Letter to Faculty

May 28, 2020

Dear Faculty friends,

I wanted to let you know that our Library and Archives staff remain ready to support you. We want to hear your thoughts on and recommendations for improving and targeting services. Please make use of our chat service or Ask a Librarian email if you have any questions or concerns, or just email me directly. I will make sure your issues are directed to the individuals who can best address them. That's a promise!

We look forward to returning to library space when it is time this summer, but we know that things will look and feel very different. Here are just a few steps we are taking in preparation:

• We will likely need to rely on an appointment system for those needing access to the library and collections.
• By request, we can retrieve material from our stacks and place in a sanitized space for pick-up; returned materials will be quarantined for 72 hours or more.
• Computer labs and workstations will be reconfigured to adhere to distancing requirements, limiting the number available, and also requiring us to schedule appointments.
• Hours will be very, very limited at first, and the staff will return on a staggered schedule, as we must adhere to physical distancing among staff as well.
• We have designed and tested a new touchless checkout system for our users, and will implement during our first days back.
• Some floors may be closed as necessary for physical distancing.
• The College will advise on elevator usage, cleaning protocol, and traffic control on the floors.
• Most important, we will continue to be available and approachable online. So many things are up in the air, but we will provide support and services in our own hybrid fashion, and will be at the ready to solve problems and make the best decisions for providing safe access.

In the midst of all of this, we are migrating to a new online catalog. Yes, the timing is just awful. This was a decision made nearly two years ago by CARLI (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois), which is composed of 91 other academic institutions, besides Columbia, who also face a challenging deadline of a June 24 go-live date. Some things will change and there will be some decided improvements in what we call "discovery," essentially how you more efficiently find and obtain materials in our catalog. Here is a link to a blog post with additional information: Launching this Summer: A New Library Catalog System.

Our College Archives & Special Collections (CASPC) team has been hard at work, creating new digital content. A number of Black Music Research publications, "Capturing Quarantine" oral history interviews and reflections, and "Stuck Indoors" photography projects, to name a few, will be uploaded over the summer to the College Digital Repository.

In addition, CASPC also offers an exciting new service: the Archives Live Lab! It turns in-person class visits into virtual ones, allowing Archives staff and faculty members to stream from the Archives over the web in high definition video. Students attending these sessions communicate with presenters through chat or video, and these streaming sessions can be paired with slideshows or other related media and shared with students in real time. These sessions feature the option to record for future use by faculty in Canvas. Please contact CASPC at archives@colum.edu to learn more about this service.

We will convene the newly-formed Faculty Library Advisory Group (FLAG) via Zoom sometime in August or September. I was hoping for a face-to-face, but we can't plan for that. In some ways, I am glad our March meeting was postponed. What we have learned about providing online support during a pandemic will help shape our conversation when we do meet. In the meantime, I am urging all library liaisons to continue to reach out to their FLAG reps, and vice versa.

Library and Archives staff participated in Faculty Development Days, leading sessions on copyright, remote research resources for faculty and students, and electronic resources for remote learning and building courses. We learned more about what is most important to you and will be able to respond. We are now planning and training to support the very popular Teaching Online at Columbia College Chicago summer sessions.

But I have saved the best for last:

We would like to introduce you to Hillary Ostermiller, who will join our staff on July 1 in the new role of Instruction and Online Learning Librarian. We had received the go-ahead fill this new position back in December, and were approved to continue the search because of the urgency and timeliness of the role. Hillary currently serves as Communication and Media Studies Librarian at James Madison University and has a record of success in an area where we are committed to intensify our efforts--collaborating with faculty to develop and enhance online learning. She earned an MLIS from the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science and an MA in publishing and writing from Emerson College. Hillary has published articles on media literacy, usability testing, and how perceptions of academic librarians play into the dynamics of information literacy instruction. We can't wait for you to meet her.

As always, we are here for you, and look forward to seeing you soon.

My very best,

Jo