Stories from the Time of the Coronavirus

Covid-19 and Course Material Access

Hi everyone, this is David your Co-President for ArLiSNAP! I hope Week 3 of courses have been going well for you all! I know for many of you it has been a challenge to switch from residential classes to online, but I want to let you all know that we in ArLiSNAP are always here for you to talk about the challenges you are facing.

I thought it might be nice to share a story of library success from my own life during this time of crisis as a way to focus less on the chaos and uncertainty that is omni-present in our community, and more on the triumphs that we should all continue to celebrate, no matter how small.

As you may know, UW Libraries have been physically closed for the past four weeks to all users and staff. This has obviously caused an incredible disruption in access to the collections that makes the research and study we do possible. However, what was most concerning for many of us on the front lines was how this would critically impact those of us who rely on libraries for access to our required textbooks and course readings during Spring Quarter.

To solve this issue of campus community equity in an incredibly short timeframe, our Access and Research Services Directors convened a cross-departmental working group composed of those who acquire, catalog, and process course reserve materials from all levels of the organization (including myself). The intent of this act was to bring as many in on the situation who could speak to every step of the course reserve process. This quick action gave us a leg-up in the evaluative process, and in a short timeframe led the group to make the critical decision to take concrete steps to get out in front of faculty.

While many departments on campus offer online instruction, most professors have never had the privilege of teaching online. This meant that many faculty were ill-prepared to deviate from their lesson plans, or adopt electronic resources as an acceptable alternative, despite the new remote-learning needs of the students. This discomfort naturally led to a slow learning curve, missteps, and panic among many of the faulty we support.

To make the transition easier, one of the working group’s important first steps was to quickly rework all of our information sources (our course reserve request forms, websites, and FAQ guides) in order to create a consistent message that all course materials should be e-materials, in order to guarantee access to as many students as possible.

The decision to force a switch over to e-materials when it came to course reserves was a positive step in the right direction, however I would be remiss in not pointing out that it also obviously resulted in many unforeseen challenges, most notably that the extreme costs of purchasing digital access to textbooks for general survey courses would disrupt our efforts for a quick switch over to digital material. Nevertheless, these problems were actually blessings in disguise and resulted in creative problem solving techniques that we may never have considered. The end result was that a stable new system was put into place, with consistent messaging reflecting the opinions of all parts of the organization, that presented faculty with the support they needed to adapt to the online sphere (albeit slowly).

It is this creative problem solving aspect that I wanted to highlight for you today. I argue that when we are forced into unexpected change, our field is truly remarkable at seizing the moment and adapting appropriately. While we may not always be consistent across the board, it is the input of new information professionals like us that keeps our field pushing forward. This experience in particular could have been just a one-off event, but instead it has opened for us entirely new avenues for instruction and education that our subject liaisons have been able to seize. Opportunities to continue educating, coaching, and guiding campus faculty regarding the importance of using open access materials in all of their classes, not just those offered during this outbreak. I don’t know about all of you, but for me, that gives a great deal of hope that our field can tackle the bigger issues we face.

About me:

David Frappier (your 2019-2020 Vice-President and 2020-2021 Co-President) is a first year online student and is a Library Supervisor at the University of Washington Libraries where he supervises the staff operating seven of the subject Branch Libraries on the Seattle Campus.