Further to this post, could you hold off editing this document for a short period of time. I will do a version that allows multiple authors to access at once as you will invariably find it is locked for editing.  And advise when this is live.

Kia ora koutou,

We hope you are doing OK and have managed to enjoy the lovely weather today.  These are extraordinary times and we acknowledge the uncertainty this constantly changing situation is causing.  We very much appreciate how our teams have continued to support our students and each other during this time.  If you are unwell you should stay at home and alert your Manager of your plans.  If you have an underlying health issue or are over the age of 70 you should be working from home or have a leave plan with your Manager if you are unwell.  EAP services will be operating via phone moving forward and we expect further information from the university shortly.

At this point in time all staff whose usual working day is Monday (and you’re not already on leave, or have already made arrangements with your Manager to work from home) can come to work Monday as normal and wait for further guidance from your Manager.

Here’s what you need to know

• The university will be teaching online from Monday, including lectures, tutorials and labs.   This will reduce the number of students on campus
• Library access will be card only from Monday with swipe in and swipe out.   Security will be available for PJH and possibly EPS
• Other UC staff have volunteered to help with monitoring of physical distancing in the Library
• There will be no access for non-UC people until further notice
• Swipe card readers will be installed at PJH on Monday and EPS on Tuesday
• Hours have been reduced to 8.00am-9.00pm in PJH.   The priority is staffing PJH.   Library hours will reduce further if required particularly at MB or EPS
• At risk staff or those in isolation should be working from home
• On Monday we will be surveying staff to see what capacity people have to work at home.   Jo will coordinate with all staff working from home
• Desk services at PJH and EPS will be discontinued in favour of AskLive

A spreadsheet has been set up to record working from home needs. Staff and managers should update these as soon as possible to allow co-ordination of staff working from home.

What will be our priorities?

• Moving all teaching related information resources online through purchasing or digitisation
• Any support we can provide for the ELS team who are supporting academics to teach fully online – Sara will be coordinating this
• Online services – access to databases, AskLive etc
• Preparing for working from home
• Continuing physical access to Libraries for study purposes while monitoring who is using the service

Kia ora koutou,

We’re acutely aware of Covid-19 information overload, so we are trying to keep these posts to one a day.  We’ll post the most urgent info for now and update you on the less urgent another time.  The staff forum at 3:15pm today may also update some of this information.

Access to libraries – impacts for UC students, UC staff and visitors

• We currently expect the following to begin happening next week
• From Monday 23rd March 2020, only UC staff and students with their Canterbury Card will have physical access to the libraries.  This will require staff to monitor the entrance
• Card readers will be installed at the entrance to libraries
• All UC staff and students accessing the entrance to the PJH and EPS libraries will need to swipe their UC card, or manually present it to staff at Macmillan Brown
• Self-managing physical distancing measures will be encouraged
• Posters to promote physical distance and washing your hands will be generated and circulated

How we plan to manage this

• Staff from wider library teams will be needed to support the Customer Services team to work at PJH or EPS
• We will be asking Library staff coming to work next week (who are not in Customer Services) to assist with managing gated access
• The more the merrier – if we have plenty of people pitching in this will enable regular changes to provide relief for the shifts.  We may not use all but it will be good to have cover as needed
• We are also seeking volunteers from the wider staff who would be willing to temporarily adjust their working hours to assist with managing gate access after hours.  We want to maintain current opening hours if possible.  We acknowledge this situation could change
• Please let your manager know if you would be willing to assist with working after hours – all or part of 5-11:15pm and/or weekends 9:30am-9:15pm.

To assist teams with scenario planning, here is a link to a recent CAUL library survey – sharing of library planning for dealing with Covid-19

Kia ora koutou,

Well it’s been another interesting 24 hours.  We want to thank you all for continuing to provide Library services whether it be on campus or remotely.  We really appreciate everybody’s flexibility at this time and the additional work being put in on top of our usual routines.

How are you doing?

We acknowledge the upheaval this is creating and the uncertainty of these times.  We really want to emphasize that looking after your mental health is critical.  Managers are checking in and monitoring the wellbeing and health of their team members at this time, so please do raise any issues or concerns, even if your manager seems busy at this time.  EAP Services also provide a confidential service.  The Ministry of Health’s mental health and wellbeing advice provides these tips:

• Spend time in places that feel safe and comfortable as much as possible
• Tell yourself that how you are feeling is a normal reaction and will pass – it is nothing to be afraid of
• Reach out to your usual supports – family and whānau, friends and workmates. Sharing how we feel and offering support to others is important
• Keep to usual routines – mealtimes, bedtime, exercise and so on
• Keep active – going to work, doing usual leisure activities and seeing friends can improve general wellbeing and help distract from distressing feelings

UC wide updates

• Please continue to read the latest staff updates from the UC Incident team
• Guidance for staff self-isolating is changing and we expect further information about working from home.  Read Paul O’Flaherty’s latest update for the most recent information.  We expect further information to clarify a consistent approach for staffing matters
• Staff forum tomorrow 3:15pm Friday in C2.  If you can’t make it there will be the option to view this online
• Ian Wright’s portfolio page contains updates relating the Library

Scenario planning

• We are planning for a range of scenarios.  These range from mixed online/physical service delivery with staff on campus but restricted student access to full online service delivery with no people on campus
• Managers have identified five key workstreams relating to Library: 1) Access to information services, 2) Teaching and subject support, 3) Enquiry services, 4) Learning spaces and 5) Research support
• Your manager will be asking for your assistance very shortly to identify and scope out the essential tasks relating to each of these workstreams

Access to information resources

• The number of publishers providing additional or unlimited electronic access to resources is increasing as Access and Collections staff, the CAUL consortium and agents (EBSCO and ProQuest) continue negotiations.

Working from home

• Do continue to monitor and contribute to the working from home wiki page on Camelot.  Big thanks to everyone updating this content particularly eServices
• Library managers are working on a list of tasks staff could do from home including situations where staff do not have sufficient or any computer or internet access at home
• We expect further information about pooling UC equipment such as laptops in a centralised way where priority will be for UC staff working on essential tasks.  This may mean that staff who currently have a laptop may need to relinquish the laptop for this purpose.

Library updates

• Submit a question, concern or problem relating to the Library’s response to Covid-19
• Urgent issues: ring or email Te Paea, Tim and Jo
• Library related communications to date
• Library webpage updates

Take care,
Te Paea, Jo and Tim

Sorry there was a faulty URL to the updates page in my post yesterday

The updates page is here

Following on from Anne’s post and as part of our business continuity planning, Te Paea (Team Leader), Welfare (Jo Condon), Scribe (Saharu Shoji) and Communications (Tim Stedman) have formed a small team to manage the Library’s Covid-19 response.

We will be meeting daily via Skype or in Te Paea’s office (control centre) and will be keeping you regularly informed.

We are very aware the volume of Covid-19 updates from many sources can be overwhelming at this time.  The situation continues to change.  So this post will likely date quite quickly …

How we will keep you updated

We aim to avoid duplicating information from various other sources rather we focus on the Library’s response.  We will be doing our best to keep the amount of communication to a reasonable minimum while at the same time balancing this against the need to keep stakeholders informed.  Updates will be posted on this wiki page and via Counterculture.

Wider campus communication about the Library services

Our role is also to liaise with wider UC communications and getting key Library information out there.  We have been advised as of this afternoon that any comms going out to UC staff will need to be vetted by the relevant SMT member or Incident Management Team.  We are asking for some clarification about this.  They are trying to ensure all Covid-19 messaging is consistent.  Accordingly it seems it may take us time to update or get relevant Library information we want to share in the key places.

Some of the information being shared is news to us.  For instance the current advice on this web page that the Central Library is now on card access.  Te Paea is following up with Security to see what the story is.  So expect an update on that one … !  11:50am 19/3 This page has now been updated

Focus areas

Library Managers have identified the critical services that will be needed for 2020 in the areas of access to information; learning and teaching support; enquiry services; learning spaces and research support.   In addition there will be a focus on student success and wellbeing, and staff wellbeing.    Small teams will be set up to work out the tasks associated with each area.  We are asking some staff to work at home each day to test our capacity to provide critical services.   This is raising a number of issues that are being worked through.

Staff wellbeing

Staff wellbeing is a key aspect of the Library’s response to this event. We encourage you to talk to your manager about anything that’s worrying you.  Jo Condon is coordinating the staff wellbeing stream of the response and you’re welcome to contact Jo directly with any concerns or comments.  Here are some helpful links for accessing support.

• Key HR resources for staff
• EAP Services
• Ministry of Health tips for managing your mental wellbeing in relation to Covid-19

Questions or problems

As questions come up we will be seeking clarification and responding to these on a regular basis.

• Urgent questions – contact Te Paea, Tim, Jo
• Submit a question or problem
• View questions and responses submitted to date

We’d love you to share your experiences

Have you found out something useful for sharing?

• Working from home – add your experience/learning
• Submit another tip or lesson learned
• View tips or lessons learned submitted to date

IRWG is undertaking a review of how we think we as a group are doing.  As well as revisiting our Terms of Reference, questions we’ve asked ourselves include: what’s working well, what’s not working well, what is the value of this group and what alternatives or potential ideas for change might we suggest?

Some of the things we have identified that could be improved were as follows.  Waiting for a month or longer for decisions making us less agile, we can make things disempowering for staff working in these areas eg subject librarians and information resources coordinators, do we have equity in decision-making, a tendency to focus on operational rather than strategic matters, thinking about the best use of everyone’s time (LAC staff, subject librarians, IRWG members, IRAG members, academics participating in the annual review), some difficulty getting consensus on various topics (one recently being the Library’s role in providing access to eTextbooks).  On the plus side, we saw value in a cross-library team group such as IRWG existing that discusses matters of mutual interest.

We are discussing potential ideas for how we move forward.  These include:

• IRWG becomes more strategic in its focus for example looking more at OERs and trends in scholarly communication
• Using email for discussion and having less face to face meetings
• Moving away from IRWG making decisions about individual subscriptions.  One idea discussed was having a default Yes to all new subscription recommendations that meet agreed criteria.  With the proviso usage would be reviewed eg mid year and if usage is not cutting the mustard the resource would be cancelled by default at the end of the current sub
• Revisiting the criteria for cancellation and implementing a default cancel for resources getting little use (on the assumption we can’t continue to keep everything if we want to be responsive to changing needs at UC eg new research clusters)
• Reducing the number of managers on the group particularly if the focus of the group was to stay the same

No decisions have been made at this point in time, we are discussing ideas in the spirit of any idea is a good idea at this point.  If you would like to comment on the role of IRWG and any ideas you have you are welcome to discuss these with any member of our group (Helen, Sara, Dave L, Fiona T, myself)