2020-2021 Year in Review

The library faculty and staff reflected on  how we transitioned to meet the needs of the UCBA community. 

In June 2020, Christian Boyles was contacted by a course instructor regarding a library DVD for their class. Since instruction moved online, the course instructor contacted the library to inquire about a streaming version. Christian learned that the streaming alternative was only available for the individual consumer and not for institutions. He contacted the publisher, PBS, and discovered that it could be digitized through Films on Demand. PBS coordinated the process, allowing the UCBA Library to acquire the streaming rights and provide the title in time to be used in class. Christian and Lauren Wahman also helped to find other possible streaming film options for the class. In addition, Lauren and Kellie Tilton were able to help problem solve access issues and provide possible solutions to the course instructor. 

The UCBA Library adapted both remote and onsite staffing models to ensure availability of general library and research support. UCBA faculty, staff and students had the ability to visit the library and borrow materials during periods of remote instruction and limited on campus access. The Library offered onsite appointments for students to borrow laptops in order to do remote coursework during the pandemic. Library faculty and staff also monitored email and chat and provide support remotely from home. 

Michelle McKinney oversaw the launch of the new UCBA Library Chat service in collaboration with UC Libraries to provide real time, online assistance to UCBA student, staff and faculty.

Michelle McKinney, in coordination with UC Libraries and UCBA College,  worked to make sure that the library website reflected the ever-changing updates regarding services and protocols. 

With access to library resources from off campus playing an even more vital role as classes quickly moved online, the UC Libraries wanted to explore how to make that access as easy as possible for our users and, particularly, to streamline with Canvas courses. The Library Online Learning Community of Practice, which Kellie Tilton co-led, was asked to explore these options and create a proposal for library leadership. Kellie led the small team formed from the Community of Practice and arranged meetings with IT@UC, helped write the proposal and, when the leadership opted to move forward, participated in the implementation and testing of incorporating UC's Shibboleth to make accessing library resources as seamless as possible for our users.

At the beginning of the transition to virtual services, a change was made in how users could access library resources to accommodate the new influx of traffic that university systems were experiencing. To assist with this transition, Kellie Tilton created and produced three video tutorials on how to access library resources from a variety of starting points on the UC website. 

Lauren and Kellie offered multiple sessions of the Libraries in Canvas workshop throughout the summer to help instructors incorporate library resources into their Canvas courses.