CovID-19 and the bubonic Plague: What Have We Learned?

by gracemary smulewitz (Formerly, Head of Collection Services, Rutgers University Libraries, now retired) <smulewi@scarletmail.rutgers.edu>

“Great crises tend to bring profound social change — for good or ill.”

The author Lawrence Wright offered this statement in a New Yorker article, “How Pandemics Wreak Havoc–and Open Minds.” Wright was introducing his interview with gianna Pomata, a retired professor of the History of Medicine at the Institute of Medicine, Johns Hopkins university. Dr. Pomata, to Wright, compared the COVID pandemic to the Bubonic Plague of the fourteenth century.

The article interested me, as it highlighted what brought society out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, a rebirth Pomata attributed to waves of new creative thinking. Before this rebirth, the study of medicine, for example, was not empirical. boccaccio, in the Decameron, witnessed, “The advice of doctors and the power of medicine appeared useless and unavailing.” The overthrow of this approach occurred because doctors, as millions died, put aside scholastic medicine, based on ancient texts and even astrology, in favor of empirical evidence. According to Pomata, refreshing new intellectual perspectives came about not only in medicine, but also in education, the arts, and exploration. Pomata feels that something similar for today’s economy and culture will take place. Especially for education, I share Pomata’s hope. As I reflected on her perspective, I looked at how all libraries, and Rutgers university in particular, reacted to the need for immediate change at the onset of the pandemic. Rutgers is a university of approximately 71,000 graduate and undergraduate students on three campuses, with two medical schools and a law school. Currently there are 23,600 faculty and staff. Although very large compared to most colleges and universities, we were faced with the same dilemmas as others who are smaller. Like most institutions, Rutgers immediately began work to provide what was essential for faculty, students, and staff to function in the new remote environment. Many webpage announcements were created to guide the library community on how to navigate remotely. Extensive research guides were created to help with the technical changes, such as how to use Zoom and Webex, and how to access course reserves and other Access Services information. From our medical librarians, guides were developed to inform users about COVID. Many other guides and updates were offered to help in the changed environment. The University Librarian routinely posted information on the COVID virus and its effects on the university and specifically the libraries.

Pomata spoke about cultural changes, and I reflected on all that was being done that influenced the culture of our libraries during this time. When Rutgers had had an immediate shutdown and everyone was thrown into remote work, folks spoke of feeling isolated. For many at the library, it took time to be comfortable with the format and protocols of online meetings.

I was surprised to learn that shortly after the shutdown, the library administration would host a full program on Zoom about the State of the Libraries. State of the Libraries is normally an annual in-person event that is extremely well attended. The event brought the library staff and faculty together online, as a community. The program opened with slides of staff in their makeshift home offices — children, pets, and all. Announcements were made of the many posters submitted by faculty and staff for the program and that the poster session could be found on YouTube. What might have been an uncomfortable remote environment evolved into a familiar one. The human element and the work of the posters showed everyone that our traditions continued and that important things were happening. The program highlighted implementations that made operations possible, displaying posters of projects that would enhance website design, instruction, course reserves, and access in the future; all could look ahead to some exciting developments.

All of this was highly informative and stabilizing for our library staff and faculty.

The small and Large of It: Leading a Team in Times ...

from page 20

social distancing. My E-Resource Unit has been told that we can stay at home as long as permitted. And so I might go in, you know, once a week seeing how the semester goes. But we’re still very much at home.

David: We’re similar in that public-facing positions are all coming in, but they’ve extended their workdays. They do three shifts now and they’re staggered. Reference and instruction people are basically staying home. In our department, people in electronic resources and systems are staying home and the acquisitions and cataloging staff and I come in about halftime. On any given day there’s probably one to two of us in the department space. One thing I didn’t mention about us not being open to the public is that our whole campus is closed to the public. We actually need to wear our name badges somewhere visible so that Community Safety Officers don’t stop us. Which is a big cultural change, obviously.

Erin: Thanks, David. This has been enlightening!

continued on page 23

In COVID discussion groups I took part in, I frequently heard similar concerns raised by different libraries. One group, in which libraries from around the world participated, was hosted by bob Nardini, Vice President, Library Services at ProQuest. Two other programs were hosted by regional and national consortia. The ability to provide online textbooks to students at reasonable prices, or even at no cost; how to enable digital lending; and how to supply digitized monographs for course reserves and for research, all were common threads. What I heard anecdotally convinces me that our current period has the potential for tremendous developments, that there is a hunger for new projects and even new ways of doing business from vendors and publishers. With very large budget constraints, libraries too are looking for more creative, less restrictive business models, perhaps new partnerships that enable shared acquisitions or access.

We need, for example, to probe Controlled Digital Lending more deeply, and to encourage its adoption. The frustration of being unable to provide resources to faculty and students because of constraints on digitization was a common thread among the discussion groups. Controlled Digital Lending, if its protocols are followed appropriately, could alleviate much of this frustration. Here is the authoritative 2018 Position Statement on CDL:

Properly implemented, CDL enables a library to circulate a digitized title in place of a physical one in a controlled manner. Under this approach, a library may only loan simultaneously the number of copies that it has legitimately acquired, usually through purchase or donation.

For example, if a library owns three copies of a title and digitizes one copy, it may use CDL to circulate one digital copy and two print, or three digital copies, or two digital copies and one print; in all cases, it could only circulate the same number of copies that it owned before digitization.

Essentially, CDL must maintain an “owned to loaned” ratio. Circulation in any format is controlled so that only one user can use any given copy at a time, for a limited time. Further, CDL systems generally employ appropriate technical measures to prevent users from retaining a permanent copy or distributing additional copies.

These guidelines, if followed appropriately, would significantly increase the number of titles available to readers. CDL needs and deserves continued advocacy.

Similarly, we should encourage more cost-effective methods for providing textbooks to students. Collectively, libraries and their consortia should be able to influence that market, perhaps partnering with publishers on new, more favorable business models. An article in Library Journal by Matt Enis, “How Vendors are Working with Academic Libraries in their Pivot to Digital” noted that “the current pandemic would likely cause a rethinking of academic instruction, innovations in online learning and a renewed appreciation for the resources provided by campus libraries.” Enis quoted Jeff Wilensky, Vice President of Global Marketing at ProQuest: “We are seeing the need to dig into curriculum analysis. Dig into gaps. Resources purchased for [library] collections are going to need to meet the needs of many” in a time of budget challenges. “These are places that we’re trying to help with. In addition to classic resources, things that drive [student] engagement — diverse voices, video.”

An area with explosive momentum in the research and discovery community is work based upon artificial intelligence. The ability to create expansive searches beyond the capability of current discovery tools is impressive. Some AI functionalities already exist in discovery tools, but continued development will certainly lead to greater possibilities. Some areas to highlight related to discovery and analysis: • AI can disambiguate and understand inferences. • AI can use semantic relationships to retrieve relevant information that would seem irrelevant to more basic search mechanisms. • Further, AI can assist research by providing discovery on a vast scale by creating knowledge graphs to show relationships based on context and concepts — going far beyond simple keyword associations. • AI can provide predictive data, e.g., for an academic library, perhaps collections analysis to show relationships to student success.

There is so much in AI that would benefit libraries and their communities to explore and perhaps apply. Accelerated development in this area alone would bring about much wider and deeper interest in the resources provided by libraries and the outcomes libraries make possible.

Pomata is right. Waves of creative new thinking in all fields might seed another Renaissance. In academic libraries, new thinking could move us to new and higher levels of respect, support, and importance. I will add that courage will be necessary to reach these possibilities. For a better future, despite the damages and losses from this pandemic, we must take every advantage we can of our current environment. If we do, there is a lot to hope for and work for.

References

bailey, Lila, et al. Position Statement on Controlled Digital Lending. September 2018. https://controlleddigitallending. org/statement

Enis, Matt. “How Vendors are Working with Academic Libraries in their Pivot to Digital.” Library Journal, September 3, 2020. https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=remote-possibilities-how-vendors-are-working-with-academic-libraries-in-their-pivot-to-digital-covid-19 united Kingdom serials group. AI: Empowering Libraries & Making it Real. Webinar by Manisha bolina, Ken Chad, and ben McLeish. September 24, 2020. https://www.uksg.org/ sites/default/files/2020-10/Q%26A_AI_Webinar.pdf

Wright, Lawrence. “How Pandemics Wreak Havoc — and Open Minds.” New Yorker, July 20, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-pandemics-wreak-havocand-open-minds