Redefining the Role of Libraries: Strategies of the National Library and Archives of Iran during Pandemic

ABSTRACT COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on individual and social activities, at the beginning of 2020, this pandemic led to the closure of social activities. After that, with the limited resumption of these activities, the activities of many social institutions took on different forms. Among these social institutions, we can mention the libraries that were closed in the first few months of Pandemic and continued their cultural activities through cyberspace, and now serve a small percentage of their users to maintain the health of members. In this regard, the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI), according to its duties and missions, has taken effective steps in developing strategies to increase the level of services and optimize services by using new technologies. One of the duties of the National Library is to distribute and make available information to all users. The NLAI, with the slogan “National Memory in the Home of Every Iranian,” has placed a part of its digital resources on the library’s website for public access to these resources. These services include “Iranian National Memory System,” “Iranian Periodicals System,” “Digital Children’s Library” and “Digital Library.”