Abstract

During the COVID-19 period, public libraries produced and provided a variety of online contents to users as an alternative to offline services. The purpose of this study was to analyze the overall management of online contents in public libraries in the post COVID-19 period and to provide a methodological basis for improving online contents management. This study surveyed the overall current state of online content management in 305 public libraries in terms of production, services, and preservation. We also analyzed the librarian’s perception of the online contents management process. As a result of the analysis even after the COVID-19 period, public libraries are efficiently producing and providing online contents and are actively providing this through the library website and social media. In addition, librarians recognized that online contents produced by public libraries are valuable as library resources and predicted that the online content would be produced more in the future. Also, they faced difficulties in production and management due to a lack of professional capabilities and extra workload, but they have recognized the high need for online contents management. Online contents is leading a paradigm shift in public library services. Therefore, attention and effort to activate online content is no longer an option but a necessity.