2020-04-15 UCAC Agenda & Notes

Berkeley: 1) Kathi Neal reported that the libraries reporting to the UC Berkeley Library (including The Bancroft Library) remained open through March 16, when the Bay Area shelter-in-place order was issued. Staff as a whole (essential workers excepted) began working remotely on March 17. Remote instruction had begun on March 10. 2) A campus hiring freeze was announced on April 1 (Some active recruitments might continue.) 3) She has been receiving reference requests as well as communications from donors (new and existing) and handling them as completely as possible. Donors are asked to hold onto their materials until Bancroft is back in full operation. 4) Bancroft's digital archivist will begin collecting key websites documenting the COVID-19 pandemic, including those of the University Health Services and Public Affairs, as well as the UC Office of the President's information site. She also is saving daily library administration's communications to staff. 5) University Health Services has opened a testing service for students, first responders, staff, and faculty still on-campus (if they are exhibiting symptoms). 6) In early March, the UC Berkeley Library launched a new digital collections platform that uses TIND (https://digital.lib.berkeley.edu/). Part of the library's Digital Lifecycle Program, it complements existing digital resources, such as Calisphere and original digital collection project platforms.

Davis: 1) Kevin Miller has been capturing campus and local government sites relating to COVID-19. He also photographed related signage. 2) His unit continues to fulfill some researcher requests if the collections involved are onsite and provide remote-instruction assistance. 3) Interviews for the Bulosan Filipino Studies Center archivist, a position that will report to Archives and Special Collections, will be conducted via Zoom. Progress toward hiring a university archivist has slowed. 4) Picnic Day, the campus annual open house, has been canceled. Archives and Special Collections will contribute to an online exhibit.

Irvine: 1) Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez has been focusing on digital archival and technical services work remotely. She has been crawling weekly for web content related to COVID-19 (https://archive-it.org/collections/5613?fc=websiteGroup%3A2020+Novel+COVID-19) 2) March 13 was unexpectedly the staff's last day on campus. The library tried to offer hybrid services initially but now refer users to the sources made available through the HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access Service. 3) Special Collections and Archives were supposed to go live with Aeon this spring but are now receiving training in preparation for roll out in real time. 4) She has been updating the processing procedures and is virtually hosting an intern at NYU.

Merced: 1) Jim Dooley reported that the library has been closed since March, and he has received no university archives requests. The reopening date has been extended from April 17. The staff is handling any task that can be performed remotely. 2) They are capturing UC Merced and Merced County Department of Public Health websites pertaining to COVID-19. 3) The recruitment to replace the archivist for the Merced County Cooperative Extension project is underway. It is not yet known how progress on the NHPRC-funded project might be affected by the changes due to the pandemic. 4) Although no official campus hiring freeze has been issued, one might be imminent.

San Diego: 1) Marlayna Christensen reported that the cancellation of the Geisel Library's Annual Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration on March 2 (due in part to the graduate student assistants strike) launched a series of changes on campus. The library closed to the public on March 16, during the final exam week for winter quarter, in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Special Collections staff continued to work onsite through March 19. On March 20, library staff received word that no one except security and other essential staff would be allowed inside the library. Marlayna received permission to enter that day and photographed the entire empty library. 2) Telecommuting projects in development or underway include: a proposed COVID-19 community journaling project (via a Google form) as a companion to website captures; listening to and editing oral history transcripts, with help from broader library staff; and student employees conducting research on administrative units' histories. 3) A campus hiring freeze was announced during the week of April 13. 4) She also is working on standardizing her outreach approach to campus units.

San Francisco: 1) Polina Ilieva reported that a hiring freeze was announced, effective April 7, 2020, through June 30, 2021. 2) Archives and Special Collections has received funding for two positions: a project archivist/records manager for one year to focus on the records of the chancellor and executive vice chancellor and provost and a half-time intern to process a faculty art collection. 3) Her staff will contribute to a virtual online event for alumni weekend, possibly to include quizzes on Facebook or Instagram and will provide direct links to yearbooks organized by school and year. 4) Polina submitted stories about 48 remarkable women in UCSF's history to the 150W History Portal at UC Berkeley. 5) More than 40 laboratories at UCSF are working on the pandemic. Digital archivist Charlie Macquarie is working with the labs and the Office of Research to gather links to document the campus and Bay Area response. The collection can be found on Archive-It at:

https://archive-it.org/collections/6481?fc=websiteGroup%3ACOVID-19+--+UCSF+Response

In consultation with the Offices of Legal Counsel and University Relations, staff has developed a method for the campus community to submit photographs and accounts of experiences during the pandemic. She cited Stanford and Harvard Universities' approaches as good models:

https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/special-collections-unbound/2020/03/share-your-experience-coronavirus-pandemic-stanford


https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/harvardcovid19


Polina proposed to UCAC and the Heads of Special Collections Common Knowledge Group (HOSC) that the groups discuss how to collaborate on documenting the COVID-19 crisis. Action item: Teresa will send out a Doodle poll to schedule an off-cycle meeting to take place in the next two weeks.

6) The library has been closed since March 16. Archives and Special Collections staff are offering collaborative services and working remotely on three metadata creation projects.

Santa Barbara: 1) Matt Stahl said that his last day in the office was March 13. The library remained open through March 19, at the chancellor's request. 2) Working remotely, Matt has focused on web archive projects, including developing workflows. He is collecting campus websites relating to COVID-19. While he lacked opportunity to set up a "send-us-your-stories" site, he also mentioned Stanford's approach as a good example. 3) He has had Zoom meetings with prospective donors. 4) The Special Research Collections unit has three active recruitments, which it hopes will be filled by July 1: director of the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, the film and media archivist, and a library assistant IV position. 5) He has not yet had an opportunity to revise the email statement.

Santa Cruz: 1) Teresa Mora shared that the campus was slated to have its first all-staff meeting via Zoom in the afternoon on April 15, and she would attend. 2) The libraries closed after March 17. Office furniture can be retrieved, but collections and user access are not possible. 3) Two major events were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Alumni Weekend and the publication launch of the two-volume oral history of UCSC. The latter has been promoted virtually with great success. 4) The recruitments underway will go forward. 5) Summer-session classes will be held remotely. 6) Using Archive-It, Teresa has begun capturing website crawls documenting the graduate student strikes and is relearning how to do the necessary quality assurance. 7) She is talking with the oral historian and Digital Commons staff about developing a two-tiered project to collect accounts of experiences during the pandemic primarily from the campus community and perhaps more broadly. They plan to use a Google form that participants would submit for consideration and possible inclusion.

Continued discussion of draft statement. Discussion postponed until off-cycle meeting, April 29.