IACRL Fall Semester Town Hall

Part One: Physical Reopening

Part Two: Resuming Instruction

Wednesday, July 29, 2020, 10:00 a.m. - Noon

IACRL, in partnership with RAILS and IHLS, hosted a Fall Semester Town Hall to discuss what our libraries are doing in regards to reopening our physical spaces and what librarians are doing to navigate instruction under new circumstances. The Town Hall consists of two sections: reopening plans and considerations & library instruction plans and considerations.

Town Hall Documents

Town Hall Chat
DePaul University Library Instruction Plans & Considerations
Back-to-School...At Home


Physical Reopening Presenters

Sarah McHone-Chase, Northern Illinois University

Sarah McHone-Chase is the Head of User Services at Northern Illinois University. Her department consists of Circulation, Interlibrary Loan, Reserves, Stacks Maintenance, Billing, and Mailroom.

Presenter will focus on how to balance health and safety concerns with workload and the concerns of staff (including their desires of working more or less; enforcing safety measures against people who are reticent to follow them, etc.). Any amount of planning is simultaneous too much and not enough.

Kathleen Rhoades, Chicago State University

Kathleen Rhoades is the Access Services and Scholarly Communications Librarian at Chicago State University. Currently her primary role is to oversee the Circulation, Resource Sharing, and Course Reserves Departments and services. Chicago State University is currently closed with open book drop.

Presentation will focus on considerations for both the employee and patrons, particularly finding that balance between safety and service.

Marie Waltz, Center for Research Libraries

Marie Waltz is the Head of Access Initiatives at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). In her current role, she manages CRL’s digital and print delivery services. Marie received her MLS from Indiana University.

Presentation will focus on experience with physically opening our library (we’ve been open for a month) and the four stage plan we have in place.

 

Resuming Instruction Presenters

Tish Hayes, Moraine Valley Community College

Tish Hayes is the Information Literacy Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College.

Although all library instruction will be online at MVCC this fall, we're offering faculty a number of options, including customizable guides and tutorials, instruction modules through our LMS, and synchronous instruction. The presentation will focus on our collaborative preparation process and faculty outreach strategy.

Firouzeh Rismiller, DePaul University

Firouzeh Rismiller is the Instructional Services Librarian at DePaul University. In her current role, she is responsible for the coordination and planning of the Library’s instruction programs. Prior to joining DePaul University Library, Firouzeh worked as an adjunct instruction and reference librarian at Malcolm X College and prior to that she served as an information literacy and reference librarian at Virginia College and Bryant and Stratton College. Firouzeh received her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds an M.S. in applied economics from Purdue University.​

Presenter will provide an overview of how DePaul University Library transformed a pilot project for delivering online instruction to five first year writing classes in winter quarter to a system for providing online programmatic and subject-specific library instruction for a wide range of courses during the closure. Rismiller will share what was learned from this project, plans for autumn quarter, and insight into subject liaisons’ plans to support faculty in their academic areas as they prepare for their courses this fall. 

iREAD Summer Reading Programs

Since 1981, iREAD provides high quality, low-cost resources and products that enable local library staff to motivate children, young adults, and adults to read.

Visit the iREAD website »