In March, just after we closed due to COVID, the library’s focus was on supporting our history classes doing research (around 600 students, all researching away… just a little crazy, right?). So we added EBSCO’s Academic and High School ebooks collection, entering 3500+ MARC records into our catalog while encouraging students to search the whole collection of 200,000+. It was difficult not being able to work with our Middle School students and our Upper School readers, but hey, it was a crazy time.
Then we started to think about being closed for most of this academic year. Like many of our peers, we started to think about adding other, non-academic ebooks via OverDrive and SORA. We looked at what had been really popular over the past few years, what books were coming out that students might want to read, what books supported our racial justice/Black Lives Matters/DEI initiatives and added them to our ebook collection. There are students (adults, too) who really don’t like ebooks but it was the best we could do under the circumstances.
But two weeks ago, we finally heard from our Health & Safety Taskforce that we could, in fact, start a curbside circulation program. Using our catalog or our new Books To Go Menu, students/faculty can reserve books and we’ll deliver them in paper bags (Middle School) or put them in paper bags for the Upper School and faculty to pick up. On our first day, we had a lot of interest!
Even better, one of our amazing colleagues made us a video!
I know it’s a only a small step towards normal, but OMG I’m excited!
Venn Librarian 