Closing of libraries

[Myword]

Most academic libraries have been closed in recent months. All of them around Chicago. Only open "virtually"--that's a weasel word. Sadly, I am no longer connected to a college university and cannot borrow directly from them.

So how are you borrowing academic books?
Interlibrary loans are gone, too.  I can request academic journal articles that are scanned to me. Public libraries that have barely opened to closed stacks, have no books in my field JSTOR and other databases have some articles, but most are inaccessible except for paying. Their search functions are erratic  and slow.  So are you frustrated by this?

[mamselle]

I have so much backlog on the 10,000 photos I have taken in the past year of manuscripts and other documents that I'm taking it as a welcome relief and time to work on the stuff I'm behind on.

I posted somewhere, earlier, about a friend who had all their stuff locked into a large library that gave people one day to get things out before closing in March.

She and a co-author were just starting to work on those materials; they had to completely re-focus their study plan and writing assignments so as not to lose time in submitting their draft.

It seems like "work-around" is the point...be nimble, be flexible, figure out options that use the resources you have, or--in my case--the ones you had stacked up awaiting your attention already.

Last I heard, the library my friend needs to get into may not open until the fall.

But they're making do and moving forward.

Good luck....

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

My university's library collection in my field is... poor, so I've never really been able to rely on it. I've mostly been relying on my partner, who still has access to her PhD institution's holdings. That, and the usual sites. My field also has a FB page devoted to article/book requests, so I occasionally make use of that, too.

Although a lot of the material I want is usually available online, some of it isn't. When it isn't, I've had some success googling around, skimming via Google Books, or just directly emailing the author to request a copy.

[mamselle]

Yes, Google Books is a useful resource.

It was even better when they stopped limiting pages on recently-published stuff....you're reading along and suddenly that most important, most interesting sentence....

    ....is part of the "page that has not been copied for your use"...

But it is useful for citations, etc., too.

Since Amazon never puts all the citation info in one place, googling a book title requires more digging to get the good stuff.

Of course, the library online catalogue will do that, too....

M.

[Ruralguy]

Our Library is semi-open. You can call over and get admitted. Of course, its a small SLAC facility.

As far as ILL goes, I only sparingly use it, but from what others say, they can't get physical copies of books, but they can get another library to scan sections you need, though, due to staffing, it might take a while.

[Aster]

Our libraries are shut down. No news on when they will open back up.

[spork]

Our libraries are shut down. No news on when they will open back up.

All of our library staff has been furloughed until mid-August, so the library is completely closed with no book checkout, ILL, etc. The journal databases accessible through the library's website are still operational.

Pubic libraries are doing curbside pick-up or something similar, but the collection is not very academic-oriented.

[Caracal]

Most academic libraries have been closed in recent months. All of them around Chicago. Only open "virtually"--that's a weasel word. Sadly, I am no longer connected to a college university and cannot borrow directly from them.

So how are you borrowing academic books?
Interlibrary loans are gone, too.  I can request academic journal articles that are scanned to me. Public libraries that have barely opened to closed stacks, have no books in my field JSTOR and other databases have some articles, but most are inaccessible except for paying. Their search functions are erratic  and slow.  So are you frustrated by this?

You can't go into our library, but you can request books. The librarians have set up a process where if you request a book or chapter online they will work through a series of options to get it to you. They first check to see if there is a free digital option, at least in my field, the National Emergency Library has a lot of older stuff available. If there's nothing free, they will buy an ebook if that's feasible. If not, they say they will arrange for delivery of either physical books or scanned chapters or articles. I haven't done that yet so I have no idea how well it works. I assume they must have a skeleton crew of people still on site.

[polly_mer]

Sadly, I am no longer connected to a college university and cannot borrow directly from them.

Are there community borrower programs at the research places that are still open that might help?

Our research library is still available and fully staffed, although no one can go browse without permission.  There's no physical ILL as far as I know, but we can make arrangements to pick up physical materials that are in our stacks. The online journal data bases are still available to people with log in credentials.

[Myword]

The library mission is supposed to be to bring people into the library, borrow materials, use services  or attend programs. So now they are abandoning their mission almost totally. They take students, faculty and public for granted. Officially, they are declared nonessential places...maybe dispensable. Public libraries are considered recreational. Anyway, most residents do not use their library or even have a card. Fact. Nowadays, all students are on computers in academic libraries. Rarely, have I seen a student in the stacks, where I live. I don't fault them for that. What I am saying is that this crisis is  a harbinger--handwriting on the wall that libraries are deadends and only optional, even with ebooks. (I never met a student who wanted to read  an academic ebook.)

With all the precautions (and some may be unnecessary) librarians are doing ALL they can to keep people out. The motto should be Stay Away. Library users will suffer, but the bottom line is that most libraries will save money. And this is very important because they  don't  bring enough money in--so they are money losers. If they made money, they would be OPEN and doing swift business.

The only academic library near me that allows direct community borrowing is closed.  And I live in a large metro area for academic libraries..

[Ruralguy]

Knowing some librarians well enough, I'd say that they area (a) trying to work within budget constraints and local restrictions (b) trying to save lives during a pandemic by not being the usual focal point most libraries are. Most would like to get things about as back to normal as they can as soon as it makes sense to do so, which at my school is likely to be about 2 months from now.

[apl68]

I can understand libraries limiting access in order to promote social distancing.  But I don't understand schools shutting their libraries down entirely.  Those that have done so must really be hurting for money, and furloughing nearly all of their staff.

I also don't understand shutting down physical ILL.  At most a physical item needs about a three-day quarantine before somebody else can use it.  The trip through the mail handles most of that!

A lot of librarians have been very frustrated about not being able to offer our full normal range of services.  We feel like we've been kept from picking up the slack from other institutions just when it was needed.

[spork]

I can understand libraries limiting access in order to promote social distancing.  But I don't understand schools shutting their libraries down entirely.  Those that have done so must really be hurting for money, and furloughing nearly all of their staff.

I also don't understand shutting down physical ILL.  At most a physical item needs about a three-day quarantine before somebody else can use it.  The trip through the mail handles most of that!

A lot of librarians have been very frustrated about not being able to offer our full normal range of services.  We feel like we've been kept from picking up the slack from other institutions just when it was needed.

I'd say the decision to close my university's library completely over the summer was probably 90% a financial decision -- i.e., the assumptions of "there are no students on campus, faculty are off contract and not teaching, the library staff isn't doing anything critical, furloughing them all will save a few hundred thousand dollars, and we need to cut operational expenses any way we can."

[Caracal]

I can understand libraries limiting access in order to promote social distancing.  But I don't understand schools shutting their libraries down entirely.  Those that have done so must really be hurting for money, and furloughing nearly all of their staff.

I also don't understand shutting down physical ILL.  At most a physical item needs about a three-day quarantine before somebody else can use it.  The trip through the mail handles most of that!

A lot of librarians have been very frustrated about not being able to offer our full normal range of services.  We feel like we've been kept from picking up the slack from other institutions just when it was needed.

Well, at many schools, the library stayed open for a while after classes ended. I have librarian friends who were pretty unhappy about being asked to put themselves and their staff in harm's way when everything else was shut down.

Initially ILL may have been shut down because of worries about infection, but I wonder if the challenges are more logistical now. It might just be that with lots of libraries fully shut, and most others operating with limited numbers of staff, it would just be too much of a logistical nightmare for everyone to try to service inbound and outbound ILL requests.

[jerseyjay]

My university library has been shut down since the third week of March. There was a week after classes migrated to remote/online learning and the campus was shut down entirely that one could go to the library.

I live within a half hour from at least three world-class research libraries, and a smaller number of decent academic libraries. They have been all closed since March, as has the local library.

My library, to be honest, is not all that good for my own research. However, I have probably used the library a fair bit since it closed because they have expanded their database access. This helped to prepare a summer school class I am teaching, and also get articles for my own research.

The local library system--one of the best in the country--has made many resources available online, and I have used many of its databases in my own work.

I have ordered some books through Amazon that I probably would have just gone to the library to check out before (think standard history books that most graduate students have read).

The biggest problem is finding obscure articles or books. I still have one ILL for pick-up at my school library since March, and who knows when I will be able to pick it up. I have taken to emailing some authors to see if they have electronic copies of their articles from 40 years ago. Some actually do.

In terms of ILL, I understand that actually sending physical books or articles is probably impossible given the fact that many librarians are working from home. That said, I don't see why my school's ILL cannot order articles, etc., which often come in electronic form any way.

Luckily I have been able to switch my research from more archival research to an emphasis on published sources. I am hoping the libraries open sometime in the near future.