Preservation Snapshot at Lake Forest College

Lake Forest College pivoted to remote learning following spring break in March. The Dean of the Faculty convened a committee, the Transition Support Team (TST), to plan for academic policies during COVID-19, and I was appointed to the committee along with the Associate Deans, the Registrar, the CIO, and the Director of Academic Technology. The Crisis Management Committee—which already existed--also met regularly to work through policies for students still living on campus and to plan for the eventual reopening. Having a library representative on the TST ensured that the library had a voice in academic policies, and that we were able to communicate critical information about library policies in the quick pivot to remote.

Originally, the College planned on a hybrid fall semester. The College convened two more committees, one focused on community behaviors and one on physical spaces. I represent the library on both committees along with TST. When the virus worsened again in August, the College wisely decided the fall semester would be remote for all classes. The library kept the 24 hour-area open for students living on campus. We have not restarted I-Share yet or checked out books to students.

When we pivoted in March, we stopped circulating books entirely, and I had no more student workers in the archives as students returned home. The library focused entirely on digital resources—scanning course materials, buying ebooks, and pivoting to remote instruction and reference questions. All of the staff worked remotely so we rarely handled our physical resources. Student workers helped scan course reserve material as students could no longer access them. I suspect our efforts were similar to many other institutions.

None at all. Our preservation budget was reduced significantly for the 2020-2021 fiscal year to reallocate funds where needed —ebooks, for example.

We have been scanning course materials from our collections and providing them to faculty, who then place them on Moodle. We have helped students find ebooks and digital journal articles and find alternative sources.

In the Archives, I have one student worker who returned to campus this fall. He has been able to digitize patron requests for the archives. Without him, we would not have been able to answer most archives requests. We were able to help a researcher from Canada on a major project and answer a variety of research questions. I went into campus about twice a week this fall, until right before Thanksgiving when staff were asked to work exclusively from home if at all possible as the virus surged.

REALM (Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums Project), LIBRAS Special Interest Group on reopening (Transition Back to Library Spaces), and checking in with colleagues in the Oberlin group of libraries. I have found discussing reopening and how to handle materials with colleagues at a variety of libraries to be the most informative source. While reading studies and webinars have their uses, hearing about the actual experiences of librarians gave us our best ideas. That is why it is so important to share information, keep committees going, and dialogue with each other! .

I am proud of how Lake Forest College is handling the pandemic. The health and safety of students, faculty, and staff have always been the top priorities. Departments are working well together. I’ve been impressed how everyone is focused on our students and helping each other and doing whatever it takes to help our students succeed in what, of course, has been a challenging time. The Library quickly switched from completely in person to remote, and we have been forced to innovate. I think we have learned that we can adapt and be flexible when needed—and in fact, being adaptable, flexible, and open to change is a good thing! Moving forward I hope we will be able to embrace change. Learning that a great deal of our daily duties can be done at home was eye opening as well. There are still plenty of library tasks that need to be performed on site—but some of our core duties including helping students learn the research process and evaluate sources can be done from anywhere.