In this diploma thesis we study the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on the circulation of different genres and titles of both fiction and technical literature for adults. We were especially interested in any possible rise of demand for literature about viruses and epidemics. An important part of our research was to also identify changes in the usage of physical and virtual services among library users and survey the broader effect of the epidemic on readers. We limited ourselves to the users of the Ljubljana City Library (MKL). We show circulation with the help of annual rankings and genre overviews of the most circulated titles of print and electronic books in MKL before the epidemic (years 2017, 2018 and 2019) and during it (from March 2020 to March 2021). The response of users was gathered via web survey. The rankings show no visible changes in circulation. The circulation of contents about viruses and epidemics was insignificant in both formats. The survey showed an expected lower usage of services among most respondents with one of the main reasons being the inability to browse bookshelves. Many respondents managed to substitute physical services with virtual ones. There was a visible but not dramatic surge in the use of individual web services. We can conclude that the circumstances largely did not affect the circulation of contents, although readers did to some degree use the web services of MKL more.
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