INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP, 7(1), 1-2. ISSN: 2474-3542 Editorial: Special Issue on Pandemic and Libraries Welcome to the July 2022 issue of the International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL). The theme of the issue is “Resilience, Reflection, and Innovation: Library Services and Practices During COVID-19 Pandemic.” As the library and information professionals continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, this special issue aims to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to share their stories on this timely topic. As we work on the production of this issue, the two new Omicron subvariants have been spreading and bringing new challenge around the world. The library and information professionals have continued to find ways to serve their communities safely and creatively. We received submissions responding to our call for paper from authors in developing and developed economies in Africa, Asia, and North America, with case studies mostly from academic libraries and one special library. Though most submissions report the service change and innovations in libraries happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are also several articles that focus on library users’ information need and behavior change or librarians’ experiences during this time. Ana Maria Fresnido and Sharon Maria S. Esposo-Betan discuss the findings from surveying head librarians in academic libraries in Philippines in June 2021 on their perceptions of the impact of COVID-19. Josiline Chigwada collects data from three academic libraries in Zimbabwe and examines the ways of library service delivery and the lessons learnt during the pandemic. Wei Xuan and Christine Shaw from the University of Manitoba in Canada write about the University of Manitoba Libraries’ service trends, challenges, and opportunities during the COVID pandemic. As the instruction coordinator in the New Mexico State University library, Erin Wahl sees the opportunity to shift library instruction program towards a sustainability and resilience mindset despite the challenge during the pandemic. Adetoun Adebisi Oyelude, Dr. Adefunke Sarah Ebijuwa, Dr. Hauwa Sani Ahmad, Mabruka Abubakar Abba, and Dr. Celina Jummai Nongo report the librarians’ perceptions of the challenges in providing health related covid-19 information in their communities by interviewing 13 librarians across Africa. Lian Ruan, David Ehrenhart, Diane Richardson, and Shuyi Liu introduce how librarians in the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library have developed new services and resources to continue serving patrons during the COVID pandemic. IFSI Library provides fire and emergency library and information assistance and services to the Institute’s instructional staff, students, Illinois fire departments and firefighters, and other fire/emergency-related users. In Kennesaw State University, Chris Sharpe and Dr. David Evans use time series analysis to create a forecast based on the health-related database searches conducted by library users from January 2016 through the end of March 2020 and compare the actual searches to the forecast to infer the impact of the events such as COVID-19 pandemic on database usage. Ren and Wang / International Journal of Librarianship 7(1) 2 Rachel Bomberger and Amanda Yesilbas recount the obstacles they encountered as the two midcareer librarians who were new hires at the University of South Florida one month before the entire campus was sent to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lessons learned and ways to improve a transition to remote working. Sophia Adeyeye and Opeyemi Oboh provide information on COVID-19 pandemic to children in a Nigeria community via bibliotherapy to increase their level of knowledge on COVID- 19 and to ensure children’s emotional and psychological wellbeing. Make sure to check out the two other articles published in this issue too. Vincci Kwong, Judith Falzon, and Julie Feighery use an escape room motif to engage students to use information literacy course material to solve puzzles in Indiana University South Bend. Mingyan Li, Tracy Seneca, and Megan Keller Young examine the perspectives of archivists, digital librarians, and catalogers on digital object metadata in the University of Illinois Chicago University Library and discuss how taking differences in end user behavior and differing interdepartmental perspectives on metadata into account can strengthen the digital object workflow to serve a greater variety of users. Thanks as always for being our readers! -Xiaoai Ren, co-editor-in-chief, xren@valdosta.edu -Yongming Wang, co-editor-in-chief, wangyo@tcnj.edu mailto:xren@valdosta.edu mailto:wangyo@tcnj.edu