Teresa Hackett, EIFL’s Copyright and Libraries Manager, participated in a session of the Internet Governance Forum 2020 on ‘Equitable access to digital content: lessons from COVID-19’, co-organized by EIFL. The presentation briefly examines access to knowledge as a public health issue in a pandemic, and some issues that have emerged for libraries. It reviews library and publisher responses to COVID-19, concrete measures taken by governments, and options under global IP rules to help safeguard essential library services in a pandemic.