The coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted our lives in various areas at the beginning of 2020. In this master's thesis, we investigated how the pandemic affected the circulation services in Slovenian public libraries. We analyzed annual reports, social media, and annual circulation statistics in Slovenian public libraries. We examined transactions in five Slovenian public libraries from January 2020 to May 2022. We found that during the pandemic, libraries introduced alternative borrowing methods to facilitate safe borrowing without direct contact between the user and the librarian. The most common methods include home delivery, postal service, and borrowing from contactless pickup points. Libraries also invested in equipment to enable 24/7 contactless borrowing. The pandemic led to a significant decrease in the borrowing of library materials. We discovered that library closures, the mandatory RVT condition, and other measures to prevent the spread of infection had the most significant impact on the decline, while the number of positive tests did not affect the circulation. The first wave of the pandemic required the most adaptations from libraries. In subsequent waves, they utilized tested methods from the first wave and introduced some new services. The results can assist libraries in planning new services within their regular services and can be valuable if similar exceptional circumstances occur in the future, ensuring a prompt and effective response from libraries.
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