Jerry Falwell Library comes to students’ aid during their shift to online courses

With Liberty University’s transition from residential to online classes for the rest of the semester in response to COVID-19, the state-of-the-art Jerry Falwell Library, which opened in 2014, has been able to quickly provide a multitude of online services to students who are continuing their studies at home.

The library was well-positioned to accommodate these students because of the abundance of resources and systems that were already in place to assist the over 100,000 students enrolled in the university’s extensive online education program.

“The library has over 1.5 million items, and more than 1.1 million of those are electronic books and media resources,” said Cindy Schmidt, head of library communication and outreach. “This collection of electronic resources is just part of the robust offerings for online learning. It is our hope that students will become even more knowledgeable about all the research tools and services the library offers as they take advantage of them during this time. To that end, we offered a refresher webinar, ‘Using JFL’s Online Resources: A Brief Refresher,’ last week, and it is now archived on our workshops page for those who were not able to watch it live.”

Library staff have also worked swiftly to make sure any items that faculty had placed on reserve for students to review are accessible to them.

Through the library, students have access to phone, chat, email, and telepresence research assistance. Schmidt said that these services are available beyond the operational hours of the library building, and she encourages all students to explore the library website for a variety of digital resources and to contact staff with any questions.

The library has expanded its InterLibrary Loan Services because many of the participating libraries are now closed by increasing funding for its purchase-on-demand program, which determines whether the requested materials can be purchased for the library’s own collection in order to make them more quickly available to students. Additionally, residential students taking classes remotely can submit an InterLibrary Loan request to have items from the library’s physical collections shipped to them, a service that had already been in place for online students and faculty.

While the focus has been on providing current online resources services and making modifications for more students now taking courses online, Schmidt also noted that the library has been able to provide a service to parents who are now homeschooling their children due to K-12 school closures. The library’s curriculum library, which contains juvenile literature as well as K-12 teacher edition textbooks and other instructional materials to support the School of Education, is now fielding phone calls from parents in the Lynchburg, Va., area interested in resources to teach their children. Curriculum Librarian Lyn Mathews has curated a list of online resources focused on the PK-12 community, which she has listed on the Curriculum Library Research Guide. In addition to communicating this online resource to local school librarians, she has also been able to direct parents to this guide to aid them in finding appropriate educational resources.

“The Jerry Falwell Library understands that being a Champion for Christ is not just about helping Liberty’s students, but also assisting the community as a whole in whatever way it can,” Schmidt said.

The library is waiving all fines and lost item fees for books that have gone into overdue or lost status since March 1, 2020, as long as they are returned by Aug. 31, 2020. Students can also return items via USPS in order to have them available for other students who may need them.

For the small number of residential students who remain on campus, Schmidt said the library remains open, but modifications have been made to comply with all laws regarding COVID-19 and social distancing. There is only one main entrance and exit for the library building, and library personnel are monitoring the flow of students. Signage throughout the library lets students know the maximum number of people allowed in certain areas, and library staff are monitoring this as well. Seating has also been rearranged in some places to limit occupancy.

Additional signage is posted in all bathrooms to provide hand-washing guidelines while also promoting positivity by posting a sampling of song lyrics for patrons to sing while observing the 20-second hand-washing recommendation. Additional hand sanitizing stations have also been installed.