Abstract

Rural communities tell us the story of a thousand of years of collaboration between nature, culture and humans. The current Covid-19 pandemic is considerably threating rural areas, posing challenges exacerbated by low available financial resources, not easily accessible health services and greater isolation. Rural areas are also considered safe shelters characterized by better daily living conditions thanks to easy to maintain social distancing and access to nature, to cultural and nature-based recreation activities. The Covid-19 crisis is revealing the crucial role of natural and cultural heritage for social cohesion, local development and mental wellbeing. The paper presents some responses to the Covid-19 crisis collected through an open call for action within the RURITAGE project. It aims at show how rural areas can cope with emergencies and it builds the basis to rethink the current crisis as a crucial tipping point for a resilient development of rural territories. It is key to overcome the idea of rural areas as mere food production system, calling for a broader vision of rural communities as poles of development based on local heritage, natural resources, creativity and social inclusion as essential elements to regenerate rural areas and to rapidly support their transition towards sustainable future.

Abstract

An analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on the use of Spanish university libraries during 2020 versus 2019 is carried out in this paper. The results have been published in a web tool that allows for deeper analysis of the individual libraries as well as the libraries as a whole. This study is not an evaluation of the libraries themselves but consists of measuring, describing, and quantifying the negative impact that the health crisis had on them during 2020. Visits, loans, user training, and catalog visits are variables that were strongly affected, with a significant positive increase being identified only in visits to library web pages. The use of digital resources according to Counter-compiled data increased considerably in some private university libraries, where possible staff cuts were also identified. The paper concludes by outlining reflections that can be further studied with the experiences of people related to libraries and with additional research, including data for the following years after collection and publication

Abstract

The restrictions experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic have changed the use of library spaces, potentially affecting their design and even the need for them. We still lack conclusive data to know if library usage will recover. However, professional opinions note that, although digitization will be reinforced, face-to-face attendance will continue to be necessary. There are no examples of libraries planned according to the experiences of the pandemic, but everything seems to indicate that previous architectural trends have been strengthened or will continue to be so.

Abstract

The scientific community is facing one of its greatest challenges in solving a global health problem: the Covid-19 pandemic. This situation has generated an unprecedented volume of publications. What is the volume of scientific publications on Covid-19? The general objective of this research work is to obtain a global vision of the daily growth of scientific production on Covid-19 in various databases (Dimensions, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, PubMed, and eight repositories). In relation to the results obtained, Dimensions indexes a total of 9,435 publications (69% with peer review and 2,677 preprints) well above Scopus (1,568) and WoS (718). This is a classic bibliometric phenomenon of exponential growth (R2 = 0.92). The daily global growth rate is 500 publications and the production doubles every 15 days. In the case of PubMed the weekly growth is around 1,000 publications. Of the eight repositories studied, PubMed Central, medRxiv and SSRN are the leaders, but despite their contribution, journals continue to be the core of scientific communication. Finally, it has been established that three of every four publications on the Covid-19 are available in open access. The information explosion which places us, information professionals, at the centre of the information pandemic demands a serious and coordinated response.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly uneven impacts on sectors of society. People with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to it and so it is important to understand both the disability perspective and the role of social media. This information may help to reduce the risk from the disease. In response, this article uses thematic analysis to investigate 59 disability-related tweets from March 10 to April 4, 2020 that were retweeted at least 500 times, with a quarter of a million retweets altogether. This approach generates quick insights into widely resonating disability-related issues. The results suggest the value of Twitter for disseminating information about the risk, offers or requests for support, the ability of many people with disabilities to adjust to the changes well, and information about individuals with the disease. In addition, there was outrage at suggestions that the disease was less serious because young people without disabilities were relatively low risk, and that people with disabilities might be denied equal access to medical treatment. As one tweet pointed out, people in less vulnerable categories should not be told on Twitter or elsewhere that the disease is less relevant to them because their actions can impact others through social spreading.

Abstract

This paper analyses the news on Covid-19 and 2019-nCov in the Spanish media. This is done by using news retrieved from My news database. The analysis includes the total amount of news in Spanish media by type of media; the evolution of the publication in digital media considering various periods of time, and the volume of news in the most used Spanish digital media. The results show that digital media are the most used among other types to publish on the topic, with a significant increase since the beginning of the alarm state. In this sense, some arguments on the function and utility of this type of media during the confinement are exposed. Also, the essential role of digital media covering the population’s information needs is discussed. The digital media with the largest number publications are abc.es, 20minutos.es, and elconfidencial.com. The value of this work is that it can serve as starting point for others in order to carry out content analysis on the subject considering different channels and digital media.

Abstract

The global health crisis arising from the expansion of Covid-19 has led the WHO to coin the term infodemics to define a situation of fear and insecurity in which the dissemination of false information has become widespread. These hoaxes take advantage of this type of emotion to spread faster than the coronavirus itself, generating fear and distrust in the population. The spread of these lies, part of which circulates on social networks, is dangerous because it affects health and can make the contagion worse and cause people to die. This research aims to analyse and visualise the network created around the false news circulating on Twitter about the coronavirus pandemic using the technique of social network analysis. NodeXL Pro software has been used. Several measures of network centrality have been used to generate the network of connections between users, to represent their interaction patterns and to identify the key actors within the network. In addition, a semantic network has also been created to discover the differences in the way groups of people talk about the topic. The results show that the situation in the USA dominates the conversation, despite the fact that at that time there were hardly any cases, and Europe had become the global epicentre of the Covid-19. Despite reports of inaction by journalists and critics of the Trump government, there are several weeks in which disinformation distracts from taking more effective action and actually preventing contagion. Moreover, among the actors with the most prominent positions in the network, there is little presence of scientists and institutions that help to disprove the hoaxes and explain the hygiene measures. 

Abstract

We analyze the perceptions of Social Sciences faculty about their own information and digital competence and that of their students, as well as the changes that have occurred as a consequence of the virtualization of learning caused by the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). The methodology used is qualitative, being based on the application of two techniques: discussion groups carried out with experienced faculty from three Spanish universities, and interviews carried out with the same sample after the suspension of face-to-face teaching. The results show that the faculty members participating in this study have a critical vision of the information and digital competence of the student body, indicating that they lack capacity for evaluation, critical use, and communication of information despite their mastery of technological tools and extensive use of mobile devices. In addition, they doubt their own ability to train students in this competence, and attribute the difficulty in achieving and promoting such learning to various factors of the university culture: a lack of coordination among teaching staff, who are sometimes in situations of job insecurity, or the way in which the European Higher Education Area has been applied in universities. Faculty recognize the basic and transversal nature of this competence and advocate its incorporation into the real work methodology of all subjects, not in a segregated way. Finally, the effort made towards the “virtual” development of teaching as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic has been a shock for faculty, who declare a positive attitude towards reviewing their own digital-informative practices to adapt their teaching, but believe that this has hardly resulted in any improvement in the information and digital competence of their students so far.

Abstract

The first real images of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, were obtained between January 24 and March 5, 2020 using various electron microscopy techniques. However, since March 2020, it has been most common to see drawn, designed, or interpreted images in three dimensions, sometimes even representing different or directly invented viruses. This analysis studies a sample of images supposedly of SARS-CoV-2 that appeared at the beginning of this pandemic on the internet. Fake images or imaginary illustrations of the Covid-19 coronavirus predominate in all sources of information examined, except for those documented in encyclopedias or scientific articles. Rather than real images, the media have used more fake images of the coronavirus, often from repositories or paid stocks, usually freely available. When presenting SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus content, the use of fake, unrealistic, esthetically retouched illustrations is more common than actual or scientific photographs of the virus. The reference image used in the media and other information sources of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is a retouched three-dimensional, color design image for illustration rather than an actual image. The original, real images of the coronavirus did not have the expected informative presence in an emergency situation. The use of unrealistic images of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus seems to be a manifestation of a low-intensity infodemic. However, information professionals must use rigorous images to support their information, also in the case of the Covid-19.