Cultivating agility and resilience over time

Since the beginning of 2020, university libraries in Hong Kong faced disruptions brought by the COVID pandemic like the rest of the world. In spring 2022, in the wake of the Omicron wave, we reflected on our responses at HKUST Library in these two and a half years. We were grateful to find that we did manage to keep the library a safe place for staff and students, and we maintained services supporting teaching and research activities. While we ruminated on this experience for lessons learned, we realized that our agile responses were grounded on organizational practices and culture which we gradually built up in the past 10 years. In this chapter, we will summarize the pandemic responses at HKUST Library and trace how agility silently grew in four areas: strategic planning and decision-making mechanisms, quality assurance systems, forward-thinking mindset in service planning, and trust within and beyond the library. We believe these strengths will make us resilient for future challenges. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.