This report examines how the pandemic has impacted how engineering faculty in the USA, UK/Ireland, Canada and Australia/NZ predominantly in major research universities plan to use the engineering library or engineering collection. One hundred twenty three (123) faculty members from 57 universities provide their insight on what their use of the engineering library or engineering collection may look like post pandemic. Faculty from most of the English-speaking world’s major engineering programs participated in the study.
Data includes their potential use of library print collections post-COVID, the change in their level of familiarity with various library services due to COVID, the perceived effectiveness of pandemic -related library services, and view on the potential room for improvement in these library services.
Additionally, they provide insight on their level of satisfaction with librarians’ knowledge of engineering, the library’s journal collections, and librarians’ help in developing online courses. The study also presents their opinions on which pandemic practices should be carried over to post pandemic period and the percentage of classes that should remain online post pandemic.
Just a few of this report’s many findings are that:
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Faculty from the UK and Ireland plan to reduce use of print collections to a greater extent than their peers from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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A plurality of respondents feel that, going forward, engineering school management should spend about the same on the engineering library as they had pre-pandemic.
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Significantly more respondents in civil engineering than in other engineering specializations are satisfied with their library’s engineering journals collection.
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Respondents from the UK and Ireland are most satisfied with their library’s help in developing online courses when compared to respondents from the USA, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand.
Data in the 83-page report is broken out by many variables related to the individual survey participants and their institutions including but not limited to country, gender and age of respondent, engineering school ranking, public or private school status, and engineering specialization.