The Tech SIG was held on May 27, 2020 via Zoom. The convener was Arianna Schlegel from Vassar College.
Tech SIG 5/27/20
“The reopening edition”
Does anyone have a schedule in place so far?
June 8 might be the date for Poughkeepsie. Doing tech support is going to be very different, it’s going to be online right now. It’s not certain how to do it in person right now, maybe remotely from another end of the building. Maybe they will use plexiglass to keep a distance. They’re going from 4-8 people in the lab at one time to one person at a time.
There are portable plexiglass shields on stands that could work.
How do we clean the computers after someone uses it? Do you get silicone covers?
Are cheap keyboards and mice susceptible to too much liquid? Mac keyboards are very sensitive to too much wiping.
Plugging in a USB keyboard to the laptop might be a solution.
Irvington has tentative plans to open at the end of june, will open in phases, the first phase will be technical and clerical staff to work with the huge backlog of books...will limit our public terminals from 9 to 3 with appropriate distancing, and wipes for those who want them...library is being retrofitted with plexiglass screens, masks, gloves, limiting number of patrons...all very tentative
Looking into self-checkout stations that work with mobile phones or scanners that can be used through plexiglass. Sierra allows for self-check through phones.
MSMC will close stacks, but the building is a dorm, so it’s hard to limit access. They have self-checkout machines that can be moved.
Poughkeepsie just started curbside, but does not have self checkout.
Within an hour of announcing curbside, they already had people picking up books.
Discovery layers tried to recreate the browsability features, but it didn’t take off, now that seems like a good idea since everyone is going to have closed stacks. Sierra gives you the books that come before and after, and that’s the closest.
Synetics has a carousel feature so you can browse through titles.
Temple university has robots that page.
Does anyone have to change their catalog to accommodate the change other than making due dates later?
-MSMC is asking professors to use e-resources for reserves. But they’re not having a lot of agreement or buy-in yet.
e-Resources embracing hasn’t fully happened yet. Print acquisitions have paused, so there’s been more money to spend on materials.
Elderly patrons are resisting using e-resources, and some web-based borrowing software is very confusing. They use Hoopla and Kanopy a lot.
Are people moving computers for use in library?
Time limits will be made to one hour, and patrons will be asked to leave the library when they are done.
A few libraries have wifi available from the parking lot so that they can offer that service from the parking lot.
DISCO services at Vassar has open office hours via Zoom so that students can drop in for help. They might keep those hours going when school comes back into session.
Any cutbacks or hours reductions for staff?
MSMC might cut back evening hours to 10pm.
Vassar will cut back hour to allow for more cleaning time. The 24-hour spaces will be closed because there’s no way to monitor social distancing. Will the staff be expected to police the standards? That is still uncertain…
POK will have security guards and a code of conduct.
The “island” concept is that no one leaves the campus once it starts.
Some schools are talking about ending at Thanksgiving
[McSweeney’s Article]
Debbie at POK used Cantasia. During this time, she created a video and now she can make one in a day. You can see her videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzWwLJnNMe_j3astd2hBr7gD2q7Ot3dSu
Cheryl started a customer service blog
“Brave not Perfect” is a good book about getting things done.