#BlackLivesMatter - Say it loud

Remote learning. Distance learning. Online learning. Whatever you want to call, when students are not on campus for classes has been trying for students, faculty, and staff at educational institutions.
I really feel for departments like EOPS, tutoring, and counseling. In-person is just so much better to keep track of and support a student. Also, I can't say enough good things about the school I work for in adapting to this new reality. I also can't express my annoyance with lack of leadership from our district. But this post is not about that...it is about making displays during COVID.
On June 9th CCC did a caravan/protest for racial justice. https://www.contracosta.edu/2020/06/09/ccc-leads-hundreds-in-racial-justice-caravan/

There were a lot of great signs that people made and taking a page out of the archivist playbook, asked participants to donate the signs for a display and to be part of an archive I am putting together as part of the school's history. A colleague who works at a sister college is managing an oral history of life at their school during the Coronavirus. Another great idea.

Stay safe and Black Lives Matter.

Warm leatherette, See the breaking glass, Beneath the underpass.

Online summer semester.
The seat-of-your-pants protocols that were put together for the shelter-in-spring semester have to be permanent for summer and probably fall.

At the school I work at the laptop loaner program is pretty successful (which lives in the library).

The reserves are a tough one though.

The textbook publishers are not really down with libraries wanting to purchase copies and though our research has just started I imagine it is going to be pretty darn pricey.
What to do?
Reserves have big circulation numbers and we want to support the students. School admins throw out OER. But I have realized that people kind of know what it is, but don't understand that it takes time to figure out what is out there and once the new material has been decided to change it on the syllabus.
There are some big database companies that have or are creating OER packages. They are pretty new and I have only seen one and they are cool, but still in the beginning phases.
Also, the pre-vetted searchable databases are probably pretty pricey.
And I am sure that schools, which are really nervous about enrollment want to throw money at the library on something that will take years to see a return on.

Yes. Sarcasm.

There is, of course, the copyright question. Frankly, I am not too concerned about it. Obviously, there should be considerations when copying items for LMS shells and such, but really if it something that needs to be scanned for a class and you can't get it any other way, I say go for it. I have been thinking about what could be offered to be scanned for faculty and students going forward from our course reserves.
Not sure how to go about it and I am sure that would require multiple ZOOM meetings.

ZOOM meetings. They completely exhaust me. I live in a small place and the separate workspaces for me and the hus are in close quarters so I have to wear a headset for 90% of my meetings. I have the same busy hat (that is what I call a headset) since I was in grad school, which was 10 years ago. Also, being a grad student I probably spent a whole 12 dollars on it. They are kind of pitiful.

I work at least 5-10 more hours a week now that I am at home. I don't see it letting up either.
The one plus side is that I can wear yoga pants all the time.

And I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done.

As an academic librarian at an institution that serves a population with technology inequity, food uncertainty, and home insecurity the “remote” instruction model is going to be very trying for many. Trying to decide what to do for the students to help them the best we can was a group effort.

At first glance, we have already established library chat (24/7 QuestionPoint). During our regular reference librarian hours, the same librarian will be there to assist students. A colleague suggested Google Voice and I set that up and I am already a fan. On Thursday of last week, I blasted out a text message to students who were set to get Chromebook loaners. Even though I sent a much more thoughtful email, 14 out of the 17 students I sent a text to responded back to me within minutes. 

We have a gaggle (rafter, murder, colony, caravan- I am into the names of groups of animals) of part-timers who have off-desk hours and so a librarian put together a list of our disciplines and assigned librarians to reach out to all the faculty. Grouping them by area of study, another librarian (adjunct) created an email template, which we used (tweaking a bit, of course, to be more personal) to send to the faculty.

A lot of streaming services, databases, and ebook providers are offering free materials to students and faculty- this is great. I think it is too much for many faculty to weed through to find what they are looking for, so one of our librarians (another adjunct of course) pulled our course reserve list of physical books and we will check these services (Redshelf, VitalSource) to see if it is available and let the instructor(s) know. 

The librarian who created the spreadsheet of disciplines and assigned librarians to those instructors also created a rad libguide, which has been sent to the faculty, staff, and is multiple places for students to view. Here is the link https://libguides.contracosta.edu/site/COVID19

Last week, I was on nine Zoom meetings and I was only working from home for three days. I am still fairly new in this position and up until the middle of last week didn't know some of the major players on campus except by name. On Friday, as I waited to check out Chromebooks to students, I was with my dean for most of the day. It occurred to me that we are all doing what we can with wherever we are mentally and emotionally during this crisis. I understand procedures are important, but I think in times like these if you are accountable, it is fine to "shoot from the hip," and if you can justify why you helped a student this way or that or waived this fee or whatever it is cool beans.

A colleague used the (Simpsons) term crisistunity. I think that the rally and general rad-ness of our library are showing that as a branch of our institution we are doing our best to make lemonade. 

Lately, I have been really interested in changing the narrative with academic librarianship in that I don't want to be right, I want to create and cultivate a connection, which students/staff/faculty come to me (us-library) for support. We have no agenda. We are just here to help.

Now a side note- I think I am going to start posting to Medium. Not trying to get all Hollywood on y'all. This blog won't be going away. I think I am going to change platforms for awhile.
My personal blog SuperAwesome will still be on Blogger.
Stay safe.