Discussion Points:
- How are you doing?
- Transitioning back to the office
- How are your projects going?
Notes:
- Working on a schedule to prevent overlapping of personnel in the office. Making sure schedules are clearly noted and consistent. Face masks in public areas of the library.
- 25% of staff can go back, determining what that means. FSU Libraries has determined that that means 25% of each division, for Special Collections and Archives that means 6 people
- Digitization is considered an essential service at this point so Digital Library Center staff is always on that rotation. Schedules go out for two weeks at a time, so on campus work has to be planned ahead so that there aren’t too many people in the office at one time.
- UCF is phasing in over the month of May. Researchers will be allowed into labs. Have not gotten exact numbers or percentages. Doing rotating hours in the office for those who share spaces.
- Conservator has been allowed back in to start filming for fall classes, in anticipation of all or many classes being held online.
- Uncertainty around fall classes and how social distancing will work in busy campus libraries
- Bok Tower will be opening gardens up to the public, but buildings will remain closed to the public.
- Many people are trying to work from home for as long as possible or work in phased rotations of staff.
- This is the time of year for reporting annual activities for many and conceptualizing the last few months is a challenge to think about. Reporting has been extended for some to account for transitions to working remotely.
- During report season is also usually time for planning goals for the year. Some members of the group found it challenging to look forward during all of this uncertainty. Goal setting has been a challenge due to changing policies and circumstances. This would be a good topic to discuss at the next discussion.
- Many conferences have moved to the fall and it is unclear if those will be able to take place. Also, due to anticipated budget cuts some are expecting a lack of professional development money to travel to conferences or participate in professional development.
- We discussed anxiety around budget planning for next year and working to retain jobs and people. Looking at models like the one proposed in Arizona https://hr.arizona.edu/FY-2020-2021-Furlough-Program.
- Hurricane season is approaching and there is activity developing in the Atlantic that may start the season early. The group expressed a dread of having to deal with this pandemic and a hurricane, but acknowledged that at least we have plans in place for how to deal with hurricanes and that certainty is kind of comforting. Tarping collections while social distancing may be challenging. We are all hoping the hurricanes stay in the ocean this season and leave us alone.
- For some, ongoing projects have been successful, including new collections going online. For others, challenges with virtual machines and accessing files is still a struggle. Sharing the internet with other members of households and increased internet traffic in general have added to these challenges.
- We will extend these discussions to continue through the summer. It will be useful to continue discussions about transitioning back to work and planning for what comes after.
- Next discussion will be Thursday, May 28, at 1pm.
Sunshine State Digital Network 