• Plexiglass and/or standalone shields are installed at all service desks
• All furniture and computers are separated at least 6ft.
• Group study room capacity is reduced more than 50% to a maximum of 3 people
• Single study room capacity is limited to 1 person
• Elevator capacity is limited to 1 person
• Music Library capacity is limited to 10 people
• Water fountains will be unavailable; Bottle filling stations will remain available
• Eating in public areas is prohibited; employees may eat in their offices, staff lounge, etc.
• Entry and exit will be restricted to one direction
• Signage and stanchions will be installed to facilitate changes
• Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes will be available at all service desks, classrooms, and the entrance
• Disposable masks will be available at the Security Desks
• Equipment circulation will be for 7 days and some items will be removed from general circulation
• Housekeeping will increase cleaning of high-touch areas
The Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Department had substantial disruption due to the pandemic. We never ceased operation, as many other similar departments did across the country. We actually expanded our document delivery and mail operations to ensure ECU patrons had access to what they were wanting from the physical collections and have continued these services into the fall allowing even local patrons to use the mail to home service for materials.
"While many library positions may require quite a bit of an in-house presence, the duties and responsibilities of my job translated very well to the remote environment. I would say that I was able to pretty much continue uninterrupted and successfully maintain my workload for about 95-97% of it.
The remaining 3-5% reflects a few activities that required me to be on-site to handle some materials that needed to be added to the Symphony database. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was quite a bit of activity involving changing due date parameters and closed dates in the system’s configuration until as we shifted plans for re-opening several times.
As far as my normal activity workload, there was an uptick in requests for generating lists and reports to assist folks in database cleanup tasks that could easily be done remotely by them."
- Ann Carol Stocks, Systems Administrator
"At the Music Library, we were closed for in-house use from late March, through the summer until the beginning of fall semester, but we continued to provide ILL and holds the entire time. We also provided virtual and email services.
Over the summer Eleanor Cook participated in the Fletcher School of Music’s COVID Action Team, which was responsible for planning for managing fall semester activities and safety measures. It was fascinating and challenging to consider how musical performance would be managed safely in a COVID environment.
In preparation for fall semester we moved furniture and equipment in order to provide safe distances, ramped up our supplies of protective gear (masks and gloves), enhanced cleaning supplies, and adjusted policies in line with safety protocols. We installed a door bell for on-demand service and made appointments when requested. John Baga produced a number of helpful online instruction tutorials to stand in for face-to-face instruction sessions. Staff also took turns coming into the facility and spent time working from home, focusing on database clean-up projects and the like.
The summer was lonely and quiet and the fall semester was not much different since most students were still off campus. It was wonderful to hear the sounds of musical instruments being practiced once spring semester started."
- Eleanor Cook, Interim Head of the Music Library