- Corona , The University
- 31/03/2020
Books can still be borrowed
Just because education is entirely online it doesn't mean that actual books with pages are no longer needed. Searching for a book in TU/e's library is not something you can currently do, but the Information Expertise Center (soon to move forward under the new name of Data Management & Library) is still keen to lend books. And DML is also - still - ensuring that paper letters arrive in digital mailboxes.
MetaForum is peopled with as few individuals as possible due to the corona crisis. But every day someone is seated at the library desk. Lending books is one of the two tasks that Data Management & Library will continue to perform as long as TU/e is still open for business. Merle Rodenburg, DML director, calls the provision of information and the digitalization of mail two business-critical processes.
“We were already used to digitalizing mail delivered to TU/e. All envelops, with the exception of confidential mail such as that addressed to committees of ombudspeople and members of the University Council, are already opened by us. We scan and email the contents. Owing to the exceptional situation caused by corona, we are now also digitalizing personal mail. We are keen to prevent important mail being neglected, so we are making a temporary exception to the prevailing rules,” says Rodenburg. Three days a week, in teams of two, members of the scanning team come to MetaForm to do this job. Postal packages are held at Waste Management & Logistics, the place where mail is always delivered. “Initially, the team's workload increased,” says Rodenburg, but she expects this peak to pass.
Loans
Students and employees can still arrange to borrow books. It is fortunate that we are a university of technology, Rodenburg believes. “Much information is already digital. We have 95 percent of the journals in digital form. A few departments are still using actual books with pages, departments like Built Environment, Industrial Design, and Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences. It varies from academic to academic.”
Anyone who would like to come and borrow a book can submit their request via email. Books are collected in person from the Atlas reception desk.
Behind the scenes, university libraries worldwide have appealed to publishers to make digital books more accessible during the crisis, in other words less expensive and with less strict conditions of use. Rodenburg says, “It might be a condition is that only two people can open the book before you have to pay again. Now, though, publishers are starting to relax their rules.”
Warehouse
Meanwhile, the warehouse in the basement of Atlas is being filled with items that were stored off-campus for over five years during the transformation from Main Building to Atlas. “This is being done by an external party that is making its own decisions, in consultation with the crisis team. Like the maintenance work on campus, that will continue, unless the crisis team decides otherwise.”
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