LibGuides: Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries: Self-Care and New Ways of Working

We Are Here For You - A Message from the ACRL Board of Directors

These are unprecedented times in academic and research libraries. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an overwhelming effect on our workplaces and our lives, upending daily life and causing widespread fear and uncertainty. We are all affected by this crisis, both personally and professionally and we hope that this finds you healthy and successfully coping with the many challenges.

The ACRL Board of Directors recognizes the stress, challenge, and difficulty of this situation. At the same time, both as Board members and within our own institutions, we are heartened by the creative and resourceful responses of ACRL members and of the library community overall. Even in this most trying time, we see library workers reaching out to support each other, sharing information, enacting equity and fairness, and finding new ways to collaborate for the common good.

ACRL’s mission is to support all of its members, in good times and bad. As ACRL Board members and librarians, we understand that the current situation is daunting. We look forward to working with you and the ACRL staff to find ways to overcome it together. And we offer our best wishes and thoughts to you and yours as we confront this unprecedented health crisis.

Read more on ACRL Insider.

Managing Remote Work

Inside Higher Ed: " A Plan for Resisting Zoombombing"
May 5, 2020. Carlton E. Green, director of diversity training and education in the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at the University of Maryland, provides advice for how to best respond to an incident and care for the people who have been impacted.
Library Journal: " Library, Archives Workers Share Work-From-Home Ideas"
April 23, 2020 article in Library Journal documenting crowdsourced lists of work-from-home assignments for workers in libraries and archives.
American Libraries Magazine: "'A Civilized Term for Hate Crime': How to protect your library from Zoombombing"
April 23, 2020: Article in American Libraries Magazine detailing threats of "Zoombombing" and ways to navigate it.
Programming Librarian: "From A to Z(oombombings): Risks and Rewards of Online Lectures"
April 20, 2020: Blog post on Programming Librarian discussion the experience of Anthony Wright de Hernandez, community collections archivist and inclusion and diversity coordinator at the Virginia Tech University Libraries, when he took a planned in-person lecture series online.
ACRLog: A Weekly Log of an Atypical Month
March 29, 2020: ACRLog post by Yoonhee Lee reflecting on a first-year academic librarian's experiences working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACRLog: Work-From-Home: Part-Timers & Student Workers
March 27, 2020. Blog post from Alex Harrington on ACRLog about providing remote work opportunities for part-time and student workers.

Managing Remote Workers
Webcast recording from Tuesday, April 7

Join Martin House, Assistant Director for Public Services at Central Piedmont Community College and incoming chair of ACRL’s Community and Junior College Libraries Section, and Cinthya Ippoliti, University Librarian and Director of the Auraria Library at University of Colorado Denver and Director-at-Large on ACRL’s Board of Directors, for tips, strategies, and discussion on effective ways to manage a suddenly remote library workforce.

Other Duties as Assigned: More Ways to Help during the Pandemic

American Libraries Magazine: "Other (Pandemic) Duties as Assigned"
April 24, 2020 article in American Libraries Magazine. Staffing homeless shelters, taking nonemergency calls for the city, distributing food, making wellness checks on fellow citizens: These are just a few of the jobs that public librarians find themselves performing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
YALSA Blog: "Making Face Shields with Maker Hardware at the Great Neck Library"
April 23, 2020 blog post about making personal protective equipment (PPE) with 3D printers.
Chronicle of Higher Education: "What Colleges Are Doing to Help Their Communities Fight the Pandemic"
April 21, 2020 article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. To explore how colleges are contributing to the “war effort” to contain and fight the coronavirus — and mitigate its social and financial effects — The Chronicle collected examples from around the country.

ACRL Insider: Librarianship in the Time of Coronavirus

Librarians and library workers are first and foremost people and, for all of us, a pandemic makes for challenging times. But we are in this together. At ACRL we want to foster community and care through technology and across distances.

To help the academic library community cope and learn from each other in challenging and rapidly changing circumstances, over the coming days and weeks we’ll post occasional discussion questions to our social media accounts using the hashtag #COVIDlibrary. We encourage you all to share your stories and learning experiences in response.

Share your stories on Facebook or Twitter. We’ll post more questions for discussion – as well as responses and resources from ACRL staff – over the coming days.

Questions

April 9, 2020: Last question of the #COVIDlibraryseries: How can we work together to build a better future? What does the post-coronavirus academic library look like? Think bigand share your ideas!
April 7, 2020: How do you preserve time for yourself during the pandemic, amidst the demands of work and family life? What does that look like for you?
- Working from home, David Free says "I try to take set a definitive end to the work day and take 15 minutes of quiet time to myself to myself, maybe exercising a little or meditating, to transition to the rest of life."
- Sara Goek has been doing lots of reading. Latest recommendations in fiction are Apeirogon by Colum McCann and Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, and in non-fiction A World on Edge by Daniel Schönpflug.
April 3, 2020: How is your library working to support students – undergrads, grad students, LIS students – who are adapting to online learning? Share your favorite #CovidCampus or #COVIDlibrary resource?
- For LIS students, be sure to check out the dedicated resources on the ACRL website: http://www.ala.org/acrl/membership/student
March 30, 2020: This week’s #COVIDlibrary questions focus on working during the pandemic. First up: What new challenges are you facing in your work? What strategies have you found most effective in dealing with them?
- At ACRL, we strive to support the academic library community during these challenging times. Check out our Pandemic Resources for Academic Libraries LibGuide and free webinar series acrl.libguides.com/pandemic/home
- Our friends @archivists_org have also put together a handy document with ideas and resources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ubmmTtJ7oCjbUFI_75fqG9J62pul9dg_RCd4au4tMw/preview
March 27, 2020: Today we celebrate the #COVIDlibrary community: How are you staying connected with colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors... while staying at least 6 feet apart?
- Chase Ollis has been hosting virtual happy hours with his friends: “Grab your favorite beverage of choice, connect with FaceTime or Google Hangouts or another video conferencing software, and catch up in the comfort of your pajamas."
- Gena Parsons-Diamond says, "My friends and I have been playing party games over video chat. A particular favorite of ours is Jackbox Games, because everyone can play on their phone!"
- David Connolly: "This was one way we thought we might be able to help neighbors in our building who might need it and who would otherwise not know that willing help was available nearby.”

- Tory Ondrla: “We grouped up with a few other families, stood 6 feet apart with Happy Birthday signs and sung Happy Birthday to You to my son's best friend who turned 10 last week.”
March 25, 2020: Are you doing anything to capture the historical moment? This could be something related to you personally, your community, or your work.
- Tip from #twitterstorians: Keep a journal. This can be a great activity for students or your own children. You could also work with archives or special collections to capture these documents. Check out what the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries are doing: https://libraries.indiana.edu/coronavirus-archive-story.
March 23, 2020: What are you reading that provides context, support, or reassurance during our current crisis?
- ACRL program manager Sara Goek recommends the “Epidemic Proportions” exhibit @bunkhistory, which collects and connects writing from around the web about how Americans have experienced past epidemics bunkhistory.org/exhibits/33.
- For non-pandemic escape, C&RL News Editor-in-Chief David Free is reading Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
March 20, 2020: In times of crisis, community is more important than ever. What are you doing to cope right now? Share something that has helped you deal with changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- ACRL staff are also adjusting to a very different work environment. Meet some of our furry assistants for a little cheer and virtual pet therapy!

Combating Xenophobia

Upcoming Webinar: Confronting Xenophobia and Supporting Asian and Asian/Pacific American Communities during COVID-19
May 1, 2020, 12:00pm CT

In light of the outbreak of COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus), cases of racism and xenophobia against Asians and Asian/Pacific Americans have surged across the world. In the United States, there has always been a deep history of xenophobia towards Asians. This webinar will feature two experts to discuss the issue of Anti-Asian sentiment, and will also focus on teaching resources in countering xenophobia. This is a free webinar co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ODLOS).

Please note: due to platform capacity, only the first 100 attendees to log in will be able to attend live. After the webinar, all registrants will receive a link to the recording.

Register for free here!

ACRL Equity, Diversity and Inclusion LibGuide
Information and resources on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) from ACRL.
Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Resources
Collection of pandemic resources from APALA.
APALA condemns rise in xenophobia and racism due to the novel coronavirus outbreak
APALA statement unequivocally denouncing the rise in racism and xenophobia against Asians and Asian/Pacific Americans in wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 (caused by the novel coronavirus).
Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI): Incident report form
The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council provides incident report forms in a variety of languages.
Coronavirus Is Prompting Alarm on American Campuses. Anti-Asian Discrimination Could Do More Harm
Chronicle of Higher Education article by Emma Dill.
Hateful Conduct in Libraries: Supporting Library Workers and Patrons
ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services resource to provide additional guidance for librarians struggling with issues of hate and intolerance.
Keeping Up With... MIcroaggressions
Edition of ACRL's Keeping Up With... series by Tarica LaBossiere and Abby Deese.
Libraries Respond: Combating Xenophobia and Fake News in light of COVID-19
Selected resources for sharing the facts and examples of how libraries are interrupting not only the spread of misinformation but also related racism and xenophobia. from ALA's Libraries Respond initiative.
Protecting Asian American and Pacific Islander Working People
APALA resources to protect AAPI workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

American Libraries Live webcasts

American Libraries Live webcasts cover the full spectrum of library topics and give the ALA community a chance to learn about and discuss issues it deals with daily. Each program lasts 60 minutes.

Recordings from webcasts covering COVID-19 are below. Slides and a list of upcoming webcasts are also available from the AL Live website.

Webcast Recordings

Libraries and COVID-19: Considering Copyright during a Crisis, Part 2
Recording from April 17, 2020. In an April 3 American Libraries Live webinar, Libraries and COVID-19: Considering Copyright during a Crisis, panelists addressed several copyright issues. We received so many audience questions and comments that our expert panel came back for a second session, where we continued the discussion of how libraries can address these challenges. We also shared practical tips and information about which digital content providers have loosened restrictions on their materials during this pandemic.
Libraries and COVID-19: Using 3D Printing to Make Personal Protective Equipment
Recording from April 9, 2020. Personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers is in critically short supply. To mitigate the ongoing crisis, some public and academic libraries are using their 3D printers to create PPE components such as face shields and N95 respirator masks that are needed on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this webinar, we speak with librarians who have facilitated the creation of PPE components in partnerships with local hospitals and health care organizations. Learn how you can replicate some of these efforts for your community.
Libraries and COVID-19: Considering Copyright during a Crisis
Recording from April 3, 2020. With most physical libraries around the country forced to close their doors, digital materials are more important than ever. The copyright issues involved with these materials can be difficult enough to process under normal circumstances; now they can seem even more overwhelming. Please join our expert panel as we discuss how libraries can address these challenges. We’ll also share practical tips and information about which digital content providers have loosened restrictions on their materials during this pandemic.
Libraries and COVID-19: Providing Virtual Services
Recording from March 26, 2020. Your physical library may be closed, but you can still offer direct services to your patrons. With many resources available digitally, and with the ability to provide reference via phone, chat, and virtual meeting tools, your services do not have to halt at a time when they are more important than ever.
Libraries and COVID-19: Managing Strategies and Stress
Recording from March 20, 2020. As communities across the globe work to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the library’s role as an information resource and community partner is more crucial than ever—whether or not the physical library is closed. In this special episode of AL Live, we speak with librarians from communities that have been on the front lines of this crisis. They discuss lessons learned during the initial response and how they are continuing to provide important services as public facilities close and commerce slows. We also speak with mindfulness and mental health experts about how library workers can manage stress and anxiety during this ever-evolving situation and how they can disseminate these strategies to their patrons.

WHO: Q&A on COVID-19 and Mental Health

Recorded version of the live Q&A on mental health during COVID-19, with Aiysha Malik, Mental Health expert at WHO speaking with Sari Setiogi, Head of WHO's Social Media and Media Monitoring. The live show was broadcast on 10 March 2020.

Helpful Tips and Outside Reading