Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the initiatives providing legal information during the COVID-19 emergency, focusing on the fundamental role of digital libraries in creating, managing and sharing services to support and ensure access to legal information in times of emergency.

Design/methodology/approach

To have an overall view of the legal information on COVID-19 available on digital libraries during the outbreak, a desk-research on the Web was conducted looking for both public and private sources of information. The selection of the sources was based on the type of information and services offered, the quality of information structuring, together with the data updating and the target users.

Findings

The survey provided a huge and heterogeneous amount of legal information resources on COVID-19. The analysis on the source of information selected showed different kinds of approaches adopted by digital libraries in relation to types of information provided, information categorization, target audiences, purposes and services offered.

Research limitations/implications

Two limitations have been identified: lack of previous studies in the domain and size of the samples cited. The conducted research should be seen as the “building block” upon which further research should be broadened and deepened. Limited samples are cited because of a rational choice; nevertheless, future research should be conducted also addressing a quantitative choice on identifying sources.

Practical implications

The research proposes to give users practical guidance, namely, a first set of authoritative sources which gives legal information on COVID-19.

Originality/value

This review paper could be seen as a first study on the issues related to accessing and sharing legal data at the time of the COVID-19; the research could be a starting point for devising a new form of communication of legal information in times of crisis.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19和数字图书馆服务：法律信息概述

目的

本文的目的是调查在COVID-19紧急情况下提供法律信息的计划，重点是数字图书馆在创建，管理和共享服务以支持和确保在紧急情况下访问法律信息方面的基本作用。

设计/方法/方法

为了全面了解爆发期间数字图书馆可提供的有关COVID-19的法律信息，我们进行了在线案头研究，以寻找公共和私人信息来源。来源的选择基于所提供的信息和服务的类型，信息结构的质量以及数据更新和目标用户。

发现

该调查提供了大量有关COVID-19的法律信息资源。对选定信息源的分析表明，数字图书馆在提供的信息类型，信息分类，目标受众，提供的目的和服务方面采用了不同的方法。

研究局限/意义

已经确定了两个局限性：缺乏先前在所引用样本的领域和大小方面的研究。进行的研究应被视为“基础”，应在此基础上进一步扩大和深化。由于理性的选择，引用的样本有限。然而，未来的研究也应该进行，以便在确定来源方面进行定量选择。

实际影响

该研究建议为用户提供实践指导，即提供有关COVID-19的法律信息的第一批权威资源。

创意/价值

这篇评论文章可以看作是在COVID-19时对与访问和共享法律数据有关的问题的首次研究；该研究可能是在危机时期设计一种新形式的法律信息交流的起点。