From: “Rosemary Arneson (rarneso3)” <rarneso3@umw.edu>
Date: Monday, April 20, 2020 at 10:19 AM
To: “All_TEACHING_FACULTY@umw.edu” <All_Teaching_Faculty@umw.edu>
Subject: Support for summer classes
Dear Colleagues,
Congratulations on making it to the last week of classes! Coincidentally, this is National Library Week, and it seemed appropriate to celebrate by sending you yet another email.
If you will be teaching a course this summer, I want you to know that we will be continuing our remote services. We will continue to scan copies of library resources, including the textbooks on reserve, and adding these to the Library Reading Lists in Canvas. The sooner you get your scanning requests to us, the better.
Whenever possible, we are acquiring an electronic version of books that you and your students need for classes. We are also licensing streaming access to films whenever possible. Because of the current budget restrictions, we can only purchase those items that are needed for a course.
Summer is a good time to try out an open educational resource, or to look at adopting one for the fall. If you would like to explore OER options in your area, contact Paul Boger (pboger@umw.edu).
Unfortunately, interlibrary lending continues to be disrupted. We can usually obtain articles that are available electronically, and we can also borrow some electronic books. However, most of the partners are not currently shipping physical items. The VIVA interlibrary loan community continues to discuss how and when we can best resume full ILL services.
The librarian have been working with individual students through email and chat reference and longer research consultations. Like you, we are trying to convert our usual instruction sessions into online instruction, and we are developing a series of short videos on targeted topics. Stay tuned for information on how to access these resources. Please contact us if you would like to discuss research assignments and instruction opportunities for a summer class.
Here are some helpful links:
Scanning Request Form: https://libraries.umw.edu/general-digitization-request-form/
Purchase Request Form: https://libraries.umw.edu/purchase-request-form/
Reference assistance: refdesk@umw.edu
Special Collections & Archives assistance: archives@umw.edu
General Library Assistance: umwlibraries@umw.edu
Finally, we encourage you and your students to contribute to our archives of this strange time. If you watched the online production of Much Ado about Nothing last week, you hear Gregg Stull say that the production will be included in this collection. For more information, please see our Call to Contribute: https://libguides.umw.edu/online/scua/contribute.
Thank you all for the many words of support and encouragement you have shared. There is nothing so frustrating to a librarian as to be unable to help her patrons as fully as she would like. My staff and I are committed to making sure you and your students have the library resources they need, even if we have to invent new ways to get those resources to you.
Best wishes,
Rosemary