Following the university’s announcement that learning will be remote for the fall semester, many on-campus facilities are transitioning to virtual services. The Grasselli Library and Breen Learning Center began making this transition back in March and continue to implement new resources and services to assist students while they navigate working from home. 

Amy Wainwright, head of research, learning and outreach at the library, said most of the services that the library provides to students were able to transition fully to virtual mode even though access to the library became limited and quarantining procedures for materials had to be put in place back in March.

“We were able to temporarily provide digital copies of almost all of the books in our textbook sharing program,” Wainwright said. “We also turned on our online chat help, librarians worked with students over Zoom to get resources for assignments, and we supported moving study tables to an online format.” 

Alongside these changes, the library continues to add more resources for the fall semester, including online modules on information literacy to help guide students in the research process and a library module directed to Canvas for faculty to integrate into courses. 

The library is launching a textbook lending program called Controlled Digital Lending while also encouraging faculty to use Open Educational Resources and other resources the library already subscribes to as course texts. 

“We were really sad that we were not able to lend textbooks this year,” Library Director Michelle Millet said. “But I’m excited and proud that our staff came up with a solution. In addition, the OhioLINK lending program is back up and running throughout the state, but it is delayed by a couple of weeks.”

The delay is because any books that are passed from outside of Grasselli are being quarantined. Now, it takes about two weeks or longer to receive printed items such as books from OhioLINK. 

“We are hoping that we can expand shipping books directly to students, however, while tackling other transitional items, we haven’t made this change,” Wainwright said. “Students who live in the Cleveland area, or are at a reasonable distance, are still welcome to come in to the library and check materials out directly.”

While the library’s services may appear different this year, Grasselli’s mission still remains the same: to support the teaching and research needs of the community and to be an intellectual and cultural resource to the community.

“There is something here for everyone, and we are here to help,” Millet said. “We really miss you all. The library is too quiet without you. We are really excited about upcoming changes to the library and we think you will be too.”

The library remains open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Contact [email protected] or call (216) 397-4233 with any questions.