Purdue Libraries expands online services during COVID-19

In response to the move to remote learning, Purdue University Libraries has been expanding its services and hours to help faculty, staff and students navigate the new online learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purdue Libraries’ “Ask-A-Librarian” service  – a service designed to help the Purdue community talk directly with library staff through an instant message chat function – has increased both its hours and staffing levels.

Weekday hours for Ask-A-Librarian are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with the exception of Friday, which is 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The service is also now available 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

“This is all in an effort to continue working with our university community to meet their information needs as they transition to a 100% online learning environment,” said Thomas Gerrish, assistant professor in Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies. “We will likely continue on this path while fine-tuning our operations and procedures until in-person classes eventually resume.”

The Ask-A-Librarian service can be accessed here or by clicking the “Ask Us” button on the side of the Libraries homepage.

Anyone with questions also can email a librarian, send a text message or call to make a request. More information can be found here.

Once a library staff member receives a question, they move the request through the appropriate channels to get the question answered as quickly as possible. The goal has been to provide the same type of service a patron would get by visiting a library in person – but with a click of a button instead.

A different March and April

In March, the online reference service saw a 27% percent increase in traffic, compared with the month of February. Gerrish said that usually, numbers tend to trend downward in March and April because of spring break and midterm exams, but the opposite is occurring this year.

“During spring break, instructors were rushing to create an online version of their classes and many of them were asking about how to use library resources in their classes.” Gerrish said. “This meant locating permalinks to articles, Digital Object Identifiers, or chapters from e-books. This lasted through spring break and into the first week of online instruction. Since then, the questions have been of all types ranging from inquiries about specific books or articles to help locating information on a given topic.”

Other common topics of questions include finding printing locations on campus, locating open computer labs with specific programs, tracking down articles for assignments, and various technical problems related to access and connectivity.

Libraries faculty also have assisted with releasing free standards for personal protective equipment on their website to help the health care community and other essential workers.

Writer: Abbey Nickel, nickela@purdue.edu 
Source: Thomas Gerrish, tgerrish@purdue.edu