“Who says I am coping”: The emotional affect of New Jersey academic librarians during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a seismic shift to academic libraries. The state of New Jersey, one of the earliest affected regions in the United States, mandated the closure of all higher education institutions in March 2020, followed by a partial reopening of several campuses in Fall 2020. With the mandated closure and subsequent reopening, librarians needed to adjust their workflow during a time of high uncertainty and stress. Conducted in Fall 2020, this study reports on the emotional affect of New Jersey academic librarians working in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to provide a snapshot of the experiences and emotions of academic librarians in this region. In addition to gathering data such as their position roles and library policies, written responses were also collected describing their experiences and emotions. All responses to these open-ended questions were categorized and coded according to similar themes. Common trends in the responses, as well as similarities with previous research on emotional labor events and occupational burnout, are discussed. These results have implications for anyone working in an academic library during a pandemic, or even simply working remotely in an academic library.

Introduction

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States began with exponential growth in new cases, including in the state of New Jersey. All New Jersey higher education institutions, including libraries, were closed by Executive Order by March 21, 2020 (Exec. Order No, 104, 2020; Exec. Order No. 107, 2020). As a result of the executive orders, during the early days of the pandemic, New Jersey academic librarians were working remotely. Librarians initially focused on how to move the day to-day of in-person work to fully virtual and remote for the duration of the spring semester.

As summer 2020 showed a marked decrease in COVID-19 cases in New Jersey (State of New Jersey Department of Health, 2021), higher education institutions began planning for a reopening, with COVID-era restrictions. The Secretary of Higher Education developed a Restart Plan, published in August 2020. The plan, directed at all higher education institutions, included specific instructions for libraries. Libraries were permitted to reopen “on a limited basis in accordance with state overarching requirements for libraries” (Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, 2020). Requirements for reopening included occupancy reductions, cleaning guidance for shared surfaces, and social distancing requirements. At the reopening, some New Jersey academic librarians remained remote, while most returned to campus in some capacity.

While reading the literature and attending virtual conferences, the authors observed an increase of papers and presentations focusing on how to best-conduct traditional library job duties (i.e., access services, virtual instruction) in a pandemic. However, there is a notable absence in scholarship that addresses how the librarians themselves were coping and how the pandemic may have shifted the way they feel about both their jobs and the profession in general.

Academic librarians, many who are in a public-facing role, struggle with emotional labor (Joe, 2019; Matteson et al., 2015; Matteson & Miller, 2012; Matteson & Miller, 2013). Even more concerning is that librarianship is a profession with a high rate of burnout (Christian, 2015; Kane, 2018; Wood et al., 2020). Considering the scope of the community-wide crisis events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to address the effects of these events on the emotions of academic librarians.

The purpose of this study was to provide a snapshot of how academic librarians in this region are coping, both personally and professionally during the beginnings of the reopenings. The authors chose November to distribute the survey as by that point, college campuses in the state had been reopened, even if just partially, for nearly two months. Whereas the move to remote brought its own set of challenges, the transition back to in-person, even at reduced time, could also be a challenging and stressful endeavor for librarians.

While the survey was only distributed to academic librarians in New Jersey, the results and implications paint a portrait of academic librarians who are working throughout a pandemic. As noted in previous paragraphs, all higher education institutions in the region were closed at the same time which coincided with the closure of their libraries. Eventually, other parts of the country also had COVID19 spikes, closures, and reopening at various times throughout the year. This study was designed to provide a snapshot of academic librarians in New Jersey as they worked through this uncertain time at the peak of a global pandemic and who had the same collective experience of both a rapid closure and an altered reopening.

Literature review

Studies on emotional labor, burnout, and other related concepts have appeared in the academic library literature in response to both daily job stressors and community-wide crisis events.

Emotional labor was first defined in 1983 by Hochschild as “the labor that requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others—in this case the sense of being cared for in a convivial and safe place” (p. 7). While emotional labor appears across all professions, it is seen more often in service-oriented professions, including librarianship. However, librarians are not traditionally grouped with these service professions, possibly because “our work may seem to be more intellectual than emotional to the casual observer” (Joe, 2019, p. 66). This makes it vitally important that we study emotional labor is librarianship.

In 2012, Matteson and Miller wrote a review of emotional labor in academic libraries, noting that “emotional labor is a critical issue for library work” (p. 176). After publishing this review, Matteson and Miller (2013) conducted a national survey on emotional labor in libraries, the results of which further confirmed that emotional labor is a construct in libraries, as well as pointed toward the idea that it is beneficial for librarians to have more freedom to express their emotions. For the next phase, Matteson et al. (2015) asked academic librarians to record diaries of their work for five days, detailing all emotional labor events in self-reports, which were used to capture both their experiences and emotions. Among the most frequently occurring emotional labor events were operational problems, goal obstruction, and negative interactions with patrons or coworkers.

Occupational burnout is a related topic that has more serious outcomes. The 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) released in 2018, “burnout” is now included as an occupational phenomenon and defined as a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed” (World Health Organization, 2018). This demonstrates that work-related burnout is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common across all professions.

Some researchers have explored the problem of occupational burnout in librarianship. Acknowledging that librarianship falls under the “service” or “helping professions” provides more context behind this phenomenon (Joe, 2019; Sheesley, 2001; Wood et al., 2020). Shupe et al. (2015) tied burnout in librarianship specifically to stress caused by role ambiguity and role overload. Christian (2015) published a report with recommendations for library managers and administrators to support services and strategies that could help in burnout prevention and treatment. In addition to suggesting possible solutions, including coping mechanisms, these researchers recommend that this topic should continue to be studied.

In the Spring of 2018, Wood et al. (2020) conducted the first large-scale survey assessing the prevalence of occupational burnout among academic librarians using the work-related subscale of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). The study team reached academic librarians by distributing the survey to professional email distribution lists and found that “70% of the academic librarians surveyed, across the spectrum of age and gender, are sometimes, often, or always burned out” (Wood et al., 2020, p. 525). The constantly changing profession of librarianship, as well as work-life balance issues, are discussed as contributing factors.

While the COVID-19 global pandemic has started appearing in the academic library literature, these studies primarily focused on how well academic libraries and librarians are at responding to the various challenges that were presented. For example, while examining the roles of academic libraries in the pandemic, Ifijeh and Yusuf (2020) primarily focused on the importance of website redesign and gaining new skills to remain relevant. Similarly, Weeks et al. (2020) also focused on their library's response to the significant issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, including handling an anticipated budget shortfall and using 3D printers to print PPE. These kinds of studies display how resilient and resourceful academic libraries and librarians are in response to issues brought on by crisis events.

Although Garner and Logue (2020) also reported on how innovative and adaptive their academic library has been in response to the pandemic, they devoted a small section to address to the emotional concerns of the library employees. They mentioned some workplace strategies that were being implemented, including frequent communication, flexibility with telework, and resources provided by the university's Human Resources department.

The existing academic library literature suggests that emotions of academic librarians are becoming more important than ever to evaluate, especially in terms of emotional labor and burnout prevention. Recent events, primarily the COVID-19 global pandemic, have only exacerbated this need. Thus, it is necessary to continue to study both the experiences and emotions of academic librarians, especially in terms of their response to the pandemic.

Methodology

Since the authors were looking to acquire narratives from academic librarians in addition to data on the status of university operations, both open-ended and closed-ended survey questions were included. No single question required a response. Information about the individual library's operating status and pandemic response, the type of job responsibilities a librarian had, as well as if they were tenured or on the tenure track, was collected to better observe the background of the respondents while still not identifying them.

To quickly reach the largest number of academic librarians in the region, the survey was distributed via three academic library-related list-servs in the state of New Jersey: ACRL-NJ (ACRLNJ-L@LISTSERVS.SHU.EDU), VALE (VALENJ@njedge.net), and NJLA-CUS (CUS@njla.memberclicks.net). ACRL-NJ is the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of College & Research Libraries, VALE is the Virtual Academic Library Environment of New Jersey, and NJLA-CUS is the College and University Section of the New Jersey Library Association. Currently, there are 174 subscribers for the ACRL list-serv, 425 subscribers in the VALE list-serv, and 120 subscribers for the NJLA-CUS list-serv. The VALE list-serv is the highest number as any librarian whose institution is part of VALE (51 institutions in total) can subscribe to the list-serv. A response rate cannot be calculated as librarians can, and do, subscribe to multiple list-servs, meaning there is overlap of names. In addition, the number of inactive emails within each listserv is unknown.

After receiving IRB-approval, the authors distributed the survey in early November, and then a second call went out in mid-November. Before completing the survey, participants were made aware of their rights and provided pertinent IRB information. Over the course of a month, 45 survey responses were collected.

All open-ended question responses were placed into a shared spreadsheet. The authors worked collaboratively to both organize and categorize the responses, noting trends and common themes in the responses.

A full list of survey questions is in Appendix A.

Findings: library operations

The authors gathered data about how the librarians were working during the pandemic. The remaining data in this section focus on the operations of the library as of November 2020.

Q2: Your current situation (as of Nov 1, 2020) with remote working

N = 45

In-person for full work week	13
Remote for full work week	9
Both remote and in-person	23
Other	0

Q4: Has your library offered curbside checkout?

N = 44

Yes	32
No	12

Q5: If yes, are you directly involved with it?

N = 32

Yes	8
No	24

We asked a follow-up question “If yes, what are your experiences with it?” Most of the responses were positive, although several were simply reporting on it.

Q8: What is the operating status of your library as of November 1, 2020?

N = 44

Open to faculty, students, and community users	8
Open to faculty, staff, and students	20
Open by appointment only	5
Physical building closed, virtual services available	6
Other	5

The overall status of academic librarians in New Jersey on November 1, 2020 had most librarians working on campus for at least some of the time, with only a small percentage working remotely entirely. Based on the responses, 75% of respondents, a significant portion, had the building open in some capacity. Two of the “other” respondents qualified as “open by appointment only.” One of the respondents mentioned parts of the building were closed, and two mentioned the building was open for pickup but there was no study space.

Q9: If your library is open, which of these social distancing measures are in place at your library?

Mask requirement for entry	39
Temperature checks	8
Sign-in for contact tracing	23
Chairs and/or computers spaced out 6 ft	38
Hand sanitizing stations	39
Disinfectants at service points	33
Other	12

The most common social distancing measures were the mask requirements, spaced out chairs/computers, and hand sanitizing stations. A smaller number had a sign in for contact tracing and temperature checks.

The “other” respondents included pre-screening of symptoms before coming to campus (2), capacity restrictions (2), no chairs (2), and plexiglass (1).

Q10: Have you witnessed anyone not following these guidelines?

N = 40

Yes	26
No	14

As noted in the other parts of the survey, this high percentage corresponded to frustration among librarians.

Q3: Have you been able to work as effectively at home as you have in the office?

N = 44

Disagree	11
Neither agree nor disagree	3
Agree	30

The initial question was on a seven point-scale; however, the authors feel that for the purpose of this paper it be presented into the disagree-neutral-agree categories to better see the distinction between those who felt they were able to work as effectively at home as they had in the office as opposed to those who did not. The “disagree” response includes those who also said “strongly” or “somewhat” disagree; the “agree” category is presented this way as well. Most librarians did not see an issue with working from home: out of the respondents a 2/3rds majority reported no issue to strongly agreeing that they were still able to be efficient working from home. Some mentioned frustration about needing to be physically in the building when they were effectively able to work from home.

The final operations question was to see the responsibilities the librarians had in their current role:

Information literacy instruction	32
Reference desk service	38
Liaison to academic department	28
OER (Open Educational Resources) promotion	13
Outreach and marketing	21
Electronic resource acquisition/vendor communication	13
Interlibrary loan	4
Budgeting	15
Cataloging	9
Systems work	8
Administrative roles	13
Personnel management	14
Other	14

Q11 and Q12 = Does your institution grant tenure? If so, you are:

N = 45

No	16
Yes, and I am Tenured	14
Yes, and I am On tenure track	8
Yes, but I am in a Non-tenure track position	7

While the authors asked these questions about tenure, there was no follow-up question on how the pandemic specifically affected research and scholarship efforts. It was anticipated that the survey participants in these categories would mention related concepts in their responses to other survey questions, but there was no apparent difference in their responses.

Findings: academic librarian experiences

Showing a need to be heard, our respondents were open in the responses detailing challenges and issues such as feeling overwhelmed, scared, and frustrated. In the coding of these questions, several answers included multiple data points that are reflected below. The number in the parentheses is how many times a specific issue was mentioned in the responses. Some actual quotes from the respondents are also included.

When working remotely, what challenge did you face?

The shared challenges mentioned most often were technology issues (11), work-life balance (4), distractions/noise at home (3), communication issues (3). Communication issues led to some respondents voicing frustration: “Communication suffered; there was less of it, and it wasn't very understandable. I felt like there was a lack of overall operational coordination and, frankly, leadership.”

One respondent also spoke to challenges they faced due to not seeing their colleagues in person: “Getting a holistic picture; not seeing my colleagues in passing to address concerns”.

As noted in an earlier question, most librarians reported still being able to be efficient while working from home. It is notable that work-life balance was one of the more common answers: this corresponds to the next question. Additional responses included challenges staying motivated and not being able to see colleagues.

Describe your experiences as it relates to your work responsibility

Unfortunately, several respondents (4) expressed confusion at the question. Most of the responses were negative (19), followed by neutral (9), and then positive (7). While some useful information was gleaned, a future survey could reword and clarify this question in a way that would not cause confusion. For example, the question worded as “describe your experiences with your day-to-day tasks” may have caused less confusion.

The most frequently mentioned experiences included frustration with physically being in the building (3), staffing issues (2), frustration with the administration (2), and issues with communication (2). However, there were some neutral responses on a shift in job responsibilities (2), enjoying working remotely but finding it a challenge to separate the workday from being off work (2), and just mentioning virtual services (2). Some of the positive responses included feeling excited about new creativity (1), enjoying working from home (1), and noting a surge in chat reference (1). Two respondents mentioned broad or changing responsibilities: “It feels like I do everything. We are a small library with a lot of responsibilities and it's getting more difficult to do everything with so few people and being spread out working remotely.”/“Almost all of these roles have changed tremendously.”

If you filled in any experiences in the previous question (“describe your experiences as it relates to your work responsibility”), also state how these experiences made you feel.

One single response was positive with the respondent saying they were happy that it was not as bad as they thought it would be. The negative responses centered around feeling overwhelmed (3) and anxious or worried (3). One response read, “…left wanting to leave the profession.” Another response stated: “Overwhelmed, stressed out, like I'm not doing enough, like a failure, and not fulfilling my job expectations.”

If you've worked on campus at all during the fall semester, what challenges do you face while working on campus, if any?

While some responses indicated no challenges, the most common responses were lack of student/staff/co-worker compliance with social distancing protocols (9), additional work responsibilities/staffing issues (5), isolation while on campus (3), and finally, that the library was slow (3). Frustration on lack of enforcement for student compliance was noted in some cases:

“for patron(s) who don't wear or keep on wearing a mask inside the library, there were no punitive measures to enforce the mask wearing”, but also noted among their coworkers: “Lack of trust that those around me are consistently following guidelines - in their personal lives.”

Different responses mentioned stress and/or anxiety: “lots of stress and anxiety during the first month back…” and “…anxiety when a staff member tested positive”. These responses are closely aligned with Question 15: general fear about not only their jobs and security but also contracting a deadly disease. Many simply described the challenges of working while under pandemic protocols: “Isolation and reduction in communication (while on campus, I remain inside my office with the door shut all day)”.

How are you coping?

Everyone had a different method of coping with the pandemic. Responses included both specific techniques to better manage emotions and actual activities. The most frequently mentioned actions were walks (8), breaks (3), outdoors time (2), excitement over not having to get dressed up to go to work (2), reaching out to colleagues for video chats (2), exercise (2), pets (2), yoga (2) and connecting with family (2). Some included managing a work-life balance:

“I try to mostly work at a dedicated workspace, so I still "go" to work and "leave" work at the end of the day. I also have been trying to give myself more breaks during the day to replicate time spent chatting with colleagues around the water cooler, eating lunch, etc.”

While most of the responses were positive, some were negative or neutral indicating “hiding” in one's office (2), acceptance (1), and finally “who says I am coping” (1).

How has the pandemic altered your views of librarianship?

The authors wanted to know–has this changed how you feel about being a librarian? While an earlier response noted a desire to leave the profession, this question on librarianship received a mix of results. Several saw no change in their views (9), but some did note overall feelings about the profession: “I don't know that it has altered my views of librarianship, but I do think it will change how we do things going forward. I just hope it doesn't alter how our students view the library. It used to be a place where they would gather and socialize and now it's not. I understand why it can't be, but it makes me sad. I don't want their perception of us to change.”

The positive responses (13) mostly detailed how resilient librarians and libraries are with several (8) noting that the concept of a library only as a physical space is outdated and the pandemic has forced librarians to accelerate change within the profession. These looked hopeful to the future, including “…it's been pretty amazing to me how quickly we could transition the majority of our services online. I think our profession is more mobile and flexible than I realized, and librarianship is less tied to physical spaces than ever before”, and “librarians have been creative to provide safe services. I am proud of my profession”.

However, the negative responses reflected an alarming trend in academic libraries: those librarians are frustrated and concerned about the future. These responses echoed earlier ones, including overworked and underpaid (1), librarians undervalued/expendable (2), and those librarians need to advocate (2). One response stated, “…does the work I do really matter to anybody outside of the library?”.

Some responses noted that a shift to mostly online was long overdue in the profession: “I've been saying for years we need a more tech savvy approach to what we do, and this has forced us to move ahead with that. There is still some resistance, but the reality of the situation makes the resistance seem wrong-headed…”.

“Librarianship is about the librarians, and not the library space itself. It was very difficult before the pandemic to advocate for what we offer and our services but has been even more apparent in recent months. We have been held to lower standards than the rest of the faculty and student facing departments. We were expected to come to work when administration and other departments were free to continue to work remotely.”

Discussion

A significant portion of the responses were negative, with similar language used in multiple open-ended answers. Behind the day-to-day anxiety, librarians revealed serious concerns about getting sick from a deadly pandemic and losing their jobs due to budget issues. Several responses also mentioned not feeling support by the administration and frustrated by lack of compliance by students to social distance mandates. However, there were some positive responses to the changes as librarians saw their role evolve and their responsibilities shift: librarian resiliency was mentioned multiple times, as well as the idea that libraries are beyond a physical space.

Some of these issues will not be eliminated. As of the writing of this article, there are still COVID-19 restrictions in place in New Jersey and the greater United States, although vaccinations have started being distributed. College administrators will still have budgets to adhere to and potential shortfalls from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may affect operations, staffing, and morale at academic libraries.

In their responses, many of our survey participants described various types of situations that met the definition of emotional labor events in libraries, as defined by Matteson et al. (2015). These responses range from communication issues with colleagues and patrons, to operational issues and difficulty with technology. More alarmingly, they also mentioned characteristics commonly associated with occupational burnout, including exhaustion and frustration. This could be very concerning considering the serious outcomes of turnover and absenteeism that are related to this problem.

Based on the answers, we have some areas that academic libraries can explore to address feedback from the survey. As noted earlier, although only New Jersey librarians were surveyed for this study, almost all regions dealt with similar issues. Thus, the considerations below are directed at all librarians and library administrators. In addition, the shift to remote work may eventually result in more fully remote or partially remote librarian jobs, rendering the recommendations on remote work from this study could be useful, even outside of the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors do not expect to solve this issue, but hope that readers will consider these points:

• •Noting some negative responses, librarians may want to reach out to their colleagues to chat/vent, find an outlet, and look to improve their situation.
• •A strong frustration with being on campus was the lack of student compliance with the social distancing policies. Stronger policies or enforcement of those can be implemented.
• •Several librarians expressed loneliness: both of those working remotely and on campus. Even if, at the publication of this article, on-campus work is back up to pre-pandemic levels, it may be a promising idea to encourage socializing between employees (coffee chats, group activities) or virtual check-ins.
• •Some librarians felt frustrated with the administration, with several expressing concern about budget cuts, potential job loss, and questioning if the work they do is valued and noticed. Others noted frustration at the lack of communication from the administration.
• •Communication was an issue mentioned frequently: some respondents struggled to communicate with their colleagues, especially in a remote situation. As more people come back to fully in-person, this issue may decrease, however, if positions stay remote or partially remote, this is an issue that needs to be explored.
• •Librarians are currently reinventing themselves. The responses indicate a general positivity about librarians' adaptability, while noting it was overdue for librarians to become more comfortable with technology. Future positions in the library may incorporate more virtual or even remote work. There may never be a true “back to normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic, and librarians may have to adapt again to whatever the “new normal” may look like.
• •Librarians were already experiencing burnout pre-pandemic (Kane, 2018). The COVID19 pandemic, as shown by the responses, is strongly exacerbating the issue. Recommended techniques for preventing burnout include working place strategies and coping mechanisms, including focusing on “scholarly projects or outside service… to simply break free from a rut” (Kane, 2018, p. 209).
• •Librarians were positive in responding to coping skills, naming hobbies and projects like knitting that were helpful. Promoting mental health and self-care activities could be beneficial.

Limitations

As noted earlier, the results are limited to the state of New Jersey: as state-wide mandates were not uniform around the country and New Jersey had the shared experience of the mandatory closure and partial reopening.

This study was limited to the members of at least one of three academic library list-servs in one geographic region. Thus, it is not a random sample, but a convenience sample. Due to this, there may be a self-selection bias in our study, since survey respondents may have been more likely to participate due to having a more negative experience. Finally, to keep the survey as anonymous as possible to solicit the most honest responses, no identifying information was collected, including information about the respondent's institution, such as the physical size, FTE, and how many staff members the library had. This was partially due to the very personal nature of the feedback, but primarily since respondents could possibly be identified due to the local sample.

Conclusion

The surveyed academic librarians show that they are deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, closures, and reopenings. As librarianship is considered a more service-oriented profession, previous research indicated that librarians were already struggling with emotional labor events and occupational burnout prior to the pandemic. Distributing an anonymous online survey to academic library list-servs provided us with a detailed accounts of the experiences and emotions of academic librarians during these changes.

With the onset of the pandemic, many of the surveyed academic librarians reported feeling overworked, overwhelmed, and underappreciated while also fearing for their health and their jobs. While this study adds to the literature that shows how librarians are resilient and adaptable in the face of challenges, the authors also exposed that there is currently more burnout in their profession as a result of the events surrounding the pandemic.

This study provides a snapshot of how academic libraries and librarians in New Jersey are responding to and coping with the peak of a global pandemic. Focusing in on New Jersey provided a glimpse of librarians' shared experiences from the initial mandated pivot to remote and a similar experience to those back on campus. A regional analysis is especially important during emergencies concerning communicable diseases where different regions have varying policies and responses. This should join other studies looking at the experiences of academic librarians and the response to COVID-19. Overall, it is important that future researchers continue to assess the experiences and emotions of academic librarians, especially during periods of change and uncertainty. Additionally, preventing and mitigating the effects of occupational burnout is crucial for the health and wellness of our profession.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Linda Salvesen, Cara Berg: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Writing.

Appendix A. Survey questions

Q1. Informed Consent Statement

Q2. Your current situation (as of Nov. 1, 2020) with remote working:

In-person for full work week

Remote for full work week

Both remote and in-person

Other (e.g. exceptions, mostly working remotely):

________________________________________________

Q3. Have you been able to work as effectively at home as you have in the office?

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Somewhat disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

Somewhat agree

Agree

Strongly agree

Q4. Has your library offered curbside checkout?

Yes

No

Q5. If yes, are you directly involved in it?

Yes

No

Q6. If yes, what are your experiences with it?

________________________________________________

Q7. How have your experiences made you feel?

________________________________________________

Q8. What is the operating status of your library as of November 1, 2020?

Open to faculty, staff, students, and community users

Open to faculty, staff, and students

Open by appointment only

Physical building closed, virtual services available

Other: ________________________________________________

Q9. If your library is open, which of these social distancing measures are in place at your library? (select all that apply)

Mask requirement for entry

Temperature checks

Sign in for contact tracing

Chairs and/or computers spaced out 6 ft

Hand sanitizing stations

Disinfectants at service points

Other: ________________________________________________

Q10. Have you witnessed anyone NOT following these guidelines?

Yes

No

Q11. Does your institution offer tenure to librarians?

Yes

No

Q12. If yes, are you currently:

Tenured

Tenure-track

At an institution that offers tenure, but not in a tenure-track position

Q13. What responsibilities do you have in your role? (check all that apply)

Information literacy instruction

Reference desk service

Liaison to academic department

OER promotion

Outreach and marketing

Electronic resource acquisition/vendor communication

Interlibrary loan

Budgeting

Cataloging

Systems work

Administrative roles

Personnel management

Other (please specify): ________________________________________________

Q14. While thinking of your responses to the previous question, please describe your experiences:

________________________________________________

Q15. If you filled in any experiences in the previous question, also state how those experiences made you feel:

________________________________________________

Q16. When working remotely, what challenges did/do you face?

________________________________________________

Q17. If you've worked on campus at all during the fall semester, what challenges do you face while working on campus, if any?

________________________________________________

Q18. What do you think the biggest issue that you feel that your library is facing during this pandemic?

________________________________________________

Q19. Do you feel that every working hour is tiring for you?

Yes

No

Q20. What are some ways you are coping with work during the pandemic?

________________________________________________

Q21. How has the pandemic altered your views of librarianship?

________________________________________________