to the amount of access to information internally owned that citizens are entitled to; the scope, accuracy, and timing of this information; and what citizens (as “outsiders”) can do if the “insiders” are not able to provide such access.

Information transparency

“Transparency” is the government’s obligation to share information with citizens that is needed to make informed decisions and hold officials accountable for the conduct of the people’s business (American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 2020).

DLIS at SVU

DLIS was established in 2003 to build cadres specialized in Library and Information Science (LIS) to meet the needs of the different sectors, particularly in Upper Egypt. In total, DLIS has 954 undergraduate students. It has three associate professors, five assistant professors, seven teaching assistants, and three tutors (DLIS, 2020). This department was chosen to conduct this study, specifically fourth-year students, representing the 22 departments of LIS spread across Egypt, where conditions, infrastructure, and demographic characteristics match, on one hand, and the author of this study is one of the assistant professors working in this department and is acquainted with its curricula, regulations, and students, on the other hand.

SVU

SVU was established on 2 January to cover a large area in Upper Egypt, mainly in Qena Governorate, which is 609 km south of Cairo, the capital. It includes a total of 19 colleges/faculties, as well as two institutes. It has 55,872 undergraduate students and 6042 graduate enrolled in the academic year 2019–2020 with 1785 faculty members and 4035 employees (SVU, 2020). Despite its huge human capabilities, the south of the valley suffers from a severe shortage of financial capabilities, which negatively affects its scientific mission.

The Arab Republic of Egypt (ARE)

Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations ever known to mankind. With an overall area of approximately 386,662 square miles, Egypt is sited on the Mediterranean Sea in the northeast of Africa. Egypt is bordered to the west by Libya, to the south by Sudan, and to the east by the Red Sea and Israel (Infoplease, 2020). According to the 2017 census carried out by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) (2020), Egypt’s population stood at 94,798,827 million citizens living in Egypt in April 2017, while the population of Egyptian expatriates hit 9.4 million citizens.

Higher education status in Egypt

The World Bank (2020) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a very important report, titled “OECD/World Bank Reviews of National Policies for Education: Higher Education in Egypt.” The report summarized the following challenges facing this important sector:

Narrow access and limited opportunities for students;

Poor quality of educational inputs and processes;

Deficiencies and imbalances in graduate output relative to labor market requirements;

Under-developed university research capability and linkages to the national innovation system.

Findings from surveys of students and graduates of Egyptian higher education indicated similar concerns about the necessary need to strengthen the links between higher education and the labor market. According to the standards approved by the Egyptian Ministry of Education in 2020, there are 54 accredited universities in Egypt meeting those standards approved by UniRank (2020). The number of LIS schools in the Arab world has reached 53, spread in just eight countries out of the 22 countries that make up the Arab world. Egypt’s share of these schools is 22 schools, with an Arab participation rate of 41.5% (Meho, 2015).

Literature review

Most conventions related to disclosure of information transparency include provisions requiring the implementation of legislation on the right to information for people. It has become a constitutional right in many countries around the world. However, this right faces a number of restrictions. Article 19 (the public’s right to know) organization, for example, operated on principles in legislation related to freedom of information and the right to circulate information, and these principles are the minimum that should be available in the laws on freedom of information in any country. The following principles are among these:

Strengthen information disclosure legislation;

Adjust or repeal legislation, which is incompatible with universal transparency requirements;

Encourage successful open government;

Speed and neutrality when addressing requests for information;

Protect information disclosures (Article 19, 1999).

The benefits of transparency

According to Forest Transparency (2020), there are many benefits of transparency, including the following:

Democracy, accountability, and participation. Information is an important first step in the exercise of political and economic power. When the public have direct and open information about government policies and practices, they will engage to rightly participate in the democratic process. Any lack of information transparency creates a sense of disempowerment, mistrust, and frustration. On the contrary, sufficient access to appropriate, updated information will provide a foundation for natural exchange, allowing for better decision-making by officials and the public.

Good governance. Transparency is linked to governance. This is an essential concept of good governance because a degree of transparency and openness about the decisions made will help develop the capacity of the poor and oppressed to play a role in policy design and implementation of policies.

Increased efficiency and effectiveness. Transparency is seen as a significant factor in public policy and effectiveness.

A weapon against corruption. Having access to information plays a crucial role in efforts to curb corruption and control its impact since free access to information empowers citizens, the media, and law enforcement agencies to use official records as a means of uncovering corruption cases.

There are many organizations working in the field of information transparency. Transparency International (TI) comes at the head of these organizations. TI is an international non-governmental organization, founded in Berlin, Germany, in 1993. Its key role is to expose international corruption by means of civil societal anti-corruption measures and initiatives and to deter criminal activities arising from corruption (Transparency International, 2020). The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) and the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) are the most relevant publications it publishes, which appear periodically (annually) (Transparency International, 2019). There is also the WHO, the largest and most important healthcare agency. WHO was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 1948 to care about public health in the world. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group. It is in charge of the World Health Report, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day.

Methodological studies related to the study of epidemics are either non-existent from an information perspective or linked to the specialization of LIS. To date, no studies have been performed to tackle these epidemics by this specialization in terms of employing their operations and functions in studying these epidemics. This study is not only the first of its kind at the local or even regional level, but rather at the international level, as it is the first study to examine the views and perceptions of students of the information science department in one of the Egyptian public universities by linking their specialization to what Egypt and the world are going through a difficult challenge.

Trying to understand the LIS education’s role in the development of community health information services for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), Mehra and Dessel (2011) interviewed 11 directors and managers of local branches in the Knox County Public Library System (East Tennessee, USA) to find that such role would help in terms of what might be useful, who should serve this community, what resources and services are available, how can public library information providers and LIS educators work together to achieve greater effectiveness in reaching out to PLWHA, and what role can technology play in bringing about meaningful change in public library environments.

In the same regard, Bamise et al. (2009) tried to evaluate the awareness of the presence of public libraries and utilization of their HIV/AIDS information resources and services by secondary school adolescents in two major cities of Osun state, Western Nigeria. They recruited secondary school students (N = 420) from Osogbo and Ile-Ife to explore whether they were aware of the public library in their cities; positive respondents were then implored to provide answers to inquiries about their usage of AIDS information resources and related services. Of 420 students, 52.9% were aware of the public library in their cities. Library-based services were used more by males, while females used more of the outreach services. This study revealed a modest awareness of public libraries and low utilization of their AIDS information services.

Wan (2010) conducted her study to explore how emergency management in China was affected by governmental decisions to release or withhold information during the wave of major crises that China experienced during the past period, such as the crisis of the 2003 SARS epidemic, the 2005 Songhua water pollution, the 2008 snowstorms, and the crisis of 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. She concluded that the government withheld information to retain control over the disaster. Information control by the authorities erodes citizens’ confidence in the government’s ability to deal with crises professionally. This reflected on the behavior of citizens, which exacerbates reality and imposes more emergency.

Using a self-administrated questionnaire, Al-Hazami et al. (2018) tried to investigate the knowledge, practice, and attitudes of university and high school students (N = 1109, of which 62.7% are university students and 37.2% are high school students) toward MERS that is caused by the coronavirus. The study reached conclusion that there is a significant difference concerning knowledge of precautionary measures against the disease. This might propose that greater educational efforts on prevention are conducted in university settings compared to high schools. However, most students sought their knowledge from traditional media and social media settings rather than from organized formal programs. The study also recommended that awareness of protective hygiene among both Saudi students and the population should be increased. Further education should be given to notify students about the necessary precautions. More attention should also be paid for exploiting social media resources as practices of promoting public health education.

Using a survey, Yan et al. (2017) tried to analyze differences between information transparency disclosure and related demands from the perspective of the health service consumer and to compare how health service providers (n = 201) and consumers (n = 384) are allied by different levels of mandatory disclosure of information. They found that health service consumers do not have major concerns about the disclosure of compulsory information. There were major differences in the awareness of both health service providers and consumers concerning the disclosure of information transparency. The study concluded that it may not be possible for outsiders to appropriately interpret the information delivered by hospitals. Thus, when a hospital discloses information, it is obligatory for the government to consider the information’s applicability. The study recommended that the government should reduce the burden among health service consumers in dealing with this information.

Transparency of information in Egypt: An overview

Transparency has become an urgent necessity in Egypt after changing the concepts of governance and management, especially after the Arab Spring uprisings that included two major Egyptian revolutions, namely, the 2011 and 2013 revolutions. Regimes in Egypt have changed, but the state remains standing with corruption and severe lack of transparency, which are inherent characteristics of the old bureaucracy that the revolutions failed to overcome because the infrastructure of the regime before these revolutions still exists, as reported by TI (Egypt Independent, 2014). As a result of the absence of government transparency, especially with regard to administration, governance, and the honest disclosure of information, Egypt falls in the last third of the list of the International Organization for Transparency that is known as TI. According to the data of the CPI, a division of TI, in the last 5 years with regard to transparency, Egypt ranked 35 in 2019 and 2018, 32 in 2017, 34 in 2016, and 36 in 2015 (100 is very clean and 0 is highly corrupt). This absence helped to penetrate administrative and human corruption alike, taking advantage of many factors that helped in that, such as the strong and absolute control of the institutions of the ruling regime in Egypt, on one hand, and the absence of the culture of transparency among the masses of the people, as well as the government, on the other hand. This is highly emphasized by the US News (2020), based on a global perception-based survey of the Best Countries Rankings, which puts Egypt in the last quarter (78.1%) of those countries that own information transparency. This survey ranked Egypt at 57 (out of 73 surveyed countries) as the most transparent countries in the world in 2020 and at 63 (out of 80) in 2019.

The nCoV pandemic in Egypt

The nCoV pandemic in Egypt is part of the major epidemic that has gripped the world since its discovery in December 2019 in Wuhan City, China. The first case of COVID-19 in Egypt confirmed on 14 February 2020 marks the first confirmed instance of the virus in Africa. As of 16 August 2020, there have been 96,452 total confirmed cases and 5158 total deaths (WHO, Report # 209, 2020). The coronavirus, as in all the countries affected by it, has countless economic, social, educational, and psychological consequences. This is in addition to the financial losses that have reached billions of dollars, as well as the human losses that have reached hundreds of people. To limit the spread of the virus in Egypt, study at schools and universities was postponed on 15 March 2020 for a period of 2 weeks (renewed), as well as a partial ban was imposed on 25 March 2020 from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for a period of 2 weeks (renewed). In light of the absence of government transparency in disclosing accurate information about confirmed cases of infection with the virus and the state of blackouts imposed by the government on the media, avoiding any panic or exposing its modest capabilities locally and globally, the government claims, through its Minister of Information (reported by Egypt Today, 2020), to be transparent about the disclosure of information related to this virus, and any discourse contrary to that is rejected, despite what has been reported by some international newspapers, such as The Guardian (reported by Michaelson, 2020), that Egypt has confirmed cases of more than hundreds of thousands, while the government claims to be a few hundred, not more.

Research methodology

A quantitative research approach was adopted in the form of a survey, which was conducted between February and March 2020 to gather the required information from the respondents. According to Kerlinger (1986), survey research is a useful educational fact-finding tool and a means by which one can obtain a lot of information from the study community. The survey tool was a self-administered questionnaire, which was adopted for data collection. A pilot questionnaire was first sent to a small random sample of students, with feedback used to refine the final questionnaire. A pilot test was conducted prior to the actual distribution to check validity and reliability. An acceptable internal consistency is found (Cronbach’s α= 0.795), which shows, as Ash (2009) sees, a high level of internal consistency.

The population of the study

The population of this study included students (N = 295) of the fourth year of DLIS at SVU. Of the total number of the students, 253, who attended classes regularly, responded to the study questionnaire, representing 85.8% of the total number.

The construction of the questionnaire

To collect data, the study used a questionnaire, which was absolutely anonymous. The questionnaire contains eight sections, which reflect the objectives of the study, as follows:

Section A (one question) refers to the gender of the students.

Section B (one question) deals with the information sources used by students about the coronavirus.

Section C (three questions) deals with the availability of the information provided by the government about the coronavirus.

Section D (three questions) is about the right to access information owned by the government.

Section E (one question) is about students’ perceptions about the government in terms of design, organization, storage, retrieval, and access to information.

Section F (one question) refers to the students’ perceptions about the government in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence.

Section G (one question) deals with barriers perceived by the students that may affect the information transparency regarding the coronavirus outbreak in Egypt.

Section H (one open-ended question) provides the opportunity for the students to add any comments or ideas regarding the coronavirus.

All questions itemized in the study questionnaire were close-ended, with the exception of the last question which was open-ended. The aim of the closed questions was to codify the answers given by students. These close-ended questions motivated responses on a Likert-type scale of 4 and 5 points.

Data analysis

All valid questionnaires returned by the students were coded using SPSS (version 24.0) data matrix. The results were presented in tables. Frequency counts, percentage, mean, the standard error (SE) of mean and standard deviation (SD) for the itemized categories in the study questionnaire were made. In addition, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether there are any noteworthy relationships between the means of independent groups.

Limitations of the study

This study examines how the state handles the nCoV outbreak through the academic perspective of DLIS fourth-year students at SVU in Upper Egypt. The findings and conclusions of this study are limited to these students only, as they are the most students with a good understanding of perceiving information that emerges from their academic major. Such a topic has no previous research, to date, and that is why this study came to be a pioneer one.

Findings and analyses of the study

The findings of this study are presented on the basis of the items listed in its questionnaire. They are also handled in terms of the answer to the five study questions. The study sample consisted of valid responses from 253 students representing the DLIS fourth-year students of the bachelor’s degree (the last level) at SVU and expected to graduate by the end of the fall semester (2020).

The study was carried out in 253 of 295 students (the total number of DLIS at SVU). There were 219 (86.6% of the sample) female students, representing 87.25% of the female representation at DLIS (bachelor’s level). There were also 34 (13.4%) male students, representing 77.27% of the male representation at DLIS (bachelor’s level; mean = 1.87, SE = 0.021 and SD = 0.342) (Table 1). It is worth noting that the number of students at SVU’s DLIS, to which the author of this study belongs, is 954 (first year = 177, second year = 191, third year = 280, and fourth year = 295)..

Table 1.

The distribution of DLIS fourth-year students at SVU versus their mean, SE, and SD..

Students’ gender	No.	%	Mean	SE	SD
Male	34/44^a	13.4	1.87	0.021	0.342
Female	219/251^b	86.6	1.87	0.021	0.342

DLIS: Department of Library and Information Science.

The selected sample/the total number of male students.

The selected sample/the total number of female students.

RQ1. What are the sources of information followed by DLIS fourth-year students at SVU regarding the coronavirus outbreak?

Among 5-point Likert-type scales given to them concerning the permanence level for the use of sources of information regarding the nCoV, the students gave many variant answers ranging from “always” to “never.” The highest strength level, as shown in Table 2, was given to “social media” as a large number (93.3%) of students reported that they always used this source to get information about this virus, followed by “the Internet/Web” (89.3%), “friends/colleagues” (80.6%), “media” (67.6%) and “family/relatives” (56.1%). More than half (61.3%) of the students also reported using “Lectures/Discussions/Workshops” sometimes to get such information, followed by “printed sources” (55.3%). Through one-way ANOVA, the study found that there is no statistical relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and their sources of information about the nCoV (Table 3).

Table 2.

Students’ permanence level for the use of sources of information about the novel coronavirus.

Sources	Always (%)	Often (%)	Sometimes (%)	Seldom (%)
Social media	93.3	6.7	0	0
The Internet/Web	89.3	10.7	0	0
Friends/colleagues	80.6	17.4	2	0
Media (TV, radio, etc.)	67.6	28.5	0	0
Family/relatives	56.1	34.8	8.3	0
Lectures/discussions/workshops	6.7	26.5	61.3	5.5
Printed sources	6.3	34.8	55.3	3.6

Table 3.

ANOVA (shortened) by students’ information sources versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD..

Sources	Statistics				Significance
Sources	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
Social media	253	1.07	0.042	0.016	p > 0.396
The Internet/Web	253	1.11	0.043	0.309	p > 0.376
Friends/colleagues	253	1.21	0.035	0.456	p > 0.126
Media (TV, radio, etc.)	253	1.36	0.019	0.558	p > 0.825
Family/relatives	253	1.54	0.016	0.681	p > 0.208
Lectures/discussions/workshops	253	2.66	0.043	0.687	p > 0.154
Printed sources	253	2.56	0.029	0.668	p > 0.189

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

RQ2. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the availability of government-owned information about the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the right to access this information?

The students were asked to indicate their strength level, among 5-point Likert-type scales, regarding the availability of government-owned information about the outbreak of the nCoV. As Table 4 shows, the students gave many variant answers ranging from “very bad” to “very good.” With regard to the information published by the government about the nCoV, almost half (48.2%) of the students answered from “bad” to “very bad.” While 43.1% of the students reported that the government-designed information transfer cycle about the coronavirus ranged from “bad” to “very bad,” 22.2% of them reported that this cycle was at least “good.” Although 38.7% of the students indicated that the availability of the information provided by their government about this virus ranged from “bad” to “very bad,” nearly a quarter (24.9%) of them saw this availability as at least good. However, about one-third of students reported that they were “undecided” regarding the availability of government-owned information. Through one-way ANOVA, the study revealed that there is no significant relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and the availably of information owned by the government about the nCoV (Table 5).

Table 4.

Students’ strength level of availability of information about the coronavirus.

Availability of information about the coronavirus	Very good (%)	Good (%)	Undecided (%)	Bad (%)	Very bad (%)
Publication of government information	4.3	17	30.4	38.7	9.5
The government-designed information transfer cycle	4	18.2	34.8	30.8	12.3
Availability of government information	3.2	21.7	36.4	32	6.7

Table 5.

ANOVA (shortened) by students’ strength level of availability of information versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

Availability of information about the coronavirus	Statistics				Significance
	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
Publication of government information	253	3.32	0.060	1.006	p > 0.450
The government-designed information transfer cycle	253	3.29	0.063	1.028	p > 0.731
Availability of government information	253	3.17	0.056	0.952	p > 0.728

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

Among the 5-point Likert-type scales given to them concerning the level of agreement regarding some statements related to the transparency of government information toward nCoV, the students gave many variant answers ranging from “completely agree” to “completely disagree.” The highest strength level was, as shown in Table 6, the statement “information transparency is a good and effective weapon against corruption” (91.3%), followed by the statements “every citizen should have the right to criticize the government when it does not comply with the transparency of information in dealing with crises, such as the coronavirus” (87.4%), “every citizen should have the right to any kind and any form of information owned by the government” (86.2%), “the government should not withhold information from any citizen under any circumstances” (84.6%), “every citizen should have the right to obtain any documents from the government” (83.4%), and “every citizen should have the right to full, adequate and fair access to information about the government’s performance” (81.8%). Through ANOVA, the study revealed that while there is no significant relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and some statements given to them about the transparency of the government information, there is only a significant difference between their gender and the statement “Every citizen should have the right to obtain any documents from the government” (p < 0.013) (Table 7).

Table 6.

Students’ agreement level about some statements related to the transparency of government information.

Statements	Completely agree (%)	Agree (%)	Neutral (%)
Information transparency is an effective weapon in fighting corruption	91.3	7.1	1.6
Every citizen should have the right to criticize the government when it does not comply with the transparency of information in dealing with crises	87.4	12.3	0.4
Every citizen should have the right to any kind and any form of information owned by the government	86.2	13.4	0.4
The government should not withhold information from any citizen under any circumstances	84.6	12.6	2.8
Every citizen should have the right to obtain any documents from the government	83.4	16.2	0.4
Every citizen should have the right to adequate access to information about government’s performance	81.8	17.8	0.4
Transparency of information should be an inherent right of citizenship	77.1	21.3	1.6
“The culture of information transparency” should be one of the principles of government work	76.3	20.9	2.8
The government records belong to the people, not to the government	73.5	23.7	2.8
Information transparency should be one of the principles of government work	73.1	23.1	3.6

Table 7.

ANOVA (shortened) by students’ agreement level of some statements related to the transparency of government information versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

Statements	Statistics				Significance
Statements	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
Information transparency is an effective weapon in fighting corruption	253	1.10	0.022	0.353	p > 0.436
Every citizen should have the right to criticize the government when it does not comply with information transparency in dealing with crises	253	1.13	0.022	0.349	p > 0.766
Every citizen should have the right to any kind and any form of information owned by the government	253	1.14	0.023	0.361	p > 0.271
The government should not withhold information from any citizen under any circumstances	253	1.18	0.028	0.453	p > 0.460
Every citizen should have the right to obtain any documents from the government	253	1.17	0.024	0.387	p < 0.013
Every citizen should have the right to adequate access to information about government’s performance	253	1.19	0.025	0.400	p > 0.089
Transparency of information should be an inherent right of citizenship	253	1.25	0.029	0.466	p > 0.896
“The culture of information transparency” should be one of the principles of government work	253	1.26	0.031	0.501	p > 0.715
The government records belong to the people, not to the government	253	1.29	0.032	0.513	p > 0.461
Information transparency should be one of the principles of government work	253	1.30	0.034	0.533	p > 0.569

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

RQ3. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the government’s capabilities in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and trust?

Through 5-point Likert-type scales, the students were asked to report their perceptions about some statements related to the government’s ability to handle information related to the nCoV. They gave many variant answers ranging from “to a great extent” to “not at all.” The findings showed that students questioned the government’s ability to deal with the coronavirus. In detail, just over half (56.1%) of the students reported that their perceptions about the statement “the government adheres to ethical standards (code of ethics) when dealing with information related to crises, such as the coronavirus” was “to some extent,” followed by the statements “the government has the appropriate technological tools to disclose its information in times of crisis, such as the coronavirus” (55.7%) and “the government has good information infrastructure in place to deal with the coronavirus” (45.8%). However, just over a quarter (28.1%) of the students indicated that the statements “the government has specialized information centers to answer questions about the coronavirus” and “the government has effective strategic plans that can be applied in dealing with the coronavirus” (24.9%) were at least “to a moderate extent” (Table 8). Through ANOVA, the study revealed that there is no a significant relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and their perceptions about the government’s ability to handle information related to the coronavirus (Table 9).

Table 8.

Students’ perceptions of the government’s ability to handle information related to the coronavirus.

Statements	To a great extent (%)	To a moderate extent (%)	To some extent (%)	To a small extent (%)	Not at all (%)
The government adheres to ethical standards when dealing with information related to crises	0.4	12.6	56.1	28.5	2.4
The government has the appropriate technology to disclose information in times of crisis	2.4	13	55.7	24.5	4.3
The government has good information infrastructure in place to deal with the coronavirus	0.8	20.6	45.8	27.3	5.5
The government has good information coordination among its agencies concerned with the coronavirus	0.8	5.5	45.1	42.7	5.9
The government has good tools for effective communication with citizens during crises	0.0	6.7	43.1	46.6	3.6
The government has a clear information policy	2.4	14.6	39.1	35.6	8.3
The government has a good track record and history of disclosing information in times of crisis	0.4	13.4	39.1	37.2	6.3
The government has specialized information centers to answer questions about the coronavirus	2.8	25.3	37.2	30.4	4.3
The government has effective strategic plans that can be applied in dealing with the coronavirus	3.2	21.7	33.6	34	7.5

Table 9.

ANOVA (shortened) about students’ perceptions about the government’s ability to handle information related to the coronavirus versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

Statements	Statistics				Significance
Statements	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
The government adheres to ethical standards when dealing with information related to crises	253	3.20	0.044	0.696	p > 0.650
The government has the appropriate technological tools to disclose its information in times of crisis	253	3.15	0.050	0.789	p > 0.145
The government has good information infrastructure in place to deal with crisis such as the coronavirus	253	3.16	0.053	0.841	p > 0.745
The government has good information coordination among its agencies concerned with the coronaviruses	253	3.47	0.058	0.727	p > 0.776
The government has good tools for effective communication with citizens during crises	253	3.47	0.042	0.676	p > 0.787
The government has a clear information policy	253	3.33	0.057	0.908	p > 0.326
The government has a good track record and history of disclosing information in times of crisis	253	3.28	0.058	0.916	p > 0.081
The government has specialized information centers to answer questions about the coronavirus	253	3.08	0.058	0.916	p > 0.813
The government has effective strategic plans that can be applied in dealing with the coronavirus	253	3.21	0.061	0.972	p > 0.688

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

RQ4. How do DLIS fourth-year students at SVU perceive the government’s capabilities in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information related to this virus?

Among the 5-point Likert-type scales, the students were asked to state their perceptions concerning the satisfaction level with the government’s capabilities in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information related to the coronavirus outbreak; they gave many variant answers ranging from “completely satisfied” to “completely dissatisfied.” As Table 10 shows, the highest satisfaction rate (at least satisfied) was the statement “the government is doing its best to help the citizen access information safely and fairly” (37.6%), followed by the statement “the government has the necessary legislation to regulate the disclosure of information, especially in times of crisis, such as the novel coronavirus” (35.2%) and the statements “the government has the capacity to store information for use when needed” and “the government has the ability to retrieve any information related to any citizen at any time” (34.8%), respectively. About one-third of the students, however, maintained neutrality and did not know how to precisely determine their response to these statements. Similarly, a considerable number of the students showed their dissatisfaction with the state’s ability to deal with the outbreak of this virus, particularly with regard to storing and retrieving information, as the dissatisfaction of more than one-third (31.7%) of them ranged from dissatisfied to completely dissatisfied toward the government’s ability to retrieve information, followed by organizing and storage (31.3%), legislation (30.9%), and owning a good database of citizens (30.1%). Through ANOVA, the study showed that there is no a significant relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and their perceptions of the government’s capabilities in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information in relation to the coronavirus (Table 11).

Table 10.

Students’ perceptions of the government’s capabilities in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information in relation to the coronavirus.

Statements	Completely satisfied (%)	Satisfied (%)	Neutral (%)	Disagree (%)	Completely dissatisfied (%)
The government has a large database of citizens	9.5	22.5	37.9	26.1	4
The government has the ability to organize information	9.1	25.3	34.4	28.9	2.4
The government is doing its best to help citizens	9.1	28.5	34.4	25.7	2.4
The government has legislation to disclose information	8.7	26.5	34	27.7	3.2
The government has the ability to retrieve information	7.5	27.3	33.6	28.1	3.6
The government has the capacity to store information	6.7	28.1	34	28.5	2.8

Table 11.

ANOVA (shortened) by students’ perceptions of the government’s capabilities relation to the coronavirus versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

Statements	Statistics				Significance
Statements	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
The government has a large database of citizens	253	2.92	0.064	1.011	p > 0.175
The government has the ability to organize information	253	2.90	0.063	0.997	p > .626
The government is doing its best to help citizens	253	2.84	0.062	0.989	p > 0.725
The government has legislation to disclose information	253	2.90	0.063	1.005	p > 0.487
The government has the ability to retrieve any information	253	2.93	0.062	0.997	p > 0.751
The government has the capacity to store information	253	2.92	0.061	0.971	p > 0.302

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

The students were asked, through 5-point Likert-type scales, to determine their level of satisfaction with the government’s capabilities in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence regarding the coronavirus outbreak. The responses of the students ranged from “completely satisfied” to “completely dissatisfied.” As shown in Table 12, students were at least satisfied with statements such as the government is “sincere” (35.6%), followed by “helpful” and “trustful” (35.5%), and “accurate” and “effective” (35.2%), although between a quarter and one-third of students’ answers to these statements were neutral. Similarly, a reasonable number of them showed their dissatisfaction with the state’s ability to deal with the corona crisis, especially with regard to its transparency, innovation, clarity, efficiency, and help, as the dissatisfaction of more than one-third (37.1%) of them ranged from dissatisfied to completely dissatisfied toward the government’s transparency, followed by innovation (36.3%), clarity (35.9%), efficiency (35.1%), and help (34.1%). Through ANOVA, the study showed that there is no a significant relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and their perceptions of the government’s capabilities in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence in relation to the coronavirus (Table 13).

Table 12.

Students’ perceptions of the government’s capabilities in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence.

The government is	Completely satisfied (%)	Satisfied (%)	Neutral (%)	Dissatisfied (%)	Completely dissatisfied (%)
Sincere	7.5	28.1	32.4	28.1	4
Effective	6.7	28.5	29.6	29.6	5.5
Honest	6.7	27.3	33.6	28.1	4.3
Accurate	6.3	28.9	32.8	26.9	5.1
Helpful	5.5	30	29.2	30.4	3.7
Trained	5.5	29.6	35.2	25.7	4
Thinking practically	4.7	28.9	37.9	24.5	4
Competent	4.7	28.9	33.6	27.7	5.1
Trustful	4.7	30.8	31.2	26.5	6.7
Rational	4.3	28.5	34.4	25.7	7.1
Innovative	4.3	26.1	33.2	31.6	4.7
Transparent	4	29.6	29.2	30	7.1
Well prepared	4	31.2	35.2	22.9	2.8
Professional	4	23.3	40.3	28.1	4.3
Clear	4	29.6	30.4	31.2	4.7
Thinking forward	3.2	28.9	35.6	28.1	4.3

Table 13.

ANOVA (shortened) of students’ perceptions of the government’s capabilities in relation to the coronavirus versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

The government is	Statistics				Significance
The government is	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
Sincere	253	2.93	0.063	1.009	p > 0.117
Effective	253	2.99	0.065	1.037	p > 0.177
Honest	253	2.96	0.063	0.999	p > 0.110
Accurate	253	2.96	0.063	1.009	p > 0.234
Helpful	253	2.99	0.063	1.010	p > 0.166
Trained	253	2.93	0.059	0.965	p > 0.403
Thinking practically	253	2.94	0.059	0.939	p > 0.241
Competent	253	3	0.062	0.982	p > 0.198
Trustful	253	3	0.064	1.018	p > 0.214
Rational	253	3	0.063	0.998	p > 0.364
Innovative	253	2.97	0.061	0.998	p > 0.122
Transparent	253	3.07	0.064	1.019	p > 0.188
Well prepared	253	2.89	0.058	0.917	p > 0.381
Professional	253	3.06	0.058	0.920	p > 0.438
Clear	253	3.03	0.062	0.979	p > 0.184
Thinking forward	253	3.02	0.059	0.920	p > 0.137

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

RQ5. What are the barriers, if any, that may affect the transparency of information provided by the Egyptian government regarding the coronavirus outbreak?

Among 4-point Likert-type scales given to them to determine their level of significance about the barriers affecting the transparency of information provided by the government regarding the coronavirus outbreak, students’ answers varied from “very significant” to “not significant.” The highest strength level of significance (very significant), as Table 14 shows, of barriers perceived by students has been given to “the spread of administrative corruption” (86.6%), followed by “the spread of human corruption” (86.2%), “security restrictions” (81%), and “the fragility of the freedom to disclose government information” (78.7%). Through ANOVA, the study showed that there is no relationship at the p > 0.05 level between students’ gender and barriers perceived by them that affect the transparency of information provided by the government regarding the coronavirus (Table 15).

Table 14.

Barriers perceived by students that affect the transparency of information provided by the government regarding the coronavirus.

Barriers	Very significant (%)	Significant (%)	Somewhat significant (%)
The spread of administrative corruption	86.6	9.1	4.3
The spread of human corruption	86.2	7.5	6.3
Security restrictions	81	11.5	7.5
The fragility of the freedom to disclose information	78.7	12.3	9.1
Lack of the quality of the governing laws	69.2	24.5	6.3
Lack of relevant legislations	64	27.7	8.3

Table 15.

ANOVA (shortened) by barriers perceived by students that affect the transparency of information provided by the government regarding the coronavirus versus their gender through mean, SE, and SD.

Barriers	Statistics				Significance
Barriers	n	Mean	SE	SD	Gender
The spread of administrative corruption	253	1.18	4.3	0.484	p > 0.458
The spread of human corruption	253	1.20	6.3	0.537	p > 0.281
Security restrictions	253	1.26	7.5	0.588	p > 0.118
The fragility of the freedom to disclose information	253	1.30	9.1	0.629	p > 0.285
Lack of the quality of the governing laws	253	1.37	6.3	0.601	p > 0.100
Lack of relevant legislations	253	1.44	8.3	0.644	p > 0.157

ANOVA: analysis of variance.

Discussion and conclusion of the study

This research aims to examine the knowledge and perception of DLIS students at SVU in Upper Egypt about the country’s handling of the nCoV outbreak. These students were chosen to assess the country’s transparency in dealing with this pandemic from their academic background and experience gained while studying information science. This research is considered to be practical support for these students to make clear use of the knowledge they have gained during their study of this knowledge-rich science that helps to analyze the topic from an academic perspective based on a structured and systematic approach that helps in the sound understanding of the study and its problem.

Demographically, the study sampled 253 of 295 students (85.8%) at DLIS, of whom 219 were female and 34 male. It should be noted that this study has focused only on the gender of the students being surveyed without other demographic factors, such as education, age, and income. This is because these variables are commonly recognized because all of the students are equal in age (22–23 years) and education (fourth year) and are almost equal in income. That means all of them are equal according to the similarities of their geographical and social context with socio-economic factors.

Regarding their use of sources of information about the nCoV outbreak, a significant number of the students surveyed depended mostly on social media, followed by the Internet/Web, friends/colleagues, and media to gain relevant information about this virus. Other sources, such as family/relatives, lectures/discussions/workshops, and printed sources were also of interest to the students. Such findings, supported by Al-Hazami et al. (2018), make sense, especially in light of the disruption of other sources, such as universities, libraries, and information centers, as well as in the stumbling of roaming and mobility of such sources as a result of the ban imposed by countries and individuals themselves to avoid infection with the virus and to prevent its spread. That is what made almost all universities and educational institutions move to online platforms and distance education, which contributed to sticking and connecting more with the digital world, which, in turn, helped to improve study and communication process. In her article published in Time newspaper about how social media forms fear and response to the coronavirus outbreak, Garza (2020) stated that these new platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter, did not, during past major outbreaks, promote important conversations about the virus and any relevant information while enabling speculation and misinformation to spread. As Geraghty (2020) said, the Internet/Web would be the same as anything we are doing now would be worse without the Internet. When there is no Internet, we would not be accessing the details at about the same pace. Our ability to search what doctors think will be nothing. Our ability to get what the coronavirus is doing elsewhere will be limited to foreign correspondents. Our current crisis awareness will be limited to what we can learn on TV, radio, and newspapers. During the self-quarantine and social distancing, we can easily communicate with each other electronically via e-mail, chatting, massaging, and so on. If the coronavirus had spread in the 1990s or earlier, Geraghty says, the borders of our interaction with each other would have ended at the door and balcony borders. Despite its important role in the development, distribution, and dissemination of information related to this virus, however, the abundance of information has resulted in a kind of information disorder, as well as large information dispersion.

With regard to the availability and publication/dissemination of information owned by the government about the nCoV, a considerable number of the students perceived this availability and publication badly. They lacked confidence in what is being published and made available by the government, and this undoubtedly contributes to questioning the cycle of creating and circulating information, especially in times of crisis, where the state grips the reins strongly. As stated by Yousef (2004), there is a positive relationship between the availability of information or information transparency and achieving all types of development, since when complete, true, and accurate information is available, it is a good bottle to achieve various development processes, especially economic development. In its practical guide to public information during times of crisis, NATO (2019) stated that

In the event of a crisis, the general public has a fundamental right to be informed about what has happened, what is occurring, how authorities intend to respond to the crisis and its potential consequences. This principle is based upon our understanding of democracy. The concept of democracy defines members of society as responsible and able to participate in the decision-making process of a country. Citizens are expected to act responsibly during times of crisis and information is a basic requirement in order to assume these responsibilities. (p. 7)

Unfortunately, this is not present in Egypt due to the fact that Egypt is one of the countries that lack democracy. Any real existence of democracy would create harmony between the state and the citizen and then share responsibility together. According to the Democracy Index issued by The Economist Group in 2019, Egypt is ranked 136 out of 167 in the Democracy Index with a score of 3.06 out of 10 to be qualified as “Authoritarian.” Supporting Yan et al. (2017), the government should engage the citizens with it in taking responsibility by increasing their awareness and reducing any problems that would affect its dealings with them.

With regard to statements related to the transparency of government information regarding the nCoV outbreak, the responses of a considerable number of the students fluctuated from agreement and disagreement with these statements. However, a very large number of students agreed that information transparency is a good and effective weapon against corruption. Concerning their right to know what their government is doing about the crisis, a large number of the students also agrees that every citizen should have the right to criticize the government when it fails to comply with the transparency of information in dealing with major crises, such as the coronavirus, and also every citizen should have the right to receive any kind of information owned by the government. The government, as perceived by a significant number of the students, should not withhold information from any citizen under any circumstances since any citizen should have the right to obtain any documents from the government rather than its performance. Indeed, the question of the citizen’s right to know or access knowledge is guaranteed by international charters and constitutions of whatever their origins and orientations. For example, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) declared that the right to access information is one of the most fundamental human rights guaranteed by law. Such a right is very essential for man and the foundation of all freedoms advocated by the UN (United Nations, General Assembly, 1946). This right is not considered complete unless it has absolute transparency around it. This is supported by the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE, 2010), which emphasizes that “transparency plays an indispensable role in the development and democratization process, revolving around citizens’ “right-to-know” (p.: 10). Such right and transparency complement each other in a smooth harmony and successfully contribute to enabling freedom of information. However, the Egyptian constitution with all its various articles and amendments, as stated by CIPE (2010), does not include anything on freedom of information.

Regarding their perceptions about some statements concerning the government’s ability to handle information related to the nCoV outbreak, the study revealed that students questioned the government’s ability to deal with this virus. Many students have not praised the government’s abilities to deal with the crisis of the coronavirus. On the contrary, more than half of them described these abilities at times humble and weak at times. More than half of the students reported that their perceptions about the statements “the government adheres to ethical standards (code of ethics) when dealing with information related to crises, such as the coronavirus,” “the government has the appropriate technological tools to disclose its information in times of crisis, such as the coronavirus,” and “the government has good information infrastructure in place to deal with the coronavirus” were “to some extent.” However, just over a quarter of the students indicated that the statements “the government has specialized information centers to answer questions about the coronavirus” and “the government has effective strategic plans that can be applied in dealing with the coronavirus” were “to the moderate extent.”

Concerning their satisfaction with the government’s capabilities, in terms of designing, organizing, storing, retrieving, and accessing information, in relation to the outbreak of the nCoV, more than one-third of the students demonstrated that they were at least satisfied with statements such as “the government is doing its best to help the citizen access information safely and fairly,” “the government has the necessary legislation to regulate the disclosure of information, especially in times of crisis, such as the novel coronavirus,” “the government has the capacity to store information for use when needed,” and “the government has the ability to retrieve any information related to any citizen at any time,” respectively. However, around one-third of the students maintained neutrality and did not know how to accurately determine their response to these statements. Similarly, a considerable number of them showed their dissatisfaction with the state’s ability to deal with the outbreak of this virus, especially with regard to storing and retrieving information, as the dissatisfaction level of more than one-third of them ranged from dissatisfied to completely dissatisfied toward the government’s ability to retrieve information, organize, store, have legislations, and own a good database of citizens, respectively.

As shown by students’ answers to the ability of the state to deal with the coronavirus crisis informationally, it is clear that the state is not ready to deal with this crisis, which has led to a failure to assess the situation well. The government attempted to hide this failure, to avoid being blamed for its failure. Wan (2010) supported this conclusion as she reported that her state (China) withheld information to retain control over the disaster. Information control by the authorities erodes citizens’ confidence in the government’s ability to deal professionally with the crisis, and this reflected on the behavior of citizens, which exacerbates reality and imposes more emergency. Being a country that does not view the transparency of information as an inherent right of citizenship, Egypt has taken a different approach to manage the crisis, contrary, for example, to the approach taken in other countries, such as Italy and America or even countries in Africa, which is characterized by openness and disclosure, especially with regard to the numbers and proportions of people infected with the virus. The weak position of the government of owning an organized database of citizens that stores and retrieves its data when needed and allows access to it at any time, especially in times of crisis in addition to legislation and support facilities, has demonstrated the need to review the policies and plans of the state in this regard and to learn from its mistakes and work sincerely to treat it, particularly as this crisis may extend for longer than expected.

Concerning students’ satisfaction with the government’s capabilities, in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and confidence, in relation to the outbreak of the nCoV, the study showed that students were at least satisfied with statements such as the government is “sincere,” “helpful,” “trustful,” “accurate,” and “effective,” respectively, although between a quarter and one-third of students’ answers to these statements were neutral. Similarly, a reasonable number of them demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the state’s ability to deal with the corona crisis, especially with regard to its transparency, innovation, clarity, efficiency, and help, as the dissatisfaction level of more than one-third of them ranged from dissatisfied to completely dissatisfied toward the government’s transparency, followed by innovation, clarity, efficiency, and help. Unfortunately, the government has not shown this clarity or efficiency as well as creativity in dealing with the coronavirus. The government has reduced its role only to warnings and orders, which have sometimes reached strict threats and orders even though the response of many citizens does not come as appreciation for the government’s role and performance, but in compliance with its imposed orders. This may be one of the motives that forced many citizens to flee from the government’s websites like the Ministry of Health website due to its lack of clarity and transparency, as citizens preferred to resort to other sources in which they see credibility, freedom, and transparency, as well as its rich diversity of different forms of information, such as social networking sites. Bar’el (2020) sees that if Egyptians want a guide for fighting the coronavirus, it can be found not on the website of the Egyptian Health Ministry, but on social media!

With regard to the barriers perceived by the students affecting the transparency of information provided by the government regarding the outbreak of the nCoV, a large number of the students have shown that barriers, such as “the spread of administrative corruption,” followed by “the spread of human corruption,” “security restrictions,” and “the fragility of the freedom to disclose government information,” were perceived as at least significant by the students. As demonstrated by the students, it seems that corruption, especially the administrative one, is the biggest obstacle to achieving information transparency and integrity. “Information is perhaps the most important weapon against corruption” (Transparency International, 2003). Corruption is perceived by Carausan (2014) as “A real enemy of democracy, for legality and for social and judicial equity, destroys the principle of an efficient administration, wearing down the free market concept and puts in danger the stability of the State institutions” (p. 359). Once the government applies the principle of transparency to the disclosure of its information and its work mechanisms in relation to the various tasks, as well as toward dealing with citizens, no kind of corruption is permitted. In this way, the citizen will not feel disappointed with his or her government. This would help spread positive interactions between individuals and the government, as well as among themselves. Undoubtedly, this will contribute more to the democratization of the state. “Transparency is essential for a well-functioning democracy because it creates a level playing field; citizens that have equal access to information also have equal access to opportunities (CIPE, p. 10).” Transparency and accountability have become entirely recognized key operational principles for the good governance of public administration.

Conclusions and recommendations for further research

This study attempted to investigate the understanding of DLIS fourth-year students at SVU in Upper Egypt about the state’s dealing with the outbreak of nCoV known as COVID-19 that has been detected in Egypt since February 2020. The topic was handled in terms of the information transparency followed by the government when dealing with it from the academic perspective of DLIS fourth-year students at SVU. First, the researcher would like to draw attention to the phenomenon of “neutral answer/response,” where nearly one-third of the students reported in many of their answers their impartial commitment, which affected the maximization of other responses, whether negatively or positively.

The study concluded that there is no significant relationship between the students’ gender and the other variables of the study according to the statistics used. It also concluded that the most popular information sources mentioned by DLIS fourth-year students to get information related to the virus were social media and the Internet/Web. The publication/dissemination of information and its availability was badly perceived by the students. About one-third of them questioned the government’s ability to deal with the nCoV. They highly believe in the role of information transparency in fighting both administrative and human corruption. The students emphasized the citizens’ right to criticize the government when it fails to comply with the transparency, as well as the right to access any information it holds in any formats at any time. They were dissatisfied with the government’s ability to organize information, store, provide legislation, and own a good database of citizens, as well as its capabilities, in terms of transparency, competence, benevolence, honesty, accuracy, efficiency/effectiveness, practicality, and trust regarding the coronavirus outbreak. Finally, the study concluded that the surveyed students had highly significant barriers, such as the spread of administrative and human corruption, security restrictions, and the fragility of the freedom to disclose government information.

In light of the problem of the study, as well as its importance and objectives along with its results, interpretations, and discussion, this study recommends the following:

Enhancing information transparency;

Working to spread the culture of transparency and integrity among citizens;

Integrating transparency of information into the curricula into universities and schools;

Working to disseminate the necessary information, whether at the request of citizens or to inform them of various issues, especially in times of crisis;

Reforming the administrative system of the state;

Creating and refining legislation and regulations concerning the information disclosure;

Promoting good governance;

Motivating and rewarding officials, as well as employees who fully exercise this right;

Combating corruption.

Supporting CIPE (2010), the state should conduct full disclosure of information and make use of it on an equal basis and with all available and possible means, such as libraries, information centers, media, social media, and other sources. The government should not only make information available but also provide access to it and resolve any barriers that hinder its. Effective availability of well-built, structured, organized, and reliable information would build a good information society and then good people who, thanks to this availability, can solve the problems they face. Supported by Al-Hazami et al. (2018), the use of social media as a strong predictor for the development of preventive informatics should be given considerable attention.

Abd El-Hadi (2018) proposed, in a policy paper titled “Partners for transparency: Observatory of transparency and integrity policies,” that the provisions of Article 19 are implemented as a form of government work. Such articles can be guided as best practices in the case of drafting an Egyptian law on the right to know.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Essam Mansour

Author biography

Essam Mansour did his BA in Library and Information Science from Cairo University, Egypt; MLIS in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, USA; and PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

References

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