As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Virginia in March, we all suddenly found ourselves in a new era and realized it might not be "business as usual" for quite some time. How long was anyone's guess.

Governor Northam declared a state of emergency, cancelling meetings, encouraging use of technology in lieu of in-person interactions, and most VDOT knowledge workers became full-time teleworkers. To comply with VDOT safety requirements so did library staffers!  None of us had time to adjust and four months later we may be asking: "What just happened?"

We are all keeping a close eye on local and state news and VDOT's COVID-19 Planning site, and we know VDOT is in Stage 2 of "reopening" right now, which dictates telework for most employees, prohibits travel, requires enhanced cleaning and physical distancing, and closes common areas of all VDOT facilities, including the VDOT Research Library.

Given these challenges, how is the VDOT Research Library adapting to support patrons?  How are libraries across the country adapting?
 

A national survey conducted by the American Library Association sheds some light on how libraries are adjusting in order to better support their patrons in the COVID-19 era.  Responses from 3,800 school, college, public and special libraries indicate that the steps we've been taking are in line with national "best practices" during this time of uncertainty. 
 

We started by notifying library users of changes to library operations as soon as they happened through this announcement on the library's Web site on March 19th, the essentials of which remain in place to this day.  Let's explore some key findings of ALA's national library survey and compare them to what's happening locally at the VDOT Research Library:

In-Person Library Visits: 99% of survey respondents reported library closures, with 62% indicating they were completely closed to patrons for in-person visits. Most respondents are still not certain when they will be able to re-open.
 

VDOT Library: In compliance with VDOT requirements the VDOT Library has been closed for in-person visits since mid-March, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Access To Collections: Respondents said one of the top needs they anticipate in the next 6 months (64%) was patron access to library collections. Libraries are adapting in a variety of ways, including checkout services, curbside pickups, increased scanning and document delivery within existing copyright laws.
 

VDOT Library: We are checking out and renewing materials "remotely" on behalf of patrons every week, we issued more than 50 Virtual Library Cards to new patrons from April-June, and we are shipping items directly to VDOT personnel wherever they are. So if you need something let us know! This is especially true for our P.E. Exam study collections, which are still in high demand.

Check Out Periods: Most libraries (76%) have extended checkout periods and waived overdue fees (74%), and many have delayed returns because they have little capacity to receive and process materials at buildings that are still not open.

VDOT Library: We have never charged overdue fees for VDOT employees, and we have extended check out periods for all physical holdings circulated prior to the pandemic. Since the spring P.E. exam has been rescheduled for October, we have extended the check out period for P.E. exam collections to November 2020.

Staffing/Shipping/Receiving: Staffing "on site" is gradually increasing at some libraries, focusing in large part on processing returns, and increasingly on checkouts/shipments to patrons who are still prohibited from entering libraries in person. Almost all other library services are being conducted remotely.

VDOT Library: We are now staffed "in person" one day a week, however, we remain closed to visitors, including employees who work at VTRC. Why? Our focus is on processing returns, shelving, pulling and shipping items, and scanning items and otherwise working with our print collections.

Interlibrary Loans & Document Delivery: Many libraries like ours rely on OCLC's Interlibrary Loans program to borrow holdings on behalf of patrons. When the pandemic began, OCLC libraries had nearly 400,000 physical items on load to 5,674 libraries via the OCLC ILL network. As libraries begin to reopen they struggle to staff ILL, which requires shipping/receiving and lots of hands-on work with collections. OCLC data indicates that only 37% of libraries are still lending, while 79% are still borrowing. Since we lend to and borrow from each other, that math does not work out well.

VDOT Library: Most libraries we routinely borrow from are temporarily unable to lend physical materials right now. Like most other libraries, our ILL service is open for borrowing (on behalf of patrons) but closed for lending (to patrons of other libraries) due to constraints explained earlier. VDOT patrons who request Interlibrary Loans should expect difficulty receiving loans from other libraries in the near future. For patrons who can identify a chapter/section from a book or report using our library catalog we can typically scan and send pages through our in-house document delivery service.

Research Assistance: Research assistance is another need libraries cite. Libraries are suddenly shifting from face-to-face to offer support via phone, e-mail, and live chat. That includes access to full-text online databases.

VDOT Library: Most of our business has been virtual for years, however, our live chat and FAQ service has seen record use since it was established in 2016. Live Chat is staffed by librarians Monday-Friday from 8:00-4:30. After hours questions can be submitted by Online form, we take phone calls and respond to e-mails daily, and we are even able to receive requests for research support through text message at: 434-363-4736. We also conduct screen shares through Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts.
 

Online Resources and Self-Paced Guides: A final need cited is purchasing new online resources and creating "how to" guides for accessing those resources.

VDOT Library: Self-service access starts at our publicly accessible Web Page which contains links to 13 full-text online resources, including this newly added collection of 600 eBooks from Harvard Business Review. We're also expanding our collection of self-paced Research Guides with additions like this guide to installing Microsoft Teams at home. We also have 96 FAQs available to help patrons answer common questions.

As we do our small part to “keeping Virginia moving” we will continue adapting to interruptions to the information supply chain. We need to stay safe and we need to keep our patrons safe, but we also want to be sure your needs are met.

How we achieve both of these goals safely may be difficult to negotiate but we're working hard and want to hear from you if you have ideas or concerns.

More than anything, we miss being at the library as much as you do, and we miss you but are grateful we can stay in touch online. 

Please call, e-mail, chat, or text us any time!

Ken Winter
(434) 962-8979
VDOT Research Library

The example above shows what a typical Bulletin article looks like in the new digital collection.

Big news for VDOT longtimers, transportation historians and anyone with a connected computer who is wants to plug in to the ethos and institutional memory of VDOT from 1934-2009. 

The VDOT Bulletin is now available online for full-text searching and browsing!  

To help you get started using it, we've created this Quick-Start Guide, which shows you how to do things like: search, browse, and print, and also gives tips on getting the most out of the resource. 

What's the Bulletin, you ask? 

Well, for those unaware, the Bulletin was the agency's internal newsletter, published on a regular basis in print for 75 years before briefly going online through the agency's early SharePoint site. 

The Bulletin was a regular and eagerly anticipated publication sent to VDOT employees in all districts and divisions for most of VDOT's modern history.  Employees relied on it to keep up to speed with what was happening at VDOT, in transportation, and with each other. Ultimately it was discontinued and replaced with communications features of InsideVDOT.  

But what about all the VDOT history and institutional memory captured in the Bulletin?  The short answer is it was bound into volumes and has been sitting on the library's shelves until we could find a way to make it a bit more accessible. 

That would not have been possible without the determination of library staffer Gil Kenner, who spent years setting up the new digital collections Web site using OCLC's CONTENTdm platform, then configuring and testing the system, and finally digitizing the 75 years of the Bulletin as the site's first collection.  That's right, every page of all 652 issues of the Bulletin is now publicly accessible thanks to Kenner's hard work and determination.

We hope to add more VDOT collections to the site in time, so please let us know if you have suggestions.  In the meantime, enjoy the Bulletin and finally, please do two things:

Please share this link: https://vdot.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/ and the Bulletin Guide with a fellow VDOT-er, active or retired. 

After all, the site is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.  

Ken Winter
(434) 962-8979
VDOT Research Library